Being absolutely ‘train history’ pig ignorant, does anyone happen to know of any Trains that ran along/near/with route 66 in the mid 50’s? (1953-1956)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Peace.
Coyote
Well, since Route 66 “winds from Chicago to L.A., more than two thousand miles all the way…” to quote the old song, that’s a loaded question. Literally dozens of railroads used to inhabit the Windy City, and certainly ATSF, SP, UP and probably others operated in Southern California in the days of Route 66. “You go through St. Louie, Joplin, Missouri and Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty” Now we’re looking at Missouri Pacific, The Katy, Rock Island…whew! What part of the “more than two thousand miles all the way” did you have in mind?
coughs well, ok here goes. My plan is to eventually construct a compresion display layout of route 66. (talk about getting too big for my britches) but I am thinking of doing the texas section first as I live in neari***here. (everything is a distance from everthing else in Texas)
I have been looking at the El Capitan, the Super Chief, the Santa Fe Chief, the Texas Chief, and the Santa Fe Fransico Chief.
As far as the Texas portion of route 66, the Santa Fe (Panhandle and Santa Fe) paralleled the highway around Amarillo, but only for a few miles (it veered off and paralleled route 60 into Oklahoma). Of the Santa Fe streamliners, only the San Francisco Chief ran through Amarillo on the cutoff–the rest of the Santa Fe transcons veered north at Albequerque and ran over Raton Pass. Most of old route 66 in Texas paralleled the Rock Island secondary line from Tucumcari, New Mexico. The Santa Fe paralleled Route 66 for a long way, but mostly in Arizona and New Mexico.
Tom
Thanks for the info Tom, that helps a good deal.
Peace
Coyote
coyote,
Where in Texas? I live in Lubbock, but get to Amarillo quite regularly.
ROUTE 66 paralleled most of the AT&SF from Belen to San Bernadino, across NM, AZ, and CA.following the original Atlantic & Pacific route. Chicago west ON 66 was south of the Santa Fe mainline and I think went though Springfield IL / MO,Tulsa and OK City I can’t even remember where it crossed the Mississippi - probably St Louis…
Service stations, roadside retaurant’s, and single story motels , along with occasional turist trap billboard dotted the roadside. Some Navajo’s seliing blanket’s at a roadside stand would be also appropriate.
Flagstaff, Arizona,
Don’t forget Winona! (It’s called Darling n the railroad.)
Former Winona resident
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino?
I grew up in Bristow Okla. Santa Fe parrelled 66, generally within a block or two of the hwy for most of the way from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. There are many small towns between the two Cities, and the railroad usually ran right through the middle of town. In Bristow, the railroad ran one block off Main St. with the train station in the middle of town. The station is a museum now. Brick construction with the platform made of brick also. It was a passenger stop until the early 60’s. Some of the small towns, such as Bristow, had a siding that parrelled the main track where it passed the station.
The track parrelled Main St. to the south end of town where it crossed Main St. to continue parrelleling 66.
There is a site for Route 66 that will give you alot of info and pictures from the 40’s through the 60’s.
Just a footnote here about one of the oldest parts of Rt 66. Just west of Albuquerque there is a cut off along the Interstate and follows the RR that comes up from Belen.
( more accuately, Los Lunas ) This Hwy has a historical marker indicating that it was part of Rt 66 prior to the 1930’s.
Interestingly enough there is a gas station at the Northern end of this Hwy that looks as if it’s been around for quite sometime and as one would see, the BNSF operates along the RR quite a number of times as I saw several trains. It appears that this Hwy is now designated Hwy 6. It is very scenic and winding through some very interesting countryside as opposed to the Interstate !
The best vistas are from a parked car !!
Johncpo
I can’t speak for certain about this, but it seems like the Frisco line between Tulsa and Oklahoma City should have been pretty close to US66. The line ran from Supulpa on the SW edge of Tulsa to OKC. Also, the Frisco main line from St. Louis ran through Springfield (the major hub of the Frisco and the location of the Consolidated Mechanical Shops in later years) through Monett to Joplin, then to Vinita, OK, and on to Tulsa. Somebody else has mentioned Santa Fe, and maybe they had joint trackage from Tulsa to OKC. From OKC to Amarillo, you might check to see if the Rock Island paralleled US66. I know that the highway ran through El Reno where the CRI&P had a major yard, they should have been pretty well parallel all the way from there to Amarillo. The main passenger service on that route in the 50’s and 60’s, after the discontinuation of the Choctaw Rocket was the Chocktaw Rockette, RDC service from Amarillo to Memphis. The old RDC Rockette is one of only two passenger trains that I ever got to ride (other than excusion service).
What I remember Rt 66 looking like (in the west) was the ‘mythical’ town of Daneville in Pelle Soebborg’s layout in recent MODEL RAILROADER. Wide open spaces, but with older cars, greyhound busses, and NO KFC stand’s. Speed limit’s were typically 60 MPH, with 30 MPH in town’s.
Chicago to Springfields MO was mostly farmland’s with red or white barn’s. Rt 66 was the major SW route from 1930 until I-4O (?) replaced it.
It was more or less replaced by a combination of I-55, I-44, and I-40.
Dave,
The OL and I live in Denton, Tx.
Peace
Coyote
hey coyoye your not to far from about 50 miles i live in sherman on the old frisco madill sub now bnsf madill sub
tom
waves Big Hello over to Sherman!
Well after some research and comparisons to where track and highway at least draw near to each other a decision has been made!
the OL and I have decided to do the AT&SF running from roughly Amarilo, Tx into Santa Monica, Ca.
We’re kicking around the idea of doing the Super Chief as well.
Thanks again.
Peace.
Coyote
SSW9389;
Winona, or at least a part thereof is going to be on the layout! Just has to be because well… Don’t Forget Winona! [:D]
Capt. Turk;
Thanks for the info, sorry for the loooong gap between replies, lifel got in the way. Thanks Again.
Coyote