MORE Knott's Berry Farm RR Postcards!
They said it couldn't be done! They said it violated all the laws of nature and physics! But Steve DeGaetano has found four more postcards relating to the Knott's Berry Farm railroad. Will this be the last of the series? I bet he'll find additional cards, but only time will tell. As always, Steve has not only scanned his latest acquisitions, but has graciously provided an accompanying writeup. Let's go!
In the last installment in this little series featuring Ghost Town & Calico Railroad postcards, I mentioned there might be more to present, and I’m happy to say I didn’t lie. It’s been many weeks since I’ve come across a never-before-seen postcard, so I think we might be getting to the bottom of the barrel, but we’ve got a few fun images to examine, so let’s dig in!
The following two images are very similar to scenes that have appeared previously, featuring the vast expanse of Calico Square, which today appears quite crowded. Having just blown its whistle, Gold Nugget is about to start its journey. Make sure to get your penny or nickel on the rail to get it flattened! (Don’t worry, you won’t derail the train).
This one is pretty interesting in that there appears to be a legit train station on the water tower side of the tracks! I have never seen this before. Gaudy No. 41, Red Cliff, is on the point, with former parlor car Chama now converted to combine Calico. A dray or buckboard (Mike Cozart?) sits alongside the locomotive’s tender.
This one is sort of fun, featuring a bevy of glamorous show girls in one of the GT&C’s fancy parlor cars (likely Durango, built in 1880). I don’t think we have any Disneyland Railroad postcards showing an interior view. I’m partial to the young lady in white on the right.
Here is the back of the postcard above. Now, far be it for me to suggest anything immoral or lascivious, but the quotation marks surrounding “show” seem to imply that something more might be in store for male patrons of the evening’s entertainment!
Finally, we have this nice image of Red Cliff, engineer standing by the tender. Nothing unusual, except for the surprisingly dirty stack, and the sheer amount of green foliage in the background. Chama has yet to be converted to a combine. But there is one big difference: This postcard measures 6” x 9”. It’s almost four times as large as most post cards!
Here’s a comparison:
OK, that’s it for today. To date, this series has presented over 30 GT&C postcards! I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Knott’s Berry Farm’s historic railroad!
THANK YOU so much, Steve!
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EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! In Steve's previous blog post about Knott's Berry Farm postcards, he shared one card that featured a photo of a locomotive that he described as one of the true oddities of GT&C history. The card had a photo of 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. So cool! (He wrote more, so go back and read his text). Anyway, I mumbled something about hoping to find a photo of this unusual locomotive - only to find that my folder of recent Knott's Berry Farm scans already had a picture of that very machine! Wow, what a crazy coincidence. As I told Steve, I would have never known that there was anything special about this locomotive if it wasn't for him, although I was puzzled at the fact that it was not the #40 or the #41. Here's my scan:
And just for comparison, here's the postcard that Steve was writing about. I'll probably still look for additional photos of the K-27, but at least I have one!
15 comments:
[JB grabs the edges of his desk chair in preparation for the astronomical chaos about to be unleashed by all the violating of laws of Nature and physics.]... [He also grits his teeth and girds his loins.] (No snickering, please.)
OK... I'm ready. Bring it on!
Steve, I'm gonna place a quarter on the tracks, 'cuz I'm a big spender! In the first pic, we also see another train... a mule train! I'm looking, but I don't see any CMs keeping people off the tracks.
2) Hmm, from this distance, and lighting, the Red Cliff doesn't look all that gaudy... kinda pleasant and exciting actually.
3) Wow, color overload! (But in a good way). This is a great picture. The Lady in Red (above the Lady in White) looks quite a bit like Marilyn Monroe. What looks like water spilling down on the ladies is, I guess, a wrinkle in the postcard?
4) "There will be a big "show" in the wagon camp tonight". It wouldn't surprise me if we saw a few bare ankles! Yeehaw!
5) Wow, we rarely see such dark smoke coming out of one of these steam engines. The large size of this card sure brings out a lot of detail. It's in high def!
Thanks to both, Steve DeG and Maj P for a look at (and more info about) the Knott's trains.
^Oops. I forgot to ungird my loins. Ah, that feels better.
I think that train "station" on the west side of the tracks wasn't there very long. I've only seen it in a few pics, and I think it had a platform/dock on the side facing the tracks. Maybe it was supposed to be a structure that would have been used for loading freight? I have a picture that my dad took in the summer of 1966 (I've posted it in the past) but you can only see the roof and the sign poking up over the top of the train. Again, I really don't think that structure was there very long. Maybe it was removed when construction began on the Log Ride?
I wonder if they still have that "Parlour Car"? There are a couple fancier cars that sit on a spur track between the main train tracks and the Log Ride:
Knott's Train Cars
The cars have been there for many years, but I've never seen them used for anything. I think one of them might have "galley" inside. At least, I seem to remember seeing something that looked like that through some of the windows. Steve probably knows the history of those cars!
"........the quotation marks surrounding “show” seem to imply that something more might be in store for male patrons of the evening’s entertainment!"
I bet there used to be a strip show performed late at night in the Wagon Camp, after the square dancing shows were over. Walter Knott was naughty that way! ;-)
Thank you, Steve and Major!!!
JB, I feel terrible about this, but I think card 1 may be a duplicate! There are just so many taken from nearly the exact same vantage point. And yes, no.3 came to me slightly damaged —It was perfect in the auction photos—Now I have to try and find a better example.
Tokyo magic!, I went back to my other cards, and a number of them show the station—I had just never noticed it before this card.
Thanks everyone,. I apologize if I can’t comment on every post—l’m on the road, carless and computerless in Brooklyn , New York, attending my son’s graduation from Pratt Institute, and helping him move copious amounts of accumulated stuff out of his apartment, so I’ll be very busy for the next few days. I’m so happy the Major found a slide of the elusive K-27–no doubt a rarity!
Hooray, more train postcards! I’ll settle for readjusting the space-time continuum later!
Interesting how the postcard designers kept cranking out different versions of the same views. Thankfully they included the showgirls in one, for variety. I notice some Indians and prospectors in the background. Was this the KBF version of the Disneyland “staff cafeteria” pic?
Major, how cool you have a photo of that rare locomotive, and Steve, that you have a postcard of it!
Thanks for sharing all this train minutiae!
JG
JB, I think it’s a good thing that you girded your loins. Gird them like they’ve never been girded before! I used to be told that a penny on a RR track could derail a train. I guess a quarter could derail 25 trains? I don’t hate the colors of the Red Cliff like Chuck does, even though they are odd. And nope, that’s water spilling on the women, they had a wet hoop skirt contest. Did the Knott’s trains use coal back in those days? That really is a lot of thick black smoke.
JB, I assume no responsibility if you decide to ungird.
TokyoMagic!, interesting, now I wonder how long that depot was there on the west side (?) of the tracks. I’m sure I have photos of it there. I’ll bet you’re right about the removal of it for the Log Ride. Until I saw this postcard, I didn’t know that Knott’s had a “parlour car”, was it used for VIPs? Like John Wayne? And, I don’t know, Billy Graham? I assume Billy Graham was a pal of Walter Knott. I would love it if we learned that there was a genuine old-fashioned naughty show at KBF during the WK years.
Steve DeGaetano, OH NO! Now my blogging license will be taken away, and all the kids at school will laugh at me. AGAIN.
Steve DeGaetano, I guess we will just have to come to grips with the fact that your actual life takes importance over GDB! It’s hard to believe, but I guess it is so.
JG, I know that for Disneyland, updated views of rides for postcards were done constantly, although they did sometimes use a particular view for decades on occasion. I think they just have just filled up that train with as many “cast members” as they could, and I have to admit it makes for a fun photo.
Yes … that would technically be called a DRAY . It is also a “city hitch wagon” … ( a kind of 5th wheel ) and it would have been used mainly in larger cities or bigger towns with paved , brick or cobblestone streets. But in the 1950’s with “Old West” craving guests , Knotts used all kinds of city type vehicles in the Wild West setting.
A buckboard is a light duty wagon … but rugged . They were the small pick up truck of the day. They are a purely AMERICAN vehicle and we’re not manufactured outside the USA . The handful that ended up in Canada ,Mexico , New Zealand and Australia were imported from America during those countries gold and silver booms. The Buckboard started out in colonial times as a PLEASURE WAGON. A low sided wagon with one or two rows of fixed seats ( no springs) the body’s underside was curved - just like a Conestoga Wagon. Over time the pleasure wagon evolved to become more rugged for use in early frontier America . The curved bottoms became flexible flat legth-wise slats that could “buck” and flex over roughy roads without snapping . - hence the BUCK board !! If the buckboard had eleptical springs on the axels it was called a SPRING WAGON or DAY WAGON ( sometimes FAMILY WAGON)
It’s interesting that it was very important for places like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm to keep
Photos and images in brochures , guides and merchandise current and up to date. I feel like nowadays you will see long outdated photos being used on things. I remember in the late 90’s a new Disneyland official album on CD ( compact disc) was being released … it was usually a big deal then …. We had a release date for them so they sat ready to go backstage - we noticed the image of Splash Mountain was of WDW’s and merchandise managers had them all pulled !!! They were sent to the Disneyland employee store ; company D . And guests had to wait till the cover art was corrected! I think that was a bit much lol. So if you have a DISNEYLAND OFFICIAL ALBUM
CD with the Florida Mountain - it was never sold to guests .
Yeah just was given some photos of the railroad building for a project and didn’t ever recall seeing it before … it appears to be a freight or baggage depot judging from its high rear windows and sliding freight doors . It must not have been there very long.
Am late to the party, but not too late to add my FAVORITE KNOTT'S SHOWGIRLS to this post. I noticed they were missing from today's postcard.
Thanks, Steve DeG, Major, and Mike!
Sue, THOSE are the showgirls that used to do the late night striptease shows in the Wagon Camp!!!!!!
Until I saw this postcard, I didn’t know that Knott’s had a “parlour car”, was it used for VIPs? Like John Wayne? And, I don’t know, Billy Graham?
Major, the only person who Walter Knott would allow to use the "parlour car" was Lillian Disney!
The parlor car was the “EDNA” formally of the RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN. I’m not sure when it was removed from regular service on the Ghost Town & Calico RR , but at least by 1975 it was parked on a spur at the end of MUSEUM row .. just past the Railway Supply building & marshal’s office. Guests could step up onto the observation deck and peer into the large end windows and see an elegant family “living “ on the sided parlor car. The EDNA was originally green but at some point painted yellow to match the rest of the passenger cars of Knott’s. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go get my feathers.
Mike, the Edna is a private car. Durango was a parlor car.
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