Even More Knott's Berry Farm RR Postcards
Whoo-hoo! It's time for a FIFTH "Knott's Berry Farm railroad on postcards" blog post, courtesy of GDB pal Steve DeGaetano! If you want to know something about steam locomotives, he's the guy to ask. I was going to write more, but Steve has done all the hard work (as usual), so let's get to his text!
I’ve been telling the Major for months now that I don’t think there are any more Knott’s Berry Farm Calico & Ghost Town Railroad postcards to add to my collection. Boy, was I wrong. I’ve got five new-to-me postcards today, a couple I’ve seen before, but the last three seem pretty rare, and the final one blew my socks off.
The first one was graciously donated to me by Junior Gorilla Mike Cozart. Obviously, this one differs completely from all the previous and subsequent postcards in that it is an illustration, but its sole focus is the “Calico Railroad,” and it definitely needs to be here for the sake of completeness. Obviously featuring Red Cliff in all her brown, blue and yellow glory. I’m sure Chuck has this one in his collection.
To be honest, the stagecoach “robbery” is the focus of the caption on the back of this card, noting that the “old narrow gauge passenger train escaped this time.” But I think it’s a nice-enough head-on view of No. 40 to merit inclusion in my collection.
Now we’re getting into some more rarified territory. Also obtained from Mr. Cozart is this nice view of No. 40 stopped in Calico Square. Former parlor car “Chama,” coupled to the engine, has been converted into a combination baggage/passenger car. Locomotive Gold Nugget has features I had not noticed before—a reddish cab roof and yellow-painted window muntins on the cab window (I think I’m using that term correctly. I’m afraid to say I went down the mullion/muntin rabbit hole for this post). While an older photo, the card appears to have been made in the 1980s, sharing its gold border with two other cards posted previously. A larger version of this picture appears in Christopher Merrit’s seminal work, “Knott’s Preserved,” which is selling on Amazon now for the low, low price of $346.14
This next card popped up in my eBay search just a few days ago, and I have never seen it before. It’s a pretty dramatic shot of the Ghost Town & Calico’s second locomotive, now wearing her original 1881 name, Green River, and D&RGW number, 340. With her headlight blazing during daylight (not a normal practice), floating on a cloud of steam from her cylinders, and a complete lack of park guests, it’s a shot unlike any others I’ve seen. I’m guessing this is one of Knott’s newer offerings, judging by the very prototypical paint scheme and the fancy gold Knott’s lettering in the upper right corner.
Finally, the last card—and a true unicorn when it comes to the Ghost Town and Calico Railroad. I apologize for the extra wordiness, but this really needs a bit of explaining.
What you see below is one of the true oddities of GT&C history. This scalloped-edged card features a 1903 Baldwin-built locomotive called a “K-27,” a locomotive with two small wheels in front, eight “drive wheels,” and a small set of two wheels under the cab. It’s one of only two such locomotives in existence. It has about 10,000 more pounds of “tractive effort” than the two smaller Knott’s engines, so it is really huge. The back of the card says Knott’s purchased this engine in in 1971, but most on-line sources say it was 1973. Colloquially known as a “Mud Hen,” Knott’s rebuilt the engine and converted it from coal fuel to diesel oil. The only giveaway that it’s an “amusement park” locomotive are the two brass boiler bands—otherwise it’s in a very prototypical paint scheme. What makes this card so special is that Knott’s hardly ever used this locomotive—Wikipedia says “it saw little or no use” at Knott’s (this postcard showing it in operation notwithstanding), so being captured on a postcard makes it quite unusual. It was simply too large and too heavy to manage Knott’s pretty-tight curves. It’s unique in that the frame of the locomotive is outside the wheels—Imagine a bike wheel in a fork—opposed to a car wheel. Realizing it could never operate safely on the GT&C, it was sold to the Huckleberry Railroad near Flint, Michigan in 1981, currently awaiting an overhaul.
Okay, that’s all I have for now. Knott’s was always very proud of their little railroad, featuring it in more postcard images than even the Disneyland trains! I’ll be keeping my eye out for any more that may turn up, so maybe down the road there will be another installment featuring the Ghost Town & Calico Railroad.
THANKS SO MUCH to Steve DeGaetano for sharing his increasingly-rare postcards, and for taking the time to do research and share what he has learned with all of us. I know I will happily welcome a "part six", should that ever happen!
15 comments:
Major-
More choo-choo images from Knott's. It's fun to look at them while allowing my mind to wander back over memories of Knott's. The 'illustration' is a beauty.
Thanks, Steve and The Major.
The Red Cliff doesn't look nearly as breakfast-regurgitating as an illustration than it does as an actual photo. Even so, Chuck shouldn't look at the illustration very long lest something unpleasant comes up.
The yellow-framed card: The red roof and yellow window frames (OK, OK, "muntins") make the cab look like a happy little house.
The newer, "Green River" card has an eerie look to it. I don't know if that was intended. I do like the fancy gold "Knott's" lettering.
Thanks, Steve for sharing your (and Mike's ;-)) postcard collection with us. And thanks, Major... just for being you. :-p
Steve : the retro illustrated postcard ( art from a vintage souvenir window decal) and the yellow boarder postcard was part of a larger series of retro style Knott’s postcards released around 2010-2011 …. For an anniversary either for Knott’s in general or maybe it was just for Ghost Town .. I know there are a few variations because the postcards were selling out faster than expected and Knott’s merchandisers placed an order with a different printer who could get a second order done faster …. And I think those have the vintage scalloped edges.
Mike beat me to it about the first postcard image being used years ago, for a vintage souvenir decal. And I remember that retro series of postcards they did some years back! Knott's also did some nice retro merchandise for their "100th" anniversary (which was actually celebrated a year later, in 2021).
I've learned quite a bit about the Knott's trains through this series of posts. Thanks for sharing, Steve! And thanks for hosting, Major!
Hooray for Knott’s trainses!
Looking closely at the decal-based postcard (don’t worry, folks - I’m wearing special, polarized goggles and a HAZMAT suit), I find it interesting that the lettering under the cab window reads “Denver Rio Grande” but the lettering under the actual locomotive’s cab window in that scheme read “Red Cliff.” I’ve never seen the original decal and am wondering if that was altered for the postcard release because the locomotive’s name had been changed in the intervening years and the lettering might not make sense to modern guests who didn’t know the history. That hideous paint scheme actually works in the limited color scheme of the decal, almost like they made the decal and then said “Paint her to look like this (but don’t paint the water tower green because that would look dumb).”
Despite the odd-looking headlight, I’ve always kinda liked that early green with yellow trim paint scheme on No. 40.
The K-27 falls into the “What were they thinking?” category. The locomotive is beautiful and I am glad it was preserved, but the thing is a behemoth when it comes to narrow gauge, and it should have been obvious it was too big for the Knott’s pike. I first became aware of the K-27 when a friend visited the Huckleberry in the early ‘90s, but I’m wondering if I saw that same locomotive sitting on a siding back in the ‘70s and just didn’t understand what I was looking at.
Thank you, Steve! This is a great warmup for my first trip to the Durango & Silverton in the very near future.
Thanks everyone! And thanks for the clarification, Mike C, on the first and third cards. I really don't consider myself a "deltiologist" (I didn't even know that word until yesterday!), but I guess maybe I am a little. Chuck, I'm sure you're going to love the D&S. Bill Colley, who I think recently retired as the D&S chief engineer, used to be a Conductor at Disneyland!
In the 1980s in SoCal, a Knott's commercial ran on TV. It featured a head-on view of the K-27. Sure, the front of most steam locomotives look similar, but to a train guy, the "face" of the K-27 was instantly recognizable. When I asked a GT&C engineer about it that summer, he said it had already been sold. I never got to see it in action.
Wow, more locomotive minutiae, I love it!
Especially liking the decal postcard too. Re: muntins. I was taught that mullions were vertical framing between windows, while muntins were horizontal members between panes of glass. Seeing the configuration of the cab window, I agree that muntins is the correct term for the components in question.
I wonder why KBF bought that last behemoth? Surely it was obviously too big? Might have some kind of collector fever? Anyhow, I’m glad it will be rehabbed somewhere.
Thank you, Steve, Mike Cozart, and Major, for amplifying my love of old trains.
JG
Nanook, I was just going through my box that has, among other things, lots of old water-slide decals. So that Knott’s “decal card” really stood out to me!
JB, one of the things I love about those old decals is the garish colors. They had to make an impression on your back window though they are only 4” tall. “Muntins” is a new word for me, but would be a cute name for a dog or cat. I’m so used to the “Old West” look of the Knott’s trains, that the actual accurate look is strange to me!
Mike Cozart, I am sadly not “up” on Knott’s collectibles as a rule, I have some, but don’t know nearly as much about them as I do Disneyland collectibles. I kind of applaud them for reusing that classic decal illustration!
TokyoMagic!, I think maybe you showed some of the KBF 100th Anniversary merch on your blog? I saw it somewhere!
Chuck, hmmm, now I’m going to have to check my decals when I get home (late tonight), but my guess is that they did not alter the design for the postcard. the green water tower is weird, but like I said to JB, I kind of like the funky, garish colors! I think the K-27 is so fascinating, and now I’m going to cross my fingers and hope that I will find a slide with a photo of it during its brief time at Knott’s! It does seem strange that *somebody* didn’t realized that it was not going to work at Knott’s, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I am almost positive that I have a photo of a train from the Huckleberry Railroad, what are the chances that it is the K-27? Slim I guess. Hey, I hope you go check out the Durango & Silverton!!
Steve DeGaetano, gosh, you’d think I would know the word “deltiologist”, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard it. I sure have a lot of postcards! Mostly Disneyland, but others too. As I said to Chuck, the K-27 information was especially interesting, and I’m going to be on the lookout for photos of it at KBF!
JG, I know a lot about muffins, but not much about mullions or muntins. I feel OK about it. I assume that somebody who considered themselves a “train expert” was involved in the purchase of that bit locomotive, and yet they still managed to screw things up. Admittedly, Disneyland has also purchased locomotives that they ultimately realized would not work at that park.
Thanks for letting me do these little write-ups, Major! And you're right--you'd think someone, somewhere would have caught the K-27 in operation in a photo! As I mentioned previously, this quirky bit of Knott's lore didn't even make it into the only book on Knott's history (that covers the modern era) that I know about: "Knott's Preserved."
“You’d think someone at Knott’s would have noticed ……”
“Like in the mid 1990’s when Disneyland replaced all its original 1967 Pirates of the Caribbean boats with the newer style Walt Disney World tan colored boats …….and then on installation day realized the Florida pirate boats were much wider and did NOT fit in the boat guide rails or loading dock mechanisms…. And had to delay the attraction’s reopening by several more months to make necessary accommodations ……
Nobody checked any measurements in advance??
Steve DeGaetano, thank YOU! I have the feeling it’s going to be a while before I find a photo of the K-27 at Knott’s. If it ever happens at all!
Mike Cozart, jeez, that is pretty incredible. How much money did that cost the company??
Yes, the water tower is green on the decal, too. Someone is selling one of the decals on ebay, for only $34.99. What a bargain! ;-)
Speaking of other Knott's trains, they had another engine that they sold in their 2017 auction. I'm not sure what the back story was on it as far as how it came to be in their possession. I bet Steve knows. But it sat on a spur track behind the Xcelerator coaster for years. It looked like it was in bad shape. I think I heard that Garner Holt won it in the auction, and that he was going to have it restored and displayed outside of his headquarters. I'm not sure if he was planning on having it actually run or not.
And speaking of things that don't fit......I remember hearing the story about Disneyland's current Monorail trains (Mark VII). Back in 2007/2008, when they were doing test runs on the new trains (after being converted to the newer model from the old Mark Vs), they were having problems with them going around the curves in the track, without the new vehicles ripping off the busbars! Talk about incompetence! I also heard that they had to get Bob Gurr out there to do some consulting for them, to explain to them what they had done wrong. And these were the same models that they built without windows that could open, so they had to go back and try to fix that problem, too, once the guests started "baking" inside the sealed-up cars. Sheeeesh! What is wrong with the "Disney" of today????
I just checked my 2017 Knott's auction book. That train that sold was listed as the "Jennie K Locomotive." The description stated that it was a rare H.K. Porter locomotive that was built in Pittsburgh in 1940......and that it's a 36-gauge, a 2-4-0 originally built as a 04-OT. The first owner was Acme Brick Company in Malvern, Arkansas, where it was used to haul bricks. It was sold in 1957 to Paul Eakins in Sieston, Missouri, and again in 1959 to a stone machinery company in Daisy, Tennessee. It was then resold at an unknown date to CP & LE Railroad. It was renamed after the wife (Jennie) and the granddaughter (Kathy), of Jack Foster, the first Superintendent of CP and LE. It was eventually purchased by Cedar Point Theme Parks and moved to Knott's. The description further stated that "the boiler needs some work" and is being sold "as is" with no implied warranty or working condition.
I know that there was a lot of info given for items in that auction, which was incorrect, so maybe Steve can clarify if that was all accurate information.
Here's a link to a photo of the Jennie K. And I stand corrected, it was Bill Butler, who works for Garner Holt, who purchased the train. But he did say that he would restore it and see if they couldn't have it run around their shop. I wonder if it's still a work-in-progress, or if they finished the restoration by now?
The Jennie K. at Knott's Berry Farm
Thanks, Steve DeG. The history and stories behind all of these trains are fun to read. Am chuckling at the stories about the POTC boats, Knott's train and DL Monorail -- all not fitting as [un]planned. SomeONE had ONE job to do, but didn't. :o)
Speaking of trains, a lot of people in my area [including me, my husband and friends] are looking forward to seeing Big Boy come passing through, in about 4 weeks. (I'll be back in a couple minutes and will add a link in my next comment, below.)
Thanks, too, Major.
HERE'S the link to see Big Boy.
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