Railroaders' Nostalgia > Carl Ragosa & Jay Bell

When Carl Ragosa passed away, I was one of the people to help his wife sort through some of his belongings. Among his things were quite a few air horns, or, rather, the parts of quite a few air horns that Carl had disassembled but never reassembled. I gathered up all of the parts and began reassembling them to see just what was there, if in fact there were complete horns or just a buch of parts. In the midst of this project, I got a call for Jay Bell. Jay explained that he he thought Carl might have had an early M-5 that was his and he wanted me to keep an eye out for it. Sure enough, the M-5 was there, in pieces. I put it back together and called Jay to tell him that I would be sending it to him. Jay was happy to hear that the horn was not lost and that he'd be getting it back. He explained that, while he was working Oakland to SLO, he'd put it on the Santa Margarita helpers so that, each trip down, he'd get to hear it when he passed. He said it was on the helpers for months and then, one trip, it wasn't. Jay called Carl to vent his frustration that the horn was gone and Carl said "I have it". Jay asked, "You have it? Why do you have it?" Carl replied "Well, I took it down so nobody would steal it." To which Jay said "Carl, you just did!!!"

  Jay went on to explain that he'd gotten the horn years earlier when he'd gone down to the Taylor air room and asked the guy there "How could a guy get one of those five chime air horns?" "Bottle of Cutty Sark" was the reply. Jay said, "I'll be right back!"

One of the things that Carl's wife gave me was some recordings that Carl had made while he and Jay were palling around, chasing trains on the Sierra Rwy. and recording Alco PA's at Montecito. One of these days, I'll have to convert them to digital format and upload some of it here.

 

I fired for Jay out of Oakland and got to meet Carl at Winterail many years ago.  Watching the two of them get so excited over their horns and whistles was something I'll never forget and recall them even going "Midwest" on me when Carl pulled out a recording of a DM&IR Yellowstone while both he and Jay started mimicking its whistle!

Memories of these type rails are some of the best in my RR career, indeed... Your stories of Jay and Carl made my "early" AM--thanks for sharing!

By chance I ran into Carl on the first 3985 SLC-Provo excursion, the one where numerous small fires blazed cheerfully in the wake of the train.  I was working as a car host and Carl was recording, with his equipment set up on the tender, so we really didn't get much of a chance to visit.  However, he promised to send me the results of his efforts, which he did, and it's a cassette tape with great memories that I still have in my collection. 

Thanks for sharing another Carl and Jay story. I knew Carl better than Jay.  Carl and I went to the first Railfair together in Sacramento while I was furloughed as a fireman.  He got me a ride in the cab of UP 3985 when he took the shove to pick up another loco being unloaded down the river bank a way.  We both were wearing volunteer museum badges thanks to our late friend, Bill Oden so I guess that's how I got in the cab.  Steve Lee looked at me like who the heck are you, then spotted the badge and said "oh you're with the museum:  It worked for me.

CRS

 I will try to "Cliff Notes", a Carl and Jay story...bear with me.

In June, 1995 a family vacation to Chicago had been planned. I voted for a Boeing 737; I however lost the family vote 3 to 1 for a trip instead on Amtrak. Going east out of Sacramento on #6 to Chicago for a two week visit and then return. I didn' want to retrace steps on #5, so #3 was used to Los Angeles with a day layover and then up the coast on #14 to San Jose. At LAUPT we were informed that we would be delayed about an hour due to 100 passengers coming off #1 and making connection with #14. BLE 692 was a teenager at the time and wanted to get pictures from the platforms of the various equipment while waiting to depart. The engineer on our train showed up at this point to to walk through his power and get it ready for departure. This is when I saw that our hoghead was none other than Jay Bell.

At this point in time Amtrak flipped the engineer at Santa Barbara, who didn't have a fireman, and would return after a 4 or so hour break at Santa Barbara with #11 to Los Angeles.Jay said to come up at Glendale, the first stop out of LA. The conductor opened the door on the opposite side from the station to go up to the head end to ride with Jay to Santa Barbara. As BLE692 and myself were in shorts, tee shirts and tennis shoes I had questioned this move...Jay said no problem.  Off we go with BLE692 in the firemans chair and me  in the middle seat or standing behind Jay.

Jay shows me the orders with a form c saying to contact the flagman at mp 4** to get throuh a construction sight under a freeway. He hands the handset to me to contact said flagman to make sure everyone was in the clear. I do this and we are told everyone is clear...on we go. Jay tells me to open the engineers side door to hiball the flagman. So I am in the door with my shorts, t-shirt, and tennis shoes waving to the flagman who turns out to be Carl Rogoza! He calls us back on his pack set saying "what the heck". Jay chimes in saying he will explain later. A memorable day; with two now departed rails...May both my good friends RIP.

There were never two better men to be friends with than Jay Bell (Tinker Bell) and Carl Rogoza (Rags).

I was one of the many, many friends and compatriots that attended their respective funerals.

​Photo is of Carl Rogoza climbing down from the cab roof of ex-Rogue River Valley Railroad Co. No. 1 after a day and a half of operation on the Santa Fe's Cucamonga-Foothill Spur in Alta Loma, CA., May 5, 1968.

​My partner, Bill Oden,  is looking on.  What was Carl doing? Why taking his big hooter whistle down of course.  Everytime he blew the whistle we lost 5 lbs. of steam.

God bless both of them.

Stan Garner



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/16 20:03 by px320.

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Somebody needs to digitize the recordings Carl made of the SP Commutes when he's yelling "shut up!" to everyone who's talking while he's recording the M5s

Posted from iPhone

IC_2024 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
 Carl
> pulled out a recording of a DM&IR Yellowstone
> while both he and Jay started mimicking its
> whistle!

  I never heard Jay's impression but Carl was the only person I ever heard that could imitate a "steamboat" 3-chime and actual produce three notes at once! No idea how he did it.

Rags was a one and only.  And a  better man never walked the planet.  Carl and I worked a lot of jobs together and he made everyday a hoot, literary in some cases. He would frequently bring one of his steam whistles to work.  He had a set up that allowed him to hook them up the Main Reservoir M/U hose of an engine.  If we had a caboose on a local we would couple it next to the engine and hang the whistle off the end hand rails.  We would blow for crossings with the steam whistle.  Never a dull day on the job with CT. I sure miss him. 

Here is Carl on a fan trip with his recording gear.  This could be the 3985 trip discussed in this thread,   Later in the trip he was able to scam a cab ride on a photo run-by going over the Point of the Mountain grade.   

Pat

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   I remember on one of the Monrovia Model RR Club Sierra RR trips, he talked the Sierra folks into letting him install one of his whistles on the engine; I forget which one.  On the first crossing outside Jamestown, that whistle stuck open.  Someone had to climb up and shut the steam supply valve off so repairs coulld be made.  Would not have wanted to have been the guy that had to do that.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

It was Carl himself who had to climb up and shut off the steam to the whistle. The whistle was deafening from the ground imagine with your ears right next to it.   I will have to poll the old Monrovia gang as someone has to have a shot of this.

Cabhop Wrote:
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> It was Carl himself who had to climb up and shut
> off the steam to the whistle. The whistle was
> deafening from the ground imagine with your ears
> right next to it.   I will have to poll the old
> Monrovia gang as someone has to have a shot of
> this.

  I remember someone telling me (and it may have been Carl) that his ears were ringing and he couldn't hear anything the rest of the day.

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IC_2024 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>  Carl
> > pulled out a recording of a DM&IR Yellowstone
> > while both he and Jay started mimicking its
> > whistle!
>
>   I never heard Jay's impression but Carl was the
> only person I ever heard that could imitate a
> "steamboat" 3-chime and actual produce three notes
> at once! No idea how he did it.

Yup, Jay did a great steamboat whistle.  That's why I started calling him the Jaylight, a nickname he readily adopted.  Here he is, below Dunsmuir, returning from the filming of 'Tough Guys' on April 15, 1986.

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Carl used to run for a lot of guys. He was real good on a local! Carl used to like to handle things at Somis. There was a
packing house there that specializes in very large oranges called Piru Giants. They were delicious. Carl enjoyed running
things at Somis and at times became the hoghead between Moorpark and Oxnard.

Goddamn Carl was one of the funniest guys I've ever known.
One night he installed my M5 on the rear Geep of 2 at South Gate, he had a rope running to the lead Geep so the Hogger wouldn't complain too much and he blew the Hell out of everything all the way to COI where I retrieved my horn.
Made a great recording at Rose Hills.
That was an everyday thing for Carl.
He had his fleet of 5300 class SD39's to improve the sound quality in Los Angeles.
I miss that guy!
TAH