Railroaders' Nostalgia > Jack Niehaus, SP/UP San Joaquin Engineer-Artist

You guys remember San Joaquine Engineer Jack Niehaus? When ever there was some incident on the RR, a few days later a cartoon from Jack would show up on the bulletin board. I worked with Jack out of Bakersfield for a number of years. I held one the three LA Division turns on the Bakersfield/West Colton Pool ( The Palmdale Cutoff). I would work the job for six or so months, then bid back to West Colton for a break. In the early 1990's, I made a bid back to Bakersfield. On my first call, the crew dispatcher informed me that Jack Niehaus would be my pilot. Pilot? Yes, there's a new Roadforeman in Bakersfield from Tucson, he doesn't know you and wants you to have a pilot until he can ride with you. GREAT!" Anyway, Jack and I had a great time for three and a half trips until Don Lowell broke up the party..."party" as Don put it. I never did get that check ride from the new RFE. When Jack was a teen, he and his dad had put a Datsun B-210 engine and trans into an Austin Sprite. I guess the thing ran like a spotted ape. Jack was always getting pulled over by the cops. They would let him off with a warning. See...Jack's dad was a California Highway Patrolman. Finally, his dad took the Sprite away. Well, on our "pilot" trips together, all we did was talk Sprites. I had also owned a Bugeye Sprite when I was young. I was telling Jack, I would love to have a Bugeye right-hand drive. I would take the long way home through all the Tehachapi back roads. I also had my guitar on these "pilot" trips. I showed up for work a few weeks later and found these two cartoons Jack had drawn. Anyone know if he's still working? BTW, that's a guitar in the left seat of the Sprite.
PM



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/15 18:23 by HardYellow.

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Great stuff!

Great story and illustrations.
JB

I don't remember when I took this (probably spring of 1989) but that is Jack sitting in the hot seat stopped by a red signal at the Bealville crossovers (Tehachapi Mts) account train ahead. Never saw a hoghead smile as much as he did...


Allen

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At my age the regrets I have are the things I could have done, but didn't.
Like working my Bug Eye into an occasional train picture. 
Bought it for $250 with only 2-1/2 forward gears working and rebuilt the transmission in the U.S. Army "Hobby Shop"  ( a place for G.I.s to work on their own cars on my duty station base).
Parked it beside many railroad lines but only took pictures of trains.
By any logical analysys an awful car but then why do I still have a model of one?  One of three owned by me and my brothers.  Maybe mental illness IS hereditary.
A fun post, thanks.

I just had to buy another one....in my old age. My daughter says it looks like a PeeWee Herman car. What'a young people know about great classic cars? The towing photo was taken about 40 miles west of Wickenburg, AZ Hwy-93, nice area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/15 07:48 by HardYellow.

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 Speaking of Jack's art work, he and I were on a Mojave work train for quite some time in the mid 1990's. One day we were in the clear at the old Rosamond siding between Ansel and Oban for meets and beans. Everyone sorta crashed as we were going to be  right there for quite a while, with all of the main line trains due that day. Two SP officials (Tom Hyatt and Bob Davis) pulled up in their SP pick up and observed the crew doing what they did best while waiting for trains: hard resting (or sleeping, if you prefer). Jack was up in the engine and saw them pull up and started drawing one of his great cartoon drawings. I don't know what happened to my copy (the original) but it showed him with his  head slumped on his chest, me with my head hanging out of the cupola window sound asleep, and my brakeman, Bill, layed out on a load of ties, sound asleep with the captopn of "ZZZZZZZZZ's" coming out of all of our mouths. The caption from the truck with Tommy and Bob went like this: Bob (Tommy's boss) say's "Should we wake them up?"  "No, No. That'll make 'em real grouchy".

This drawing went around the SP system as it probably applied to a lot of crews. I just wish I had my copy to post. If any of you old SP guys have a copy, would you please post it.

V

SLOCONDR
 

Jack is happily retired and living in Lake of the Pines near Grass Valley, California. We have what is is generally callled "The Old Farts" breakfast once a month in Roseville, Calif., which Jack generally inhabits if a race in the western United States isn't hjappening. Still playing with cars of which he has "about four or so" that he will show at the local car shows. As an engineer working out of Roseville to Bakersfield it was always fun when Jack would put up one of his cartoons on the window in the yard office, usually about something funny that had happened on the SP in the Bakersfield area.

Jack was also our local chairman for the engineers and the best one in my opinion. I worked the Mojave oil cans with Jack when he was the regular head end engineer and I was the regular helper engineer. Either SP Loopy  Larry was the conductor or it was Brian Black who is also on here. He was also a practical joker. We had a great time and Jack and I would take turns staying home if there were no loads to bring back from MJ. We also got a lot of off assignments and generally had a blast working together. All the stay at homes were OK'd by the officials. That was what made SP such a great place to work. When I worked the LA - BKF pool Jack was living in BKF and would come to the hotel in one of those bug eyes and we would go to the dirt track and watch the midgets run ( Race cars) and have liquid refreshments.  Now I know why he drove the way he did , I did not know his dad was a chippie.  His cartoons were fantastic and I hope someone can post some of them . Thanks for the memories of why SP was fun.
Tom 

Does any know if Jack was related to Art Niehaus, owner of the Avocation Shop on Robertson Blvd. in West Los Angeles?
The shop was my first Hobby Shop (LHS) and Art was also a member of the Centinela Valley Model Railroad Club in Hawthorne, CA. back in the 1950 and 1960s.

--Jim Baker

Great stuff!
TAH

I was going through my railroad things, John Rapoza poems, etc. I could only find one Jack Niehaus cartoon, other than the two I already posted. Now I know, If the late John Edwards was still with us, he would have a few. This one portrays all the testing going on by SP Officers. It got so bad at one point, they stopped the LABRF Pigs out of the LA Shops up in the Sun Valley, Burbank area. While they were stopped being tested, the UPS cars were broken into. I guess when San Francisco got wind of this, it really hit the fan. This is Jack's depiction of the mess.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/15 08:03 by HardYellow.

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Is that the guy who makes the weird whistle sounds when he sings train songs?

There's a retired hogger that has an annual dinner up in Alta in Octobers. (I live near by and get an invite each year- I'm the only guy in the room who isn't former T&E! I'm in Amtrak OBS, and also the only guy in the room with a job)
Anyway, I guessing the wandering singer is your man?
SR