posted                      

The Frisco had a pair of Diner Lounges named Birmingham and Springfield that were used on the Kansas City-Florida Special. These were six axle cars that I believe to be old heavyweights that were moderinzed by the application of fluted siding, sealed windows, except in the kitchen, and a paint job to math the streamlied equipment. Have no idea when, or if they were the only two, but they were running between Springield and Birmingham in the late 1950's early 1960's until the train was discontinued or lost its diner, whichever came first. The Frisco was not noted for timekeeping southbound for Kansas City originating trains ariving at Memphis, but that was when on time was defined as ON TIME. Late seldom exceeded 2 hours. The train was through with Southern, but by 1961, Southern did not have a diner on the Birmingham to Atlanta segment. In fact, they effectively killed the train in about 1965 by discontinuing it south of Atlanta. An adjustment of the Royal Palm schedule would have allowed through service to be maintained, but by that time, their entire interest appeared to be to kill the service.

Posts: 2811 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged |