This is kinda long, but I would like to share our exciting (at least to us) day at the Western Railway Museum.
Barbara & I are members and occasional volunteers at the (San Francisco) Bay Area Electric Railway Association’s Western Railway Museum in Fairfield, CA. We usually work as parlor car attendants for the Scenic Limited trains that run in April and also work an occasional charter. We dress as early 20th century car service personnel and serve lemonade and cookies to guests who pay a small premium for ‘first class’ service.
The charter runs are typically for affinity groups or birthday celebrations and have wine with slightly more substantial food service including sandwiches and wraps along with cake, etc. The train normally consists of Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Coach Car #1020 and 1914 Salt Lake and Utah Railroad parlor observation car #751. Central California Traction Box Motor #7 usually pulls the train. Total seating capacity on the train is ~99, but we normally only serve up to 39 folks in the first class parlor observation car.
The WRM owns about 22 miles of the original Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern (later known as the Sacramento Northern) ROW. This was the original electrified interurban mainline that ran from Oakland, CA to Chico, CA via Sacramento. The Scenic Limited trips are over ~5 miles of line that have been restored to the original standards using drawings and schematics preserved in WRM’s archives.
Since it’s about 130 miles each way from our house to the museum, we don’t get there too often. When we do work, we usually get a low cost motel room and work for a couple of consecutive days. Costly (especially when gas is pushing $4.00 / gallon), but it’s a fun outing and we really enjoy working with the public and our fellow association members while supporting the museum. And we find the electric trains to be fascinating! Our work on yesterday’s Scenic Limited train was some of the most rewarding yet.
Saturday, May 3, 2008 was the official Dedication and Grand Opening Celebration of WRM’s new 2.5 million dollar Loring C. Jensen Memorial Car House (aka “Car House 3”). Planning and fund raising has taken ~10 years. Construction took 4 years and was completed in late February of this year. Move-in of the historic collection has now been completed.
From the dedication program guide: “The Jensen Memorial Car House is a 37,000 square foot steel building set on a concrete perimeter foundation, with 10mm thick vapor barrier buried under the track. The building has no windows or light-admitting panels. It has interior florescent lighting to reduce UV to the lowest possible level. The steel siding has a one-hour fire rating and is insulated with 4” of rock wool. The roof is insulated with heavy fiberglass. This serves the dual purpose of keeping interior temperature fluctuations to a minimum and protecting the building against fire. Six railroad display tracks provide more than 1/3 mile of indoor protection. The project included a new 200,000+ gallon fire protection system with diesel backup pump that can also be expanded to provide protection to the rest of the property. This fire protection system can also be accessed by local fire crews to provide water for off-site fire fighting operations."
As an aside, the completion of Car House 3 has put the entire OA&E / SN collection under cover. Great news for electric railroad fans, preservationists and historians!
The SL&U RR 751 parlor car has two sections and an observation platform. All furnishings are either original or from that era. Considering its 94 year age, it is in very good condition both inside and out. Yesterday’s operation put ‘our’ car in a starring role in support of the dedication ceremony.
Barbara & I went to the museum on Friday afternoon, spending several hours on maintenance, cleaning and preparation of the car. We stayed Friday night in the motel, then arrived at the museum about 1 1/2 hours before our scheduled departure.
First there was a private tour of the new car house for major donors ($15K and above) along with supporting politicians from both local and state governments. This was followed by a 9:30am departure of our Scenic Limited train. Our train service staff consisted of Isaac (at age 17, he is the WRM manager of parlor car services, and thus our ‘boss’), Isaac’s mom as fruit plate hostess, my wife Barbara serving and myself doing the wait station duties.
We served a continental breakfast that included mimosas, fruit plates, homemade scones and muffins, along with other beverages and special treats. The very fresh home baking was done by young Isaac and a neighbor who isn’t interested in trains, but ‘loves to bake’. Our normal Scenic Limited service is done using paper plates, napkins and disposable cups. This time we used Pullman etched insignia wine glasses (for the mimosas), glass plates and glass etched insignia cups along with real (antique) railroad silverware. The food service was definitely more upscale and extensive than we have ever done on the car, but everything went as perfect as we could hope. We got to the ‘end of wire’ at ~10:00am, letting the guests stretch their legs for ~5 minutes while we reset the car service for the return trip.
The truly unique part came when the train arrived back at Rio Vista Junction at ~10:30am. The train was then backed down to the front of the Jensen Car House with the observation platform facing the building where a moderate sized crowd waited for the Grand Opening Ceremony to begin. The invited VIP guests exited the car, but several speakers remained on the back platform of the car which served as the stage for the dedication ceremony.
A local Boy Scout Troop presented the colors, with a young Scout commanding the color guard from the train platform. A San Francisco quartet sang the Star Spangled Banner. This was followed by several speakers who congratulated and praised the BAERA and WRM, the contributors, the WRM members and the volunteers for the hard work that has gone into this development. A State Assembly representative presented a citation from the state legislature. Several speakers mentioned the energy efficiency of electric railroads along with the economic impact of the museum on the community and the various historic aspects. The mayor of the City of Fairfield related a personal story from his childhood days. His mother took him to see President Harry S. Truman speak from a train car observation platform when he was campaigning for office 60 years ago. He still has vivid memories of that event.
The ceremony concluded with a moment of silence to remember all the dedicated individuals who made this achievement possible, but are no longer here to see the results of their efforts. They are certainly still with us in spirit. Last was a champaign toast to the past and future of the museum, then the huge doors of the Loring C. Jensen Memorial Car House were swung open to the public for the first time.
The day’s events continued with a luncheon for the invited dignitaries and major donors hosted by the Chairman of the BAERA Board, then an ice cream social was held for all in front of the new car house. Professional caterers and an ice cream company did the duties for these events.
In appreciation of our work, the parlor staff were each presented with one of the gift bags that the invited VIP guests were given. We really appreciated this ‘extra recognition’ and will treasure the contents. We cleaned the car, washed the dishes in the bunkhouse kitchen, had an ice cream at the social, then drove home and collapsed! Very tired, but we really enjoyed the experience and were glad to have been a part of this important milestone for our association. Playing with the 1:1 RR stuff is great!
Happy RRing,
Jerry