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Ozark Ridge Runner
by Andrew Harmantas
Oil on Polyflax on braced luan panel
Original Painting Image size 18" x 36"
Framed size 18½" x 36½" (deep-profile aluminum gallery frame)
The Saint Louis-San Francisco, or Frisco, became the "home road" for me after I joined the Army, and Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, became the center of my universe. On the day I reported for duty there, I looked up and saw the QLA,
Frisco's hottest freight train, rushing past the main gate at Fort Sill, kicking up clouds of dust as it passed.
That's when I concluded Army life wouldn't be so bad for a transplanted railfan. When time permitted, I would
venture trackside throughout Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, to take in the very different (to this Easterner)
landscape, and the locomotive paint jobs that were more colorful than I was used to seeing. Frisco criss-crossed
this region with a vast network, and would occasionally surprise me with a different train, such as this all
piggyback, or TOFC (Trailer On Flat Car), wending its way through the Ozark region, threading along the ridge lines
and occasionally cutting through them. The Frisco tracks through there were constructed for speed, and this train
certainly upheld the Frisco's tradition for being the Fast Freight Line. In this painting, I sought to capture the
speed of the train threading its way through a series of curves, in a vast Southwest landscape.
Price: $1,400 (plus $25 US shipping)
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