Meteor (St. Louis-San Francisco Railway)

The "Meteor" was a named passenger train operated by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (a.k.a SLSF or "the Frisco"). It ran overnight between Oklahoma City and St. Louis via Tulsa. The name was shared with a branch line "Meteor" running between Monett, Missouri, and Paris, Texas. Later this line was truncated to terminate at Fort Smith, Arkansas. These Frisco trains should not be confused with Amtrak's "Silver Meteor".

Frisco locomotives No. 4500, 4501 and 4502, three of twenty-five Northern class Baldwin 4-8-4s built during for Frisco during World War II were designated for use on the "Meteor". These locomotives were delivered in a distinctive zephyr blue, white and gray paint scheme with "Meteor" spelled out across the tender in bold red lettering. These three passenger engines also saw service pulling the "Texas Special". In 1948, Frisco 4501 still in its Meteor livery pulled President Harry S. Truman's whistle stop tour train through his home state of Missouri.

When the "Meteor" was converted to use diesel locomotives, No. 4500 was re-painted into Frisco's standard black with gold striping and lettering and assigned to passenger trains such as the "General Wood" and the "Will Rogers".

Engine no. 4501 resides at the Museum of the American Railroad. As of late 2007 there are plans to display the restored No. 4500 in Route 66 Station Park, which is being built in West Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The new streamlined, diesel equipped "Meteor" began westbound operations on May 14, 1948, with its first eastbound train departing Oklahoma City on May 15. Frisco purchased the EMD E7 locomotives and Pullman cars for the "Meteor" at the same time as they purchased ones for the "Texas Special", so the two trains shared a distinctive look; bright red with corrugated aluminum side panels. Frisco bought sets of named cars for each train.

Named cars

Named trains frequently had named cars; the Frisco named "Meteor" cars after cities and rivers. Not all cars may have been named, but the ones that were bore their names prominently on their side panels.

Models of the "Meteor"

*Hallmark Models, Inc., a model train manufacturer has produced brass E7 diesels and corrugated passenger cars in red and silver without lettering, so that modelers can customize them for either a "Meteor" or "Texas Special" train.

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