Tag Archives: Frisco

Frisco Gon in the National Railways of Mexico Yards

Cuernavaca, Mexico, December 1979

On Christmas morning 1979, I’d flown on a Eastern Airlines Lockeed L1011 from Kennedy Airport to Mexico City. There my uncle Mark met me for a week of travels.

Several days later we were staying in Cuernavaca. We walked from our hotel to the railway station in Cuernavaca, where for the price of about two pesos each, we bought tickets to ride the train to Iguala through the Rio Balsas valley.

At that time the passenger service only ran about once a week.

Exposed on black & white film with a Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar lens.
Exposed on black & white film with a Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar lens.

I made this view of a Frisco 50 foot gondola in the National Railways of Mexico yards near the station. At the time the old Frisco was about to be merged with Burlington Northern. I wonder if this car ever made it back to the United States?

The train ride was one of the most memorable events of my trip. Most of my photos from the train were exposed on Kodachrome film. I only made a few photos of the train itself, as it carried a intimidating armed guard in every car.

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BNSF on the old Frisco

Rock and Roll Railroad.

On August 18, 2011, Chris Guss and I were driving northeast across Missouri, aiming for St. Louis, when we intercepted this BNSF potash extra working the old Frisco route.

It was a hot and sunny day, and new territory for me. But for Chris the line was old hat, and we had a very productive chase.

Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with a 100-400 image stabilization zoom lens set at 135mm; f8 at 1/500th of second, ISO 200.
Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with a 100-400 image stabilization zoom lens set at 135mm; f8 at 1/500th of second, ISO 200.

We made this view near Swedeland, Missouri, where the line passes through a sag and some S-bends. This offered a great place to portray the long and snaky unit train.

The way the line hugs the rolling landscape reminded me a bit of Ireland’s Westport line.

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Tomorrow: last week’s time warp: a country station largely unspoiled by time.

 

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