Frisco Caboose 876
St. Louis – San Francisco Railway (Frisco) wood caboose 876 is a rare surviving example of the railcar construction era prior to steel being extensively used for freight and passenger cars in the U.S. Our records indicate caboose 876 was built in 1904. As noted for our other cabooses, these cars served as an office on wheels that housed the freight train conductor and a brakeman at the rear of the train. The conductor was, and continues to be, the person in charge of the train who ensures work gets done and customers receive service. Today, conductors ride in the cab of the front locomotive.
Cabooses served as an office, a place to cook food on a coal-fired stove or a place to catch a nap when not working, and the top cupola acted as an observation post for viewing the train for safety. Cabooses were often assigned to a specific conductor. Due to its age and wood construction, our Frisco caboose is somewhat fragile and access to the interior for visitors is not possible.
As steel became more abundant and cost-competitive it replaced wood as the primary source of material for caboose construction. The museum’s other cabooses are examples of steel construction. Technological advancements resulted in cabooses being phased out in the 1980s, replaced by end-of-train (EOT or ETD) electronic telemetry devices.
Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) acquired the Frisco in 1980. Frisco’s origin dates back to 1853, when ground was broken at Pacific, Missouri. Frisco reached Wichita in 1880. The railroad changed hands several times, and had numerous names, before a new St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad emerged from bankruptcy in 1896, following the global financial panic of 1893. It was renamed St. Louis – San Francisco Railway in 1916.
By the time BN acquired it in 1980, Frisco stretched from St. Louis, Mo.; to Memphis, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Pensacola, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Tulsa, Okla.; Dallas, Texas; and other points in the Midwest and southeast. Frisco was headquartered in Springfield, Mo. Much of the former Frisco right-of-way coming into the Wichita area from Augusta, Beaumont, Fredonia, Kan., and points east, has been converted into a walking/bicycle trail west of Augusta.
BN was created in 1970 through the merger of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), Great Northern Railway (GN), Northern Pacific Railway (NP) and Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S).