A song off The Bottle Rockets‘ new album, “Ship It on the Frisco,” sent me down a rabbit hole researching a certain Route 66 overpass and the railroad that once traveled on it.
The song (download MP3 here) is found on The Bottle Rockets’ excellent album, “South Broadway Athletic Club” (the album’s title comes from a historic place on South Broadway in St. Louis, but I digress).
Here’s what the tune sounds like:
“Ship It on the Frisco” sounds like memories of hobos who rode the rails. According to the band’s singer and songwriter, Brian Henneman, that’s close, but not quite. He told No Depression magazine:
Henneman described [it] as “a Southern soul-influenced song about childhood train hopping.” He wrote it about “something me and a friend did as a kid. The St. Louis & San Francisco [Frisco] railroad line ran through our hometown. Their slogan, “Ship It on the Frisco,” was painted on boxcars and whatnot. We’d hop the train while it was pullin’ outta the glass factory, and ride it about three miles down to the river where we’d jump off, and walk the tracks back. Our code name for that activity was to ‘Ship It on the Frisco’. We did it because we were kids. And it was exciting. And it didn’t cost nothin’.”
Sounds like Henneman had a little hobo in him.
The song brought to mind a prominent railroad overpass on Watson Road (aka Route 66) in Shrewsbury, Missouri, southwest of St. Louis. It’s a short drive west of the River des Peres, but this link from Google Maps will get you there.
According to Bridgehunter.com, the overpass was built for the Frisco line in 1931. It’s still used by the BNSF Railway. The south end of the overpass underwent repairs in 2002 after a derailment.
As for the Frisco itself, known officially as the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, it boasted a long history with the Mother Road. One of its main lines shadowed Route 66 from St. Louis to Oklahoma City. The railroad also ran lines out of Tulsa, St. Louis and Springfield, Missouri, and operated a few passenger lines from those cities, as well.
The Frisco operated for more than 100 years until BNSF swallowed it up in 1980. But remnants of the railroad are there, including at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis,Route 66 Pacific Railfan Center in Pacific, Missouri, and the Frisco Meteor 4500 steam engine at the Route 66 Village in Tulsa.
(Image of the Frisco overpass in Shrewsbury, Missouri, by Thomas Hawk via Flickr)
“Ship it on the Frisco”, was the motto of this company, and this slogan, was not just limited to one bridge, as you infer. It was seen through out the Southeast and Central United States. The slogan appeared on their many calendars, letterheads, notepads, pencils, and matchbook covers, and on many railroad overpasses, as shown in the photo. The Frisco operated over 6,500 miles of track, Serving the country with not only freight, but passenger service too, which was discontinued in 1967. Another example of their fine steam locomotives, can be seen at the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma in Enid, Oklahoma, along with many interesting Frisco related items, and railroadiana, from other roads. and an operational diesel F7 at the Oklahoma Railroad Museum in Oklahoma City.
Another link between the famed FRISCO Railroad and ‘America’s Main Street’ / ROUTE 66 is a happy happenstance.
The head of the Frisco Railroad was aboard a train that made a stopover in Springfield, Mo — which, 90 years ago, was the birthplace of the name of the famed national roadway.
The traincar, in which the Frisco executive was riding, pulled even with the outside wall of the Railway Station’s main building, down amongst the tangle of rails, men with swinging lanterns and the sounds of chug-chugging, belching steam and whistles. The Springfield man in charge was a hunter. He had just returned from a successful hunt where he had trapped several raccoons and other critters. He butchered the meats and preserved the hides for tanning. Indeed, at least one of the hides he had treated, stretched and tacked on the outside wall of the Station, awaiting it to cure.
The President of the Railroad spotted through the window, this ‘thing’ on the side of his building. He gasped! Then, the man demanded to know, “What is that?” Upon being told the tale, he reflected on the shape and novelty of the hide, the history of brave trappers and living a pioneer life as America was growing and traveling west…
An ‘idea glowed’ from within the President of the Frisco.
THUS WAS BORN THE GREAT EMBLEM OF THE FRISCO RAILROAD…which has as it’s background, the birthday suit of an Ozarks coon – probably the Second Most Famous Hide in the history of the world – coming in at Number 2 behind: ‘The Golden Fleece!’
one more technicality; the Frisco was taken over by Burlington Northern in 1980. BNSF did not exist until the merger of Burlington Northern Railroad and Santa Fe Railway in 1995/96.
Is there any significance to “It” in the railroad’s slogan?
Awesome! Just found one of my mom’s old recipes. It was written on a Ship IT in the Frisco notepad, who knows when(1960’s). My dad worked for the Frisco until he died of cancer in1977. Started there in the late 50’s in Chicago. I was born in1961.