Steam & Excursion > 20 Years Ago Today We Lost One Of The Most Famous Railfans!

Certain dates stand out for not only the railroads that we lost, but also the friends we lost.

It was on this day in May 1995 we unfortunately saw the passing of Al Rose, one of the West's most famous and respected railfans of all time.  Al lived in Modesto and covered the Western shortlines and logging lines thoroughly in hist time.  While on occasion he would venture out to record lines farther away such as the Virginia & Truckee his main interest were the Central California lines.

The first photo shows Al in February 1949 in the snow above Tuolumne as he and Guy Dunscomb followed Sierra RR #18 and her train that snowy day.  The second photo shows Sgt. Al Rose hanging on the right side railing of Yosemite Valley observation car #330 during a 1944 excursion that he helped put together.  Finally, the 3rd photo shows Al on the left during a speeder trip in May 1948 on the soon-to-be-abandoned Hetch-Hetchy Railroad.

Many of Al's photos have been published in books covering these Western lines.  In 1949 Al paid $50.00 to save Hetch-Hetchy Railbus #19 from the scraper.  Today you can see this Railbus restored in the Sierra Ry roundhouse in Jamestown, CA.

Thanks to dedicated railfans like Al Rose, we have a much better record of the 1930s through 1960's of these Western lines.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/15 04:14 by LoggerHogger.

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Wow, a double/twin/tandem (however it was referred to) velocipede?

Stan Snook sure show up in lots of photos.

Martin - You must be a lot older than you look, if you were around in '44 and '48 to shoot those middle and bottom photos!

Jeff Johnston

OOPS.  Thanks for catching that Jeff.

Martin