To Shiny Rails

Look what I re-discovered in my stash of railroad stuff – a souvenir from a November 8, 1953 inspection tour of the Holyoke and Westfield Railroad (Massachusetts). The cigar manufacturer, 7-20-4 Cigars, still exists and has quite a story. They opened in 1874 and closed in 1963 due to the embargo on Cuban tobacco, which they used exclusively. Kurt Kendall revived the name in 2006, which is why their bands now have Kendall on them instead of RG Sullivan’s.

These could be pre-embargo, Cuban tobacco cigars! I must say, though, they look to be in better shape than I’d imagine, and that band is awfully shiny for having been made in 1953. I can dream. I can also smoke it and decide for myself…

Update 4/3/19.

Karl sent me a photo today of our two ex-PBJRR switches in place at Bitter Creek. Pretty cool, huh!

The Huskie is all spiffed up and out and about. Mike Massee caught this photo of Paul running the Huskie at Bitter Creek Western’s Presidents Day Meet this past weekend. Click here for more on the Huskie story.

This ATSF caboose, #999239, was built in 1930. It now sits in the lobby of the recently opened Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center near the Denver, CO airport. More photos and story are here. I understand first the caboose was put in place and then the lobby was built around it.

You may recall that the 7.5″ gauge division of the PB&J Railroad was abandoned in May of 2018 (story/pics). All of the physical assets were donated to the Bitter Creek Western Railroad. Here’s the rest of the story for the Huskie… Paul Deis bought it from the BCWRR and has just finished getting it all back up to snuff and added to the livery of the D&P Mountain Railroad. The D&P is a g-scale layout at his place. The g-scale D&P has been on the model layout tour of the Central Coast Railroad Festival, for example, here. The Huskie, however, is going to be running at Bitter Creek and perhaps other 7.5″ gauge railroads.

Part of the story of Trevor and the initial build of the Huskie in 2007 for the PB&J is here and here. It first ran on the PB&J on the occasion of Fina’s first birthday party.

Below are a couple photos of the Huskie today as part of the D&P. Lookin’ good!

To Shiny Rails!

The San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum recently posted a historical document that attempts to track all the folks who have worked for railroads in the area since railroads were a thing. You can imagine the undertaking to put this data together! And I’m quite proud to say that I’m included in this “People Tracker” having worked for the Santa Maria Valley Railroad as Conductor and Trainmaster. I also served as Director, Business Administrator, and Webmaster. This was mainly 2009-2017, but I was involved with SMVRR and its related Friends organization starting in 2006 when Coast Belle Rail Corp bought the railroad from the Hancock descendants; see the Change of Ownership event. [Update: I continued web mastering for both the railroad and Friends through 2021.]