Nostalgia & History > Re: Historic 1888 SP business car #109 "Shasta" on the move

In the original thread with the above title posted on April 26 on the Western board (at http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4019239,4019753 ), wattslocal wrote:

>>As I remember, the "Shasta" was rescued from the SP up by Bakersfield, in the late 60s or early 70s where it was last used in MW service. I believe the old California Southern Railroad Museum was responsible for its saving. The SP "Sacramento" also was in that deal. Both were trucked to Perris in the early days of the museum.

I responded:

>As the link [ http://www.bbcrc.org/shasta.shtml ] ... indicates, the "Shasta" was purchased by Henry Raub from the SP in 1957.  He was a railfan and kept the car on his property a short distance east of Bakersfield.  When he got a job as the director of a museum in Bishop, he donated some of his collection to the Orange Empire Railway Museum, including the "Shasta."  I presume this happened in 1971 because that's when he donated the Oil Junction depot, which he also owned, to Orange Empire.

Since that posting, I've come across a big discrepancy.   An article about Henry Raub in the Bakersfield Californian in May of 1969 stated that he owned the former SP business cars "San Carlos" and "Sacramento" (in the article, he referred to the car "San Carlos" in a direct quote).

So, was "Shasta" ever named "San Carlos"?

Or, assuming it's true that Henry Raub bought "Shasta" as the bbcrc link states, did he subsequently get rid of it and then obtain "San Carlos?" (this scenario does seem sort of unlikely)

The newspaper article stated that "San Carlos" was built "around 1888," which matches the year "Shasta" was supposedly built.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/16 13:13 by johnsweetser.

It appears to be the real SP109 Shasta. San Carlos seems to be lost to history.