Issue Number 47 San Luis Obispo, California, Spring 2013 www.slorrm.com

News from the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum

Photo by Gary See

Come join us for a fun-filled National Train Day at theMuseum. On Saturday, May 11th, 2013, from 10:00 amto 5:00 pm, the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum willopen the doors of the historic 1894 Southern PacificFreighthouse for the public to see the progress of the Museumwhich is planned to open on October 12, 2013. Members ofthe Board of Directors will be on hand to introduce thefuture Museum to the public.

Special events will include: Historic Railroad MotorcarSpeeder rides on the Museum’s Display Track ($3 donation)Walking Tours: Learn about the Museum area and theMuseum’s Emily Street Yard. HO Scale Free-Mo operatingmodular model railroad layout. G-gauge Garden Railroadoperating model railroad layout. Railroad Swap Meet.Railroad items for sale with proceeds that benefit theMuseum. Historic artifacts and equipment on display. ASampling of things to come: View the future Museuminterior improvements in the historic 1984 Freighthouse.Visit the future Museum model railroad area depicting theCentral Coast and its environs. Reported by Aron Kahn

Photo by Curtis Reinhardt

Two historic Narrow Gauge Boxcars were moved to theirpermanent locations in front of the San Luis Obispo RailroadMuseums’ Freighthouse on Thursday morning, March 21,2013. Both cars were once used by the Pacific Coast Railwayon the Central Coast of California. Now that they are in placeMuseum members will finish their interior and exteriorrestoration. Both cars will be accessed from inside theFreighthouse. One will house additional restrooms and theother will be used for storage. Thanks to Christina Bearceof Highlight Media for taking the video of the move that wasused on TV newscasts that night.

National Train Day, Saturday, May 11th

Photo by Gary See

event will be the focal point of the 5th Annual Central CoastRailroad Festival, October 10-14, 2013. The CCRRF is alsosponsoring three Family Excursions on National Train Day.Guests will visit the Museum as part of their excursionactivities. Go to www.ccrrf.com for details.

Local families, visitors and railfans will be able to graba sneak peek in and around the Museum during a specialOpen House on National Train Day, Saturday, May 11th.

Contributed by Curtis Reinhardt

The two boxcars moved on March 21st arethe narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railway #706, built by thePacific Car and Foundry circa 1906-1912 and a boxcar ofthe 1200 series that has a sign on it saying Miles Station.

The Pacific Coast Railway narrow gauge car of the 1200series, was built by the American Car and Foundry Companyin 1924 for the PCRwy. It is the last type of boxcar built forthe PCRwy and it is the largest. At 36’ 6”, it is longer thanany other type of PCRwy boxcar. However, at slightly over7’ wide, it is the narrowest in width. It sits on originalPCRwy 1200 series trucks that were acquired from thePCRwy derrick car that was on the UNOCAL, (ex-PCRwy)pier in San Luis Bay. That pier and car were destroyed bya violent storm in October 1981 and they fell into the bay.The only parts of the car that were saved during the cleanup operation, were the trucks (wheels and their arch barframes). The only existing 1200 series trucks now havebeen placed under the only remaining 1200 series car.

The Miles Station sign on the white 1200 series PacificCoast Railway boxcar is not historic. The San Luis ObispoRailroad Museum evolved from the Avila Valley RailwayMuseum which was was founded as a non-profit organiza-tion on February 11,1991. This boxcar was purchased by theAVRM circa 1994 and placed on the Miles Station site onthe PCRwy. This boxcar was used for the storage of artifacts,

The sign was built to Southern Pacific Railroad standards,however, it is not an historic artifact.

Contributed by Brad LaRose

More on the boxcars at www.slorrm.com/newsletter, page 8.

Narrow Gauge Boxcars Become Part of Museum

Company Store

Mission Statement

SAN LUIS OBISPO RAILROAD MUSEUMBOARD OF DIRECTORS

2

BY-LAWS AVAILABLEEvery member in good standing is

entitled to a copy of the San Luis ObispoRailroad Museum By- laws. In the inter-est of economy, we have not distrib-uted them to all members automati-

To get a copy, send a #10, selfaddressed, stamped, envelope toSLORRM, Post Office Box 13260,San Luis Obispo, CA 93406.

TIMETABLE

Become a Member

Life Members receive an embroideredpatch, enameled pin, the Coast Mailnewsletter, and have voting rights forone person for life. Use current age tocalculate amount due.

0-17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1200 or 5 payments of $28018-39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $900 or 5 payments of $22040-61 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $600 or 5 payments of $16062 and older . . . . . . . . . . . . $300 or 5 payments of $100

Family Life Members receive 2 enameledpins, 2 embroidered patches, the CoastMail newsletter, and voting rights forlife for two people residing at the sameaddress.

0-17 years of age . . . . . . . $1800 or 5 payments of $42018-39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1350 or 5 payments of $33040-61 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $900 or 5 payments of $24062 and older . . . . . . . . . . . . $450 or 5 payments of $150

New Members:

Building Fund Donations

Renew your membership

this date each time you receive a mail-

a month or so of your receipt of themailing, your remittance of the amountto renew your membership will beappreciated. Changes to your contactinformation should also be included.This will help assure that your mem-bership is always current. Should yourmailing address or e-mail addresschange, prompt submittal of updatedinformation will help achieve this samegoal. Thank you for your diligence andcooperation.

Election ResultsIn January, 2013, Arnold Jonas, Brad

LaRose, John Marchetti and DuanePowell were re-elected to two-yearterms on the San Luis Obispo RailroadMuseum Board of Directors.

Donations

John Benson, Angela Bruckhart, JohnFalkenstein, James Landreth, ArthurLudwick, Cheryl McCollum, Fred Paap,Make Palmer, Agatha Reardon, CherylSteed, James Thornburg, R. Williams.

Robert and Kathleen Copeland, LeslieMcKinley, Tom and Carolyn Peterson.

Richard Alberts, Mary Gaulin/Lil’ ToolWorks, John Hoefker, Karl Hovanitz,Arnold Jonas, Aron Kahn, Brad LaRose,Don Maddy, Lynne Maddy, John Mar-chetti, Andrew Merriam, Duane Powell,David Rohr, Ken Schwartz, Gary See.

Deborah Lyon and R. Jeffery Herten, W.Bruce Lindsey, Andrew and JuttaMerriam Family Trust, San Luis ObispoCommunity Foundation.

Hind Foundation, Ludwick Foundation.

Museum Buiding Nears Completion

To see more pictures of thetrack laying and the workinside the Freighthouse go towww.slorrm.com/newsletter

Those with a long memory will recallthat in the Winter, 2012 edition of theCoast Mail, we announced that the Cityof San Luis Obispo had completed thework they had committed to. The 1894Southern Pacific Railroad Freighthousewas now ours to make into a Museum.A year later we are in fact arriving atthe magical point where our contractor,RK Builders, and our many volunteershave completed the building shell. TheMuseum is ready to complete interiorfinishing and installation of displays. Sowhat does this all mean?

If you walk through today after anabsence of a year, you would see com-pleted walls and doors, working ADArestrooms, drinking fountains, operat-ing lights and finished floors. Behindthe scenes we will also have a securitysystem, fire sprinklers, and a heatingand cooling system. Several of our com-mittees have been meeting for monthsto determine how best to build displaysand initiating the process of opening tothe public on a permanent basis.

There are thanks to go all around.The big donors over the past years arethe Hind Foundation and the LudwickFamily Foundation, each of whom havecontributed $100,000. Our Board ofDirectors have also made personal con-tributions of time, money and creativeproblem solving. Museum membershave made significant contributionsduring our Capital Funds Drive lastyear. Volunteers continue their effortson a weekly basis providing painting,construction clean up, drywall instal-lation and continued outreach to localcontractors for materials.

The ongoing efforts, under the guid-ance of Ted VanKlaveren and his hardycrew in adding the track and installingthe narrow gauge boxcars is docu-mented in photos in this newsletter.

Next steps: The most dramatic effortswill now focus on restoring the boxcars,

ithall, gathering materials and organiz-ing the archives and construction of the

bench work in the model railroad area.The model of the narrow gauge PacificCoast Railway at Avila Beach is beingbuilt by John Marchetti and AndrewMerriam and we hope to have majorcomponents installed for our May 11thopen house. Brad LaRose and AronKahn and related committee membersare packaging display concepts for theMay open house that will give visitorsa taste of the future in the main exhib-it hall. Meanwhile we will refine ourconcepts and search for sponsors. Wereally hope you can join us on May11thfor National Train Day and enjoy theresults of all this effort.

Reported by Andrew Merriam,Chairman of the Building Committee.

Trackwork

In August,1977 the 1894 Freighthousewas badly run-down. photo by Bill Pyper

A new foundation was poured underthe South end of the building.

September 2004 photo by Bill Pyper

Freighthouse gets a complete new roof.December,2004 photo by Bill Pyper

Karl Hovanitz, Dick Ross, Arnold Jonas,Aron Kahn and Andrew Merriam checkthe plans for the Freighthouse repairson July 9, 2009. Photo by Brad LaRose.

Tom Mitchell hefts a heavy piece of woodinto place in this July 7, 2012 photo.

SLORRM modelers Bob Schrempp andLogan Bertolette work on drywall for themodel railroad area. Photo by Gary See

Brad LaRose paints the concrete riseron a Freighthouse wall while ChrisHurd vaccuums up the ever present con-struction dust. Photos by Gary See.

John Marchetti, Ted VanKlaveren andHoward Amborn align the track.

Photo by Sandy Amborn

Thanks to United Rentals for thedonation of the demolition shank andRatliff Welding for the fabrication ofa rail spike tool. Weyrick Sand andGravel provided the ballast at cost.Thanks to Peterson Trucking formoving and West Coast Towing fortheir help unloading the boxcars.

hidden under that cover. Thereare paint samples on the windowframe from the combine car thatare a good historical record.

Dave Hardie took this picture from thenorthbound Coast Daylight, SouthernPacific train #99, in August 1970. Herecently found it while scanning someof his older slides and donated it to theSan Luis Obispo Railroad Museum.

This car was the South Pacific CoastRailroad combination car #3, built bythe Carter Brothers’ Car Company inNewark, California in 1876. The Societyfor the Preservation of Carter Brothers’Railroad Resources, in the ArdenwoodPark Museum in Fremont, California,is familiar with this car and providedadditional research information for thewriting of this article.

Owned by South Pacific Coast Rail-road, which was eventually taken overby the Southern Pacific Railroad (after1912), the car was moved to the southend of the SP railyard in San LuisObispo, near Orcutt Road. It was thenused for drovers’ (cowboys) lodging andfor storing hay for the feeding of cattle.You can see in the photo, it is next tothe livestock corrals.

In the background are tanks from aRichfield bulk oil/fuel distributor. Thisbuilding still exists on Morrison Street,at the end of McMillan Avenue. Nearbyare several buildings that were used forbulk oil/fuel sales and distribution. Thisfacility is adjacent to the property nowoccupied by Mission Storage, which hadbeen Paulson’s Wrecking and Salvageand later Bedloe’s Auto Salvage.

steam locomotive tender #107(waterand oil tanks only, no frame) was storedin this salvage yard. This tender tankis now owned by the San Luis ObispoRailroad Museum.

The late Art Laidlaw, former South-ern Pacific Railroad engineer and SanLuis Obispo Railroad Museum membersaid that the car was demolished bySPRR in the early 1970’s. Prior to thecar being destroyed, Art was able toremove a single wood framed glass*clerestory window. It has a brass ringat the bottom used for opening and clos-ing. Art donated the window to theMuseum and Brad LaRose has sincerestored it. The window is in storageawaiting additional information, so thatan exhibit can be developed for theMuseum. This window is a very rarehistorical artifact.

In the top photo, the clerestory win-dows are covered up. This window was

Of special note is the design etchedinto the glass. The central feature is acircle, like a locomotive or cart wheel,with radiating spokes and other linesaround the edges of the glass. The win-dow glass is also of value to use as a pat-tern for restoration of other SouthPacific Coast Railroad cars.

This is the clerestory window as restoredby Brad LaRose. It measures 22 incheswide by 9½ inches high. The etchedwheel design is 2 inches in diameter.

This is a very nice artifact, very old,and historic to the South Pacific CoastRailroad. It is significant to the south-ern Bay Area where that railroad waslocated. It is also of historic value to theSan Luis Obispo Railroad Museum asa Southern Pacific Railroad artifact oflocal significance.

In this picture Broad Street is to theupper right and Orcutt Road is a fewblocks to the left. Mile post 253 wasjust in front of the stock corrals, whichat one point had seven pens.

The stock yard and this car are fea-tures of the San Luis Obispo SP railyardthat are rarely noted and even lessoften photographed.This is not the onlySouth Pacific Coast Railroad car thatSPRR placed in San Luis Obispo Countyfor use as living quarters.

There are some people in the railroadhistorical community who believe thatthis combine car was the Pacific CoastRailway #104. Much research has beenconducted, including the use of photo-graphs, data and discussions withhistorians who are authorities on boththe South Pacific Coast Railroad andthe Pacific Coast Railway. While thereis no proof of the heritage of this car,the consensus of the authorities is thatthis is South Pacific Coast RailroadCombine #3. After the car left serviceon the tracks, it was used as an officebehind the Southern Pacific Railroadroundhouse in Santa Cruz, then movedthe San Luis Obispo and used as notedin this article.

Reported by Brad LaRosewith contributions by Herman Darr,

Randy Hees, Karl Hovanitz,Curtis Johnson, Bruce MacGregor,

Andrew Merriam and Bill Pyper.Photo by Dave Hardie

*A clerestory window is a window thatis mounted above eye level for the pur-pose of letting in more light or air.

But Wait, There’s More!Go online to www.slorrm.comand click on Newsletter for fourmore pages of Coast Mail. ReadNotes Along the Pacific Coast Right-of-wayby Andrew Merriam. Stories and pictures ofpassenger service on the Pacific Coast Rwy.See more pictures of the Boxcar move andFreighthouse rehabilitation.

Notes Along the Pacific Coast Right-of-way

By Andrew Merriam Passenger Service Anyone?Take the train to the beach at Avila?

It was possible. This early view showsengine number 108 with a single pas-senger car on the Pacific Coast Railway.This photograph was taken sometimein the late 1920s or early 1930s, some-where near San Luis Obispo Creek.

This 2-8-0 engine was delivered byBaldwin Locomotive Works to thePacific Coast in January, 1905. Theengine number is on the tender andthe railroad name is painted on thecab. That is usually an indication thatthe photo was taken prior to the timewhen the wooden cabs were replaced bysteel in the mid 1920s and repaintedwith the number on the cab. Number108 is an exception to this. The cab ismade of steel, the original cap stack isgone and the tender is an unusual,evenungainly, replacement, different fromall of the others in the consolidationseries. At the time of its purchase, thissmall locomotive would have made atrim passenger engine with a cap stack,an olive green boiler jacket and bordersaround the aluminum tender numbers.

In all likelihood, the major destina-tion of this train was the pier at PortHarford, two miles beyond the com-munity of Avila. Here the tracks wentout 1800 feet to the terminal/warehousebuilding at the end of the pier. Duringthe early 1900s in San Luis ObispoCounty, a ship docked almost every dayat the Port Harford pier. There wereregular passenger connections to bothnorthern and southern California.

This service was almost completelyeliminated when the Southern PacificRailroad opened its Coast Route withthrough service to Los Angeles in Marchof 1901. Passenger service on the PacificCoast became more of a convenience tolocal residents than a vital economicsource of revenue. When founded in1873, the primary goal of the railroadwas to connect San Luis Obispo Countyto the rest of California. There was aneed to export the agricultural productsof the Central Coast and import lum-ber, building supplies and the othernecessities for the growing communityof San Luis Obispo.

Eventually the line was extendedsouth past Price Canyon (where anonline product was bituminen cakesused for street paving) out through a cutat the head of Corbett Canyon and downArroyo Grande Creek to that farmingvillage. The extension continued on toCentral City (now known as SantaMaria) and to Los Alamos in 1883, andterminated at Los Olivos in 1887.

With the exception of the oil boomtraffic from the Santa Maria area start-ing in 1902, most of the traffic on thePacific Coast Railway (PCRy) was agri-culturally related and in later yearsgravel and rock for road projects. In1899, 450,000 bags of grain wereshipped, most of it through PortHarford. In the first years passengertraffic was essential. The only otheroption to go north or south was thestagecoach. It was no wonder that mostpeople who could afford it took the fasterand gentler (usually) rail/ship connec-

tion to San Francisco or Newport Beachwith service to Los Angeles or SanDiego. While not common, stage coach-es of the era were known to have beenheld up at gun point. Cuesta Gradewas a good and remote location for high-waymen to rob passengers and escapeinto the hills.

To meet the early demands for pas-senger traffic, the PCRy had purchasedseven coaches as well as a combine andbaggage car by 1887. Most of these werebuilt by Carter Brothers of Newark,California. After a disastrous coachshed fire in 1892, these cars werereplaced by the J. Hammond Company.The rebuilds and new models wereadapted to meet changing demands.Two baggage-mail cars were now on

This picture of Pacific Coast Railway engine #105 was taken in June, 1942, alongold Highway 101 when the Post San Luis line was being scrapped.

This photo of Pacific Coast Railway engine #110 was taken by Robert Langevinin June, 1942, at the San Luis Obispo railyard.

Daily, except Sunday, steamshipconnections were advertisedfrom Los Alamos. If one board-ed a PCRy coach at 7:00 a.m.,

Judith Collins, daughter of SouthernPacific Railroad Machinist WalterPetersen, donated these pictures fromthe 1940s to the Museum.

Walter had worked for Pinkertonsin San Francisco. He was enticed by theSouthern Pacific Railroad to come toSan Luis Obispo for work. He moved toSLO in 1940 and he worked for the SPuntil WWII. He then returned andworked for SP after the war.

Walter used to joke about his jobduites with the punch line “I sweep thecorners of the Roundhouse.”

He was a member of the SouthernPacific Social Club which still exists andmeets to this day.

Top picture shows the workers whoattended an SP Safety Meeting onJanuary 2, 1940. Walter is 7th fromthe right in the bottom row. His BuddyHerb Kinsey is 5th from the right. Themeetings took place in offices adjacentto the roundhouse.

That is Walter refueling the F-unitin the center picture.

Wiping down the F-unit, Walter hashis back to the camera. Cipollos SteakHouse in the background was on the siteof the present day Cafe Roma. In the1970s it was home to the Outside Inn,also an Italian restaurant.

Contributed by Aron Kahn

SP in SLO in the 1940s

the light service being experienced. Nomajor additions were made prior to theend of service in 1941.

Most interesting is that in 1938, threeof the, Hammond coaches and one bag-gage mail were sold to the White Passand Yukon Railroad in Alaska for their

The end of significant passenger serv-ice could already be foreseen in the lastdecade of the nineteenth century whenthe Southern Pacific reached SantaMargarita in 1891. Ads were appearingin the local newspapers touting stageto standard gauge rail connections toSan Francisco.

Instead of the previous 24 hour tripby sea, it was now possible to take thetwo hour stage trip from San LuisObispo to Santa Margarita starting atseven a.m. One then boarded the trainat 9:30 and arrived in San Francisco at6:12 pm. the same day.

“Avoid the delays and discomforts ofthe Steamer” read the text. Tickets werenot cheap; $7.50 one way, which con-verts to well over $100 in today’s money.

With the through connection to LosAngeles in 1901, the era of extensivepassenger use on the PCRy came to anend. The use of the passenger cars forspecial events and recreation, howev-er, had a continuing and colorful history.

Wildflower specials were offered inthe Spring. Football specials when SanLuis Obispo High School played SantaMaria were commonplace. In the firsthalf of the twentieth century it waseasy to charter a train. The rules weresimple and if there were emergencies,the company could accommodate you.

One of the more humorous storieswas about a lady from a well knownfamily who missed the regular train toArroyo Grande. She insisted that thePCRy provide her transportation. Costwas not an issue. For this special, theSan Luis Obispo Station Master had arocking chair roped to an available flatcar. An engine and crew were orderedup and the hour-long special set out.There was one unscheduled stop as theflat car was not equipped with a rest-room facility.

It is interesting to compare timeschedules for those of us used to sixty-plus miles an hour on well paved roads.

had a station stop at Santa Maria at8:05 a.m., got into Arroyo Grande at9:10 a.m. they arrived at San LuisObispo an hour later, for a total of justover three hours. It was with pride thatthe travel time from San Luis Obispoto Port Harford was cut from over anhour to just 35 minutes.

I am sure that there are many todayty-

five minute trip from San Luis Obispoto the beach in an old narrow gauge car.

The best that we can do today is ridethe bicycle trail from the old MilesStation to Avila Beach following theold Pacific Coast Railway right-of-way,and dream about the good old days ofNumber 108 and its single coach.

This historic account was originallypublished in the February 2001 issueof SLO Trains, the newsletter of theSan Luis Obispo Model Railroad Club.It is reprinted here by permission ofTerry Taylor.

Passenger Service Anyone? Continued from page 5

Volunteers Getting the Museum on Track

Tom Cooper, Ted VanKlaveren and Howard Amborn go over the plansfor leveling the display track by the Freighthouse. Photo by Gary See

Tom Mitchell, Ted VanKlaveren, Duane Powell, Howard Amborn, GlenMatteson and Tom Cooper get ready for a days’ work moving track tothe Freighthouse where it will display the boxcars. Photo by Gary See

The intrepid crew installs a temporary snap-track accross the parkinglot in order to unload the boxcars from the truck. Photo by Gary See

Ted VanKlaveren puts finishing touches on thebase for the display track. Photo by Gary See

Tom Cooper, Chris Hurd and JohnMarchetti determine the alignment ofthe display track. Photo by Gary See

With both the boxcars in place, the moving project is done.Now comes the daunting task of repairing the 706 so thatit will be useable as an auxilliary restroom facility.

Over the past few years, Ted VanKlaveren, Glen Matteson,Gary See, and Curtis Reinhardt have sent in hundreds ofpictures covering this project from beginning to end. Whentime permits, I will assemble all of these photos into a pdfthat will be posted on the SLORRM website.

This picture of boxcar 706, taken in March, 2000 by Bill Pyper,shows it sitting on blocks at Miles Station in Avila Valley.

Boxcar 706 is seen on display at the Pacific Home Do-itCenter in December, 2005. The trucks are from PCRwy box-car 1516, which had rested for many years on the groundsof the Dalidet Adobe in San Luis Obispo. Photo by Bill Pyper

This picture, taken by Ted VanKlaveren, on January 26, 2012shows the rotted condition of boxcar 706.

The termite damage and rot is not as bad as it looksin the previous picture, and Ted was able to repairthe sills and end beams using Liquid Wood epoxyfilling material. Photo by Ted VanKlaveren

Temporary bracing has been added to stabilize the structurewhile repairs are conducted. Photo by Ted VanKlaveren

The Miles Station 1200 series boxcar, which will be used forstorage, rides to its new home by the Freighthouse aboardthe Peterson Trucking Company flatbed. Photo by Gary See

Boxcar 706 is carefully transferred from Peterson’s flatbedtruck to the snap-track. Photo by Curtis Reinhardt

Photo by Gary See