REMEMBERING THE SUNNYLAND

 

Join Tom Enderle and Warren Sunkel
for a trip down the SLSF River Subdivision
in August 1965

 

Photography by Warren Sunkel

 

 

 

Locomotive no. 2022 of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, named Champion after the trusty steed of cowboy singer Gene Autry, idles under the train shed at St. Louis Union Station prior to its 8:40 departure on a Saturday morning in August 1965.

Tom and I will ride the Sunnyland to Chaffee, the line's crew-change terminal, spend the night at his grandparents' home, and return to St. Louis the next day. Tom's father and grandfather were both Frisco men. Passenger service along this route will be discontinued in the next few months.

 

 807            December 3, 1961     808

              Leave         Arrive

 AM     Mls.                         PM
 8 40      0  .....St. Louis......   3 35
 8 50    3.3  ....Tower Grove.....   3 20
 9 28   28.6  .....Barnhardt......   2 42
 9 47   39.0  .......Festus.......   2 26
 9 53   40.0  ....Crystal City....   2 21
10 29   65.1  ...Ste. Genevieve...   1 44
10 42   74.3  .....St. Marys......   1 31
10 50   80.7  ......McBride.......   1 24
11 00   88.3  .......Menfro.......   1 14
11 20  103.3  .....Wittenberg.....  12 55
 PM
12 01  131.5  ...Cape Girardeau...  12 16
                                     PM
12 27  143.8  ......Chaffee.......  11 56
 ....   ....                         ....
 5 15  305.4  ......Memphis.......   7 40
 PM                                  AM
              Arrive         Leave
Our train is sidelined for an opposing freight at Bainbridge, MO. Several of the passengers detrain to witness the meet. Here we see a typical Sunnyland consist during the final months of operation.
A manifest train powered by F-units was nothing special in 1965, but I took the picture anyhow.
Our train arrives at Chaffee on the advertised.
The local switching power lays over in the Chaffee yard on this sunny, hot Saturday afternoon.
It's just before noon on Sunday, and the northbound Sunnyland receives fuel and water at Chaffee for the second half of its trek from Memphis to St. Louis.

Before its latest repainting, locomotive 2014 was named Truxton, President Andrew Jackson's horse during the War of 1812.

Shortly after leaving Chaffee, we meet the Sunnyland's southbound counterpart.

Locomotive 2011 had been named Gallant Fox, the 1930 Triple Crown winner.

The Wittenberg Bomb Shelter, a product of the Cold War years, was a landmark along the Sunnyland's route.
Twenty-two miles from St. Louis, the Sunnyland rounds a curve and rolls into history.

References

Marre, Louis A. and John Baskin Harper, 1984, Frisco Diesel Power, Interurban Press, Glendale, CA, 147 pp.

National Railway Publication Co., 1961, The Official Guide of the Railways, 94th Year, No. 7 (Dec. 1961), pp. 534-548.

Last updated: March 30, 1998
Copyright © 1998, Warren Sunkel
 

Note:  On 12/21/2003 Warren Sunkel gave the Chaffee Historical Society permission to link to his website at http://www.sound.net/~wsunkel/slsf/slsf.html.    We wish to express a sincere thank you to Warren Sunkel for his efforts in publishing the material and entrusting the Chaffee Historical Society to keep this part of Frisco railroading history alive.

(We are temporarily displaying the source files but encourage our membership and visitors to visit Warren's site)