Throwback Tulsa: Will railroad travel ever return to Tulsa?
Union Depot last train
The last train out of Tulsa’s Union Depot departs in 1967. At its peak, Union Depot received as many as 36 passenger trains daily. The depot is now the home of the Jazz Hall of Fame. WOODY GADDIS/Tulsa World
Eastern Flyer
Train conductor Steve Davis watches as a train leaves Sapulpa carrying a group of advocates for passenger rail service to Oklahoma City, on Nov. 8, 2013. Railroad officials arranged for a series of special excursion trips to show passengers what train travel is like. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
EASTERN FLYER
Passengers are served breakfast in the dome car on a demonstration ride of the Eastern Flyer passenger train from Sapulpa to the Oklahoma City metro area on Feb. 23, 2014. NATE BILLINGS/The Oklahoman
Frisco’s Meteor
Frisco’s Meteor pauses during the Oklahoma City-Tulsa-St. Louis train’s run. World archives
Frisco’s Will Rogers train
Frisco’s Will Rogers was a sleek passenger train pulled by a mountain-type 4500 class steam locomotive on the Oklahoma City-Tulsa-St. Louis run before 1947. World archives
Will Rogers Frisco train
The Frisco railroad named a special train for beloved Oklahoma humorist Will Rogers. Aboard the day of the dedication of the Will Rogers Memorial, Nov. 4, 1938, are Houston publisher Jesse H. Jones, a dear friend of Will Rogers; Betty Blake Rogers, widow of Will Rogers, and Oklahoma Gov. E. W. Marland. World archives
Frisco’s Firefly
Frisco’s Firefly was a semistreamliner on the Kansas City-Tulsa-Oklahoma City run. World archives
Frisco train
An engineer and a fireman ride a train going through Tulsa at night. Library of Congress photo
Frisco passengers
Passengers waiting at old Frisco Depot in an undated photo. Courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa
Frisco Train Depot
Passengers wait to board trains at Tulsa’s Frisco Depot in an undated photo. Courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa
Posted: Thursday, September 4, 2014 12:00 am
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Updated: 2:14 pm, Thu Sep 4, 2014.
TulsaWorld.com
The dream of returning passenger train travel to the Tulsa area will become a reality next year, at least temporarily.
The company that purchased the 97.5-mile Sooner Subdivision rail line linking Sapulpa and Midwest City plans a six-month trial to see if train travel is popular enough to create a permanent route.
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Stillwater Central Railroad LLC, a unit of Pittsburg, Kansas-based Watco Companies LLC, purchased the line from the state of Oklahoma for $75 million. It plans to announce a schedule for passenger service soon.
Tulsa’s railroad history began in 1882, when the Indian Territory town became the westernmost destination on the Frisco railway line.
In 1902, Tulsa pioneers raised $12,000 in a town of 1,400 people and obtained 20 miles of right-of-way in order to get the Katy Railroad to run a branch through their city.
Santa Fe and Midland Valley later came to town.
In the heyday of rail travel, Tulsa was visited by as many as 36 passenger trains a day, according to 1958 story in the Tulsa World. The story describes a 1922 railway guide showing that Frisco was the most active railroad serving Tulsa, with 20 trains in and out of the city. The booklet also revealed:
• There were three arrivals daily from St. Louis and two from Kansas City.
• Three trains left Tulsa daily for Oklahoma City.
• The Frisco line operated two trains to Texas – one stopping at Sherman and the other at Fort Worth after a stop at Dallas.
• Santa Fe’s night train carried sleepers to Wichita, Kansas.
In 1967, Frisco discontinued its twice-daily passenger service from St. Louis to Tulsa on the “Oklahoman” and locked the doors of Tulsa’s Union Depot.
That left only the Santa Fe, which had twice-daily trains from Tulsa to Kansas City, one a morning departure and the other afternoon.
Tulsa’s last passenger train departed for Kansas City on May 1, 1971, from the Santa Fe depot at First Street and Elgin Avenue. The “Tulsan” made stops along the way at Collinsville, Bartlesville, Caney, Cherryvale, Chanute, Humbolt, Iola, Garnett, Ottawa and Olathe on its five-hour journey into history.
Even the names of the long-gone locomotives conjure nostalgia for a means of transportation most people today have never experienced.
Frisco offered service between Tulsa and Dallas on the “Black Gold,” named after a Tulsa racehorse that won the Kentucky Derby. It made its last run in 1960.
“Firefly” connected Oklahoma City and Kansas City via Tulsa.
Frisco’s “Meteor” was a steam locomotive traveling the Oklahoma City-Tulsa-St. Louis route.
The Meteor was truly Tulsa’s train, according to Tulsa Tribune writer Bob Foresman, an expert on the city’s railroad history.
It was the honeymoon train for many, Foresman wrote in a March 16, 1965, story. It also took funeral parties east and carried servicemen off to war.
“Sadly enough,” Foresman wrote, “it carried many dead and wounded back from both World War I and II.”
The lure and romance of train travel endure, though it long ago ceased to be very practical. But as airline travel becomes increasingly expensive and unpleasant, perhaps passengers will give railways another chance.
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Debbie Jackson 918-581-8374
debbie.jackson@tulsaworld.com
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Thursday, September 4, 2014 12:00 am.
Updated: 2:14 pm.
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