Ruby Tuseday

Ship it on the Frisco!

This caboose sits in Frisco Park located in downtown Rogers, Arkansas. My father worked for the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company for over 40 years. With the exception of the two years he spent in the Navy during WWII, it is the only company that he ever worked for. Not many people can say that anymore. Dad worked during those years that many consider the Golden Age of railroading. He saw the steam engine give way to diesel power and many would say that the railroad lost a bit of it's soul when the steam powered locomotives finally disappeared.

The caboose was home to the train crew. It had a couple of beds, a desk, a sink, toilet, a pot belly stove and a fine little perch to sit a watch for any trouble that might develop with the train that rumbled along in front of you.

As a kid, I would go down to the train station in Henryetta, Oklahoma and watch dad work. He was a telegraph operator at the time. He would let me take the train orders out and place them in a device that looked a little like a sling shot. As the train passed by, one of the crew in the caboose would stretch out his arm and snag the message. It was the highlight of my day.

Once in a while I would be invited by the crew to hop into the engine and run out to the local glass plant to switch some cars around. I even got to "drive" that train once! I was probably eight or nine years old. I don't have to tell you how illegal that probably was, and that everyone could have lost their jobs. But it was a small town, and it was in the mid 1950's when things were much simpler.

It is little wonder that I was not impressed with the Lionel train set that my dad bought me one year for Christmas. Why would I want to play with that little thing running around the Christmas tree when I could walk three blocks up the street and play with the real thing?!! I had a great childhood. We weren't rich and we weren't poor. We were just a hardworking middle class family. This old caboose reminds me of some wonderful days spent in a small town, doing stuff that kids today will never get the opportunity to experience. I miss those times and I feel sorry for kids who will never have that much fun. Life was good. It still is, just different.

Note: The St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company never built a line all the way to San Francisco. In fact the track never extended past Floydada, Texas.