Thursday, April 14, 2005

Wrought Iron rail

From: "chris graves" caliron@cwnet.com

In 1889 the Riverside Brick Co., operating in what is now called the Pocket Area of Sacramento County, bought a wood burner 0-4-0 manufactured by the H K Porter Co. The sale was conducted by the Huntington Hopkins Co. This 0-4-0 ran on a 3/4 track from the clay pit to the mill, that rail was 45 lb wrought iron, branded C B D Co. with no date. Insofar as the locomotive was purchased thru the Huntington Hopkins Co., it may be reasonable to assume that the rail C B D Co. was also purchased there.

The Riverside Brick Co. eventually became the Sacramento Brick Co.

Does anyone ... have any idea as the to full company name of the C B D Co.? ...

Thanks, G J Chris Graves, NewCastle, Cal.

Theft of Walter Oehrle Old Faithful Bear Pit paintings

Many of you are familiar with the Union Pacific Bears images of Yellowstone National Park as well as the cartoonlike bears images that today grace the Old Faithful Inn dining room and Bear Pit Bar in the form of glass panels. These bear images are well known to Yellowstone afficionadoes.

Both the Union Pacific Bears and the Bear Pit images were originally painted in the 1920s and 1930s by artist Walter Oehrle (pronounced EARLY) and were published in a small pamphlet that was given away by the Yellowstone Park Company. They were rendered into woodcuts, which graced the inside of the Bear Pit Lounge at Old Faithful Inn for many years. A couple of these woodcuts are still on the walls of the Old Faithful Inn Snack Shop. During a recent remodeling, the images were redone in cut glass, and today they appear on the walls of the Old Faithful dining room and Bear Pit Lounge.

Recently Walter Oehrle's original eleven Bear Pit paintings were STOLEN from the residence of Dan Fey of Seattle, a descendant of Oehrle's. There are eleven paintings, each rendered in brown and white (two-tone) on cardboard, each about 20 inches by 24 inches in size.

As you might imagine, the owner is quite upset about this theft and has the Seattle police fully involved. Should anyone encounter these images or information on their whereabouts, please email Dan Fey at dfey@seakingwdc.org or call him at (206) 329-6525 (home) or (206) 448-0474 (work).

These images may eventually be offered on Ebay to collectors, to a rare book or art dealer, or to a library or archives. PLEASE BE ON THE ALERT FOR ANY OF THESE IMAGES. Yellowstone collectors are likely to be in the group of people to whom they may be offered. A copy of this message will be placed in the Yellowstone National Park History Archives so that those who come after us can know of the theft in case the perpetrator waits for many years to "unload" the materials.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ANY FRIENDS YOU MAY HAVE WHO ARE RARE BOOK OR ART DEALERS, ARCHIVISTS, LIBRARIANS, OR YELLOWSTONE COLLECTORS, any of whom could be offered a chance to purchase these stolen materials.

Lee H. Whittlesey
Park Historian, National Park Service
Yellowstone Center for Resources
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

[Forwarded by Bob Spude and Kyle Wyatt]

SP Left-hand Running

"As an occasional traveler on the Capitols to Sacramento I also noticed the left-hand operation. It apparently had to do with which track the train would arrive on at the Sacramento station. Also of interest, the last single track on the old SP line between Emeryville and Sacramento was finally replaced just last year. I write "replaced" because the double-track trestle across the Yolo Causeway just west of Sacramento had been single tracked by the SP, as was portions of the line over Donner Summit. SP had been provided with funds to upgrade this line between Emeryville and Sacramento by the State of California but did a very slow job. I was surprised at how long the joined rail lasted long after the funding began. As for the Auburn Amtrak stop, it is on a single track portion of the double track over Donner summit, which also features left-hand running as far east as Weso, NV [east of Winnemuca] where the SP and WP ended their shared trackage in a huge crossover. So the Auburn station is approached eastbound and westbound on the same track by Amtrak, and in only one direction by freight trains.

Incidentally, the Oakland, Emeryille and Martinez stations on this Capitol line are modern works of art. The Sacramento station is the former SP station and while not a work of art is a classical brick station still worth saving. And it is fortunately within walking distance of the California State Railroad Museum; so a visitor to San Francisco can enjoy not only a great train ride to Sacramento but also a visit to one of the premier railroad museums in the US. ...

Vern Waight"

[From R&LHS Newsgroup]

Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad

From: "Sharon Bartholomew" healey4@earthlink.net

I'm trying to find out if the [B&MLRR] train is going to operate this year. Do you happen to know? I saw some kind of a notice on the web indicating that it might not operate in 2005.

Thank you.

Sharon
Anaheim, CA