Nostalgia & History > Q: When is a Santa Fe Freight not yet a Santa Fe Freig

A: When it's running on the Frisco......

Way back in the early 60's (a.k.a. the GOOD OL' days), the Frisco and the Santa Fe started offering through freight service, via the connection in Avard, Oklahoma. At the outset, this brought pooled Frisco power to Los Angeles, in the form of "F" units, and (then) new U-25-B's. (Note: IIRC, Chard Walker had a photo of Frisco F's passing Summit published in Trains magazine).

The L.A. train was known as the QLA; the "Q" in those days stood for "Quanah" (Quanah, Acme & Pacific, a Frisco subsidiary) - which was the original Santa Fe interchange route.

Around 1967, or so, they started running another train, this one going to the bay area, symbolled the "QSF".

These trains were the predecessors of what was to become known as a "Voluntary Cooperating Agreement" in the BN era, with trains such as the 668, the 698, and the Q-BHLA. And so, the "Avard Connection", to this day, plays a VERY important role for BNSF.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/09 22:53 by ATSF100WEST.

I enjoyed looking at your pictures, thank you for posting them! I especially like the way that you have them "framed", that really enhances an already nice image.

Con

Pg. 219 of Chard Walker's "Railroading Through Cajon Pass" has a photo of Frisco F-units on a freight just west of Summit taken on Feb. 21, 1962. On the bottom of that page is a photo of Frisco U25Bs passing by the depot at Summit on Feb. 20, 1962. Both trains were the CTX, the eastward counterpart of the QLA. Chard Walker stated that this pooled power lasted only a short time in 1962.