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JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1993 Flagging On The VOLUME 8 January-February, 1993 NUMBER 1 The Great Frisco Bridge. 3 Michael Finger provides a detailed account of the construction and history of the Frisco Bridge at Memphis, IN, complete with rare construction photos. In this installment of Roster Tales Frisco Folk Ken Wulfert continues his discussion of Frisco Yard Power, Part 4, the Alan Schmitt 44-toners. Charles E. Mahaffey Saundra Schmitt Warren Hall Friscos Executive Fleet 12 Richard Napper This is the first in a new extended series of articles profiling the Louis Griesemer history of Frisco Business Cars. Guy S. Pollard DOWN AT THE DEPOT 16 Billings, MO, on the Springfield Sub-Division. Eastern Division, Editor Alan Schmitt is the featured station in this issue. FMIS Editor Richard Napper Contributing Editors Michael Finger Ken Wulfert Rick McClellan Its a classic and rare turn-of-the-century glimpse of Seligman, MO. Membership Secretary Rachel Schmitt Distribution Ricks Tips 18 Sarah Schmitt Frisco Folk Rick McClellan shares with us an assortment of modeling tricks, tips, and neat things to do that are relatively simple, inexpensive, and quick, all of which can enhance the appearance and operation of your model railroad layout. This installment features NEW USES FOR SCREEN WIRE. An assortment of Frisco equipment in the 1990s is captured for us in this photo feature by the cameras of Chris Bowles, Richard Napper, Wayne Porter, and Rick McClellan. ABOUT THE COVER QUESTION: What do two Frisco Folks do in the middle of a 12" Midwest snow storm? ANSWER: They go railfanning, of course! Our cover this issue features the award winning photography of Frisco Folk Aubrey McBride, as museum president Alan Schmitt recreates the once common practice of Flagging On The Frisco! GREAT FRISCO BRIDGE by Michael Finger The Great Frisco Bridge, standing on the Memphis side of the Mississippi The river stayed a formidable River, May 27, 1992. Wayne Porter photo barrier for decades. Finally, in 1885, the fledging Kansas City, Fort Scott EDITORS NOTE: The place and time? The Great and Memphis Railroad met the Michael Finger is Senior Editor for Bridge Celebration at Memphis, challenge and found an engineer Memphis Magazine, and first pub- Tennessee, on the afternoon of May who could design and build such a lished the following article in the 12, 1892, when workers finally structure. He was George S. Elks Magazine, February, 1992, spanned the Mississippi River with Morrison of Chicago. Morrison had issue. It is reprinted with permis- the longest bridge in all of North already designed six steel bridges sion of the author who graciously America, and the third longest in along the Missouri River, as well as provided the rare 1891 construction the world. the great bridge across the Ohio at photos included in the article. Before the days of the Cairo, Illinois. The new bridge, railroads, Old Man River was one of however, would be his greatest work. The eighteen heavy loco- this countrys most vital Morrison and his crew came motives, coupled end to end, began transportation arteries. But by the to Memphis in 1885 to find the best to roll slowly across the high bridge. late 1800s, the steamboating days location. After examining and Far below, a crowd of more than were over, and America now began rejecting several sites, they 50,000 men and women, boys and to head west on gleaming rails of eventually chose the high bluffs on girls silently watched the slow pro- steel. The trouble was, many of the southern edge of the city as the cession, and each of them wondered: those rails stopped short at the most stable foundation for the Would the new structure carry the Mississippi River, since the eastern end of the bridge. Two tremendous weight, or would it southern-most bridge was at St. years later, the U.S. Congress collapse, as some had predicted, Louis. authorized its construction and into the deep, muddy waters of the There was a good reason for officially chartered the Kansas City Mississippi River below? After all, that. Below Missouri, the river was and Memphis Railroad Bridge no one in America had ever built a as much as a mile wide in some Company. bridge like this before. places, and though the eastern Construction began When the massive engines bluffs usually stood high and dry November 7, 1888. The design of reached the middle of the span, an above the water, the western banks the bridge involved "a unique scheme alarmed inspector discovered that were often low, marshy and prone of such intricacy as to baffle the roadway was sagging four to flooding. A railroad bridge on description," according to a Memphis inches. But that was within the that part of the Mississippi would newspaper. Since the river was far expected limits, so the engines not only have to span the broad too wide to bridge with a single continued to creep forward. Finally, river itself but also extend a great span. Morrison decided to employ a tense minutes later, the entire train distance over the western shore. It cantilever-type structure: crossed the river into Arkansas, would have to be greater and longer a row of five stone piers would extend and relieved spectators burst into than any bridge ever built in this high across the water, with the huge wild cheers, shouts and applause. country. weight of the bridge partially supported by these piers and partially carried by the upper steel only toil for 45 minutes at a time if tending over the muddy lowlands of framework. they wanted to avoid the dreaded the Arkansas shore. In fact, in the The piers were a special "bends," which claimed four work- whole world only the Firth of Forth problem. Because of the soft, muddy ers before the bridge was finished. Bridge in Scotland and the bottom of the Mississippi, they The last pier was set in place Lansdowne Bridge in India were couldnt simply be dropped into the on June 6, 1891. After that, ma- longer. water at selected locations, but sonry teams attached sturdy fac- somehow had to be sunk down ings of granite and limestone The Great Bridge Celebra- through the mud until they reached quarried from Georgia and Indiana. tion, described in newspaper head- a firm foundation. To do this, Steel workers then lines as a Worlds Wonder," kicked Morrison designed hollow stone scrambled high over the water to off the morning of May 12, 1892, piers without bottoms. These were lace the huge bridge together, even- with a fancy parade through first assembled on land, then floated tually using more than 9,500 tons downtown Memphis that featured out into the river on barges, tilted of Pennsylvania steel and 100,000 the police force, six marching bands, upright, and carefully lowered to rivets. One pin alone, linking two of military companies from through- the bottom. Once in place, air was the largest trusses, weighted 2,200 out the region, and a host of elaborate Frisco Bridge construction, 1891, facing east with Memphis across the river. Michael Finger collection pumped into the piers to form an air bubble inside, enabling workers to pounds. Because of the great length floats. By noon, tens of thousands climb down in them and actually of the spans, special allowances of people were jamming the river stand on the river bottom, protected had to be made for expansion during front to see the official testing of the from the water rushing around them temperature extremes. Instead of new bridge. Each of the eighteen only by the air pressure within their being bolted tightly together, some railroads which would use the bridge bubble. They would then dig portions of the bridge were fitted provided a gleaming locomotive through the mud and sand on the into grooves to allow movement, adorned with colorful banners and bottom, and as they shoveled, the and the bridge actually glided on streamers, and special train crews pier reached a solid foundation. rollers atop pier two. had been hand-picked for the event. It was incredibly dangerous All the sections were finally One of the crewman recalled his work. The diggers in the first piers linked into a single span over the special role years later: were working as far as 130 feet river on April 6, 1892. And what a "I was a machinist with the below water level, and the slightest tremendous bridge it was: the old Memphis and Charleston Railroad break in air pressure would send longest in American, five graceful at the time," said Charlie Lawson. the water rushing into them. Whats spans 2,597 feet across the mighty "One of the engineers who was to more, working at such depths de- Mississippi. That didnt even drive one of the first engines over the manded a pressure of 47 pounds include the 2,500-foot viaduct ex- bridge got cold feet, so the master per square inch, and workers could mechanic told me to take it across" river put on by the Pain Company of New York, one of the nations top pyrotechnic experts. The fireworks show began with "nests of hissing serpents" and something called "the aerial acre of variegated gems." Next came a wild assortment that in- cluded such oddities as "twin fiery dragons, which fly from place to place," the "Grove of Jeweled Palms." and "the Grand Cascade of Fire, or Falls of Niaguara, 200 feet in length and falling from a great height." Frisco Bridge construction, 1891, facing west, The show concluded with "an exact Michael Finger collection facsimile of the new bridge, accu- The young engineer wasnt locomotives cleared the bridge, two rately and artistically depicted in the only one who was nervous.

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