My Cal Poly Day

Today I had the honor of participating in the annual Cal Poly Day at Swanton Pacific Ranch near Davenport, CA, in coastal Santa Cruz County. My friend Ted Weber is the head architect at the site and invited our mutual friend Marty Self and myself to join him for the occasion. All three of us are graduates of Cal Poly SLO. The ranch here was bequeathed to Cal Poly by an alumni, Al Smith, who transformed Orchard Supply Hardware into what it has become before selling it to another company. He liked railroads and bought up all the various remaining parts of the Overfair Railroad that was created for the Pan-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. He then relocated it to the ranch and set up there on a new 1/3 scale railroad system which he christened the Swanton Pacific Railroad which we were able to ride on today. We also took a tour of Smith's simple yet functional home which our host Ted has designed the additions and enhancements to as well as other structures on the property either upgraded or built anew with more such projects here on the way.
*Note: this property and the surrounding area provided timber for lumber used to rebuild San Francisco and environs following the 1906 Earthquake & Fire.

Today was the first time I experienced any sort of sense of honor or privilege from being an alumni of Cal Poly and it was kinda cool.

A couple of Cal Poly coeds sawing competitively.

While we waited for our train ride there were things to watch or look at like this old jeep.....

.... and some old cars being looked at by two old men.

All aboard!

This was the turn-around point of the ride with the engine moving up to pull the train back to the station the other direction.

Marty gellin' like a felon.

Al Smith's residence (with Ted Weber-designed upgrades and additions).

I have a thing for curio cabinets and was immediately drawn to Smith's cabinets.

Ohlone Indian artifacts from the ranch and vicinity. 

More Ohlone Indian artifacts from the ranch and vicinity. 

I still remember the Lockheed Fire monitoring it from afar at the time but didn't realize it burned 1,100 acres of the ranch.

The burn area of the Lockheed Fire is still visible around the ranch as seen here from the area of the rail station. 

This beautfiul covered patio area is adjacent to the Smith House and overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

Our friend Ted Weber designed the structure. 

He also designed this beautiful barbecue structure. 

Marty pointed out this is a "Weber" grill in the truest sense. 

I felt like the odd man out not wearing a Hawaiian shirt today while hanging out with my church home group home boys which was all the more ironic given I have been an avid Hawaiian shirt aficionado for much of my adult life. 

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Nights Of Wine, Quakes & Power Flashes

Just now and while up again into the middle of the night I found this remarkably interesting and badassedly cool collection of security camera footage from the Napa Valley Wine Train showing the effects of the South Napa Earthquake earlier this week upon not only that rail facility but also the general area within view of the cameras. The coolest feature of this footage (to me) are all the power flashes mixed in with power outages captured in this remarkable series of video recordings.

Santa Margarita Ranch Wedding Steam Train

Yesterday afternoon into last evening I worked parking and security at Santa Margarita Ranch for a wedding. For this event the steam train and two of the original six Disneyland train cars ( two more are stored here in reserve) were ordered by the bridal party. Below are a few glimpses of what I saw of the wedding train this time. I say this time because there are various packages at different wedding price points ranging from $6,000-$95,000 at this venue and the train in various formulations and various numbers of train runs around the circuit are available as are more than one train configurations as there is a non-stem "tug" engine which used to be at a munitions factory in the Mid-West years ago being a less expensive alternative to the steam engine offering.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Santa Margarita Ranch Wedding Train

Today I worked a wedding at Santa Margarita Ranch. The wedding party ordered up the ranch's train and crew for the festivities. Although this was not my first wedding there it was my first wedding there wherein the train was part of the package deal. Many people do not realize that the original Disneyland train had six cars and four of those original cars are to be found at Santa Margarita Ranch and two of them were used in today's train ride. The engine pulling this train came from a munitions plant somewhere in the Mid-West many years ago. 

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

The Train In Spain Flew Like A Plane

This disturbing closed-circuit television camera footage of yesterday's Spanish high-speed train derailment has emerged shown below. The crash which occurred in Santiago de Compostelo resulted in the deaths of 80 people and injuries of various degrees of severity to 94 others out of a total of 247 originally aboard the train run. The driver's own words on radio back to headquarters immediately following the crash as he awaited rescue from the wreckage seem to indicate he recognized he was to blame.

Apocalypse Lac Mégantic

The town of Lac-Mégantic, in Quebec, Canada, was the site of an apocalyptic sight the other night as a result of a catastrophic train mishap involving dozens of burning and often exploding tanker rail cars filled with crude oil. Perhaps the oddest thing I noted in this amazing footage is the ironic sight of the very ass-end of the train continuing to blink its rear warning light despite being dead stopped and largely on fire in the middle of a modern town with tremendous fireballs and whirling dervishes of swirling smoke looming up behind that sight.

Picture of the Day - Concrete Railroad Ties

Today following Thanksgiving Dinner with my mother and grandmother at her senior living complex in Fremont, CA, the three of us went for a short drive up Niles Canyon to the old town of Sunol, CA. There we walked briefly to stretch our legs and while doing that I noticed that the railroad ties used by the Niles Canyon Railway line going through town are constructed of concrete, something I have somehow managed not to see anywhere else heretofore. What a great idea... surely more expensive to construct but cheaper over the long haul as they won't rot or burn. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Ryan's Express

The following is a photo journal created by Ryan Baker of Flagstaff, Arizona.
Ryan is an employee of Burlington-Northern/Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF).
Recently, his job took him across Northern Arizona right after an unusually intense snow storm.
Ryan hitched a ride on a westbound train to Needles, California, where he then picked up an eastbound train to drive to Belen, New Mexico.

Although I have never communicated with Ryan he sent this photo journal in email form to a mutual friend of ours who lives in Prescott, AZ, who then in turn forwarded it to me for my enjoyment and with the author's permission I now share it with you.

The particular stretch of railroad featured in this photo journal parallels Old Route 66 across Northern Arizona from the Kingman area to the Flagstaff area which is my favorite stretch of the Mother Road and one which I have driven perhaps a hundred times in my life and hope to drive a few hundred more times.

It is a spiritual journey of sorts for me, not just a physical one so these photos mean a lot to me as I've never driven through that area when it was as snowy as shown below.

Ryan does an excellent job in his photo captions (inside quotation marks) and Ryan took each of these 28 photos so with that, enjoy!

"Just west of Canyon Diablo about to make the turn and start up the 'hard pull'".

"Mile Post 335" (San Francisco Peaks in background).

"Approaching East Flagstaff"

"San Francisco Peaks from Bellemont"

"Audley (just west of Seligman)"

"About to dive down into Pica before the assult on Yampai hill starts.
(you can see the water tank for the steam locos back in the day.)"

"Climbing Yampai at a whoppin 27mph.....that's a good speed for that grade."

"Inside one of the few remaining section houses on the entire transcon.
This is at Nelson."

"Sitting next to the section house at Nelson waiting for the Kingman local to get out of the way."

"Just west of Peach Springs. Lots of snow here. Was told it was very unique to have this much on the ground here."

"Crozier Canyon"

"Valentine, AZ.

"The next day..."

"Cauaght a 2.1 horsepower/ton stack train out of Needles. Seen here we are gettting run around by a V train that only boasted 2.9 HPT, so they weren't doing too much better than we were on the stiff climb up to Kingman.
It took at least 10 minutes for them to get by us as we were both moving at full power but down in the 20-30 mph range on the grade."

"Climbing out of Kingman"

"Crozier Canyon eastbound"

"On the approach to Cherokee crossovers"

"On the approach to Peach Springs"

"The section house we werwe stopped at the day befroe as seen from the south main, which is on a different alignment than the north main."

"The two alignments (near Nelson) slowly come back together.
South main is on a 1.4% grade, North main is on a 1.8%."

"They come back together at the entrance to Nelson tunnel."

"It's a short tunnel, but cool nonetheless."

"A westbound near Audley. Seligman is on the other side of the mountain towards the right."

All photos and captions courtesy of Ryan Baker, Flagstaff, Arizona.