Mystery Trains
I've been looking at my various "train related" slides, and decided to scan some, including today's mystery train from May, 1966. This miniature train looks typical of the kind of thing you could find at scores of amusement parks and zoos around the country, I don't even see any useful clues for the armchair detectives out there.
This boy has learned to "smile for the camera" well, the expression hardly looks strained at all! But I'd be smiling if I was about to ride a tiny train. A neighborhood appears to be at the top of the slope; it's driving me crazy not knowing where this was!
The boy is doing a pre-ride inspection to make sure that it is safe for all the other boys and girls. "I'm not sure this meets up with my standards, I will have to make a full report". In the distance, a Sinclair gas station. The buildings look older, possibly east coast or maybe midwest.
OK, when I first put today's blog post together, I had no clue about the beautiful locomotive pictured below. And then I did some sort of very basic blog search, something like, "tourist steam locomotives United States", and discovered that this is one of the Roaring Camp locos (at this website). Roaring Camp Railroads was the brainchild of Norman Clark, who came from a family of railroad builders and who dreamed of preserving both the spirit of early California and the state's stunning redwoods by constructing a park where logging would be off limits. The company, opened in 1963 in Santa Cruz County, operates two lines, both about a 75-minute drive south of San Francisco. The Santa Cruz Beach Train, which goes from Roaring Camp down to the Santa Cruz boardwalk, runs along the 1875 Santa Cruz & Felton route. The Redwood Forest Steam Train, meanwhile, runs along a wooded route with trestles. The 19th-century geared locomotives are better able to negotiate steep inclines than conventional steam trains.
Here it is as it looks today!
9 comments:
Hmm, well I did a Google reverse image search on that first pic. I found a photo that looks just like this train but with different wording on the side:
https://oanow.com/news/restoration-bound-destination-california/article_de116d52-4d80-11e5-966a-1b6b1d06792d.html
The site requires a subscription, which I don't have, but you can still sort of see the train past the pay wall pop-up. The photo shows Municipal Park in Opeika, Alabama. No way of knowing if this is actually that train. I'm sure there are others that look just like it.
The Roaring Camp train through the redwoods would make for a pleasant excursion. I like the antlers above the headlight in the 4th image.
Thanks, Major.
I have great memories of a ROARING CAMP RAILROAD visit with my grandparents around 1975 ….. after I would pursue over a stack of 1800’s themed railroad schedules ,timetables and brochures the attraction printed up for visitors . I have a stack of postcards from the visit - one is my favorite . It shows an artist’s concept of plans for an authentic California Gold Rush boom town “Roaring Camp City” proposed to be built Alongside Roaring Camp Railroad - someday …. But it never was. I know the artist concept painting on the postcard was painted over an image of a scale model that was on display in one of the small cluster of structures - possible the railroad depot. Probably cost prevented the construction of the boom town , Roaring Camp had a covered bridge , dinning hall , “connivence building” , a barn , a general store , and a depot and water tower . It was the first time I ever saw the odd looking SHAY locomotive .
I've ridden on the Roaring Camp Railroad so many times through the years. It's changed quite a bit including the loss of a high wooden trestle with switchbacks, but it's still a beautiful ride through the Santa Cruz Mountains. Also, the Santa Cruz Beach Train with its diesel locomotive is a wonderful trip from the Boardwalk, along the Beach and through Downtown Santa Cruz and on up into the mountains is a great trip too. During summer, I pass by the Beach Train in action during my walks either along the Boardwalk or downtown Santa Cruz.
I love my hometown. Thanks, Major.
The train in the first photos is a G-16, manufactured by the Miniature Train Company in Glen Elyn, IL, from 1946-48 and Rensselaer, IN, from 1948-56, and by the Allan Herschel Company (under the MTC name) from 1956-63. 270 G-16 sets were built, so identifying this specific one may prove a challenge. About 70 are still in existence, with about 50 in operating condition. This one is lettered for the Southern Railway, but it’s in a paint scheme that’s unfamiliar to me (while I have nothing against the Southern, isn’t one of the roads that I “follow”) so that doesn’t help fix the location, either.
My family visited the Roaring Camp & Big Trees RR around the same time as Mike’s, before the 1976 arson fire that destroyed the wooden corkscrew trestle that allowed the train to ascend Bear Mountain without using switchbacks. I was less observant than Mike and didn’t even notice that the locomotive looked different from most steam engines until I was looking at family photos when I was in college.
Thanks, Major!
Your Disney connection for the day: Paul Boschan, who restored DRR engine No. 5, the Ward Kimball, used to be the roundhouse foreman for Roaring Camp.
The steam locomotive is indeed a Shay, named after Ephraim Shay, a weird type of engine used primarily on logging railroads.
Its boiler is shifted to the left on the frame to accommodate three cylinders arranged vertically in front of the cab on the engineer's side, which you can see better in the second picture. The pistons moved up and down instead of horizontally on a conventional steam engine, and turned two drive shafts which were connected to the wheels through gears. This geared arrangement meant very slow speed, but gobs of power and the ability to navigate very tight curves to get into the woods. Nearly all engines of this type were built by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, OH.
Less knowledgeable about the "grand scale" diesel, except that it's modeled on an EMD "FT" locomotive. While I live in Southern Ry. territory, that paint scheme doesn't look at all familiar.
Fascinating backstories on these trains.
I love how the miniature train cars have real windows set down in scale so they look right from outside.
I’ll bet all of these trains are lubricated with a mixture of tallow and mealworms.
Thanks Major!
JG
How does the driver ride on that miniature diesel locomotive? Does he straddle it or is there a panel that opens for a seat inside, like a rumble seat on a roadster?
JB, the trouble is that there were (are?) a LOT of those same types of miniature trains all over the country. Hundreds? Pay walls = yuck. The Roaring Camp RR looks awesome, I wish I’d done it the one time I was in the Santa Cruz area (years ago)!
Mike Cozart, oh man, that railroad would have been something I would have loved to have experienced with my grandparents, who were game for anything. Many of the amusement parks that I enjoyed as a kid are due to them. I’m so glad that th RCRR is still around, I guess it must get enough visitors to keep it afloat. THANK GOODNESS. Too bad about the Boom Town never being built, but as you said, I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. What the heck is a “connivance building”?
K. Martinez, you’re lucky to have enjoyed the RCRR so many times! Bummer about the loss of the wooden trestle - once again, I assume that it was in need of maintenance (or complete rebuilding) and it would have cost too much? Trestles are exciting! I didn’t know that the one train went through downtown Santa Cruz. Going through the redwoods sounds amazing.
Chuck, thank you for the specific info about that miniature RR; I knew that there were many like it, and am impressed that there are still 50 still operating. I wonder if one could still buy a new train like this today? Ah, I see that it was a fire that destroyed the trestle at the Roaring Camp RR. Bummer. Sounds like it would have been the highlight of that ride, I wonder if there has ever been talk of recreating it? Maybe folks are worried about another fire. As for the paint scheme on the miniature RR, I’m sure that the people who built it had no idea that folks would be scrutinizing their work nearly 60 years later for accuracy!
Steve DeGaetano, I have the feeling that you never have to look too far for a connection to the Disney trains in California! But it is still cool to know that the No. 5 can be connected to Roaring Camp. Thanks for the info about Shay locomotives, I wondered why there would be a need for a different piston arrangement, when the old “tried and true” design seemed to work well. But now I know!
JG, yes, the look of that miniature train is quite nice, but then again, I’d probably love it even if it wasn’t accurate. It’s almost lunchtime, and now this mention of tallow has made me hungry!
Dean Finder, I did a tiny bit of Googling, and in some pictures of similar trains, it almost looks as if a portion of the locomotive’s panel might have been removable (behind those “vanes”), and the drive could sit inside, rather than astride. Kind of a “rumble seat” arrangement, I guess. I’m sure there are readers out there who know for sure.
Convenience Building = TOLIET /RESTROOMS. Bachmann trains has just released replicas in HO scale of the open excursion cars for ROARING CAMP RAILROAD and On2 and G scale are on their way .
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