Railroaders' Nostalgia > A Special Gift

  As I've mentioned a few times, I grew up in Canyon Country, California, in a house overlooking the S.P.'s Saugus line and I've always been very interested in local history. As a kid, in the 70's and early 80's, I would ride my bike over to Saugus and watch the Saugus local do their work. When I was in my later teens, a couple guys like Vince Cipola would give me rides to Bakersfield and back. Or, on many occasions, I would catch the helpers, on the oil cans, at Lang or Humphreys and ride them down to Sylmar and back. I've walked every inch of the Saugus line from Sylmar to Harold (albeit a few miles at a time), more than once. When I was old enough to get a job, I wanted to work for the S.P. but they were never hiring when I needed a job. However, I would finally end up going to work for the U.P. in 1988. So, it was by a twist of fate that, in the summer of 2000, I would find myself as the engineer on the Saugus local, having taken a two week vacation hold-down while the regular engineer was off.

  The conductor on the job was Denny Rolls, also a native of Saugus and local history buff. In fact, Denny was about as native of a rail as you could ever find. Denny's grandfather had hired out as a signalman in 1905, when the S.P. was first signaled the Saugus line. His dad was born in a section house at Ravenna and became an locomotive engineer. Denny, in turn, was born in a section house at Saugus. Needless to say, we hit it off right away. We had a great time working together during those two weeks, sharing stories of local history and I learned a lot about the area that I didn't already know.

  When I arrived at work, on the last day of my hold-down, Denny handed me a rolled up paper grocery sack with something very heavy in it and said, "This is for you". I unfurled the bag and found an old link and pin. Denny said that, years before, while switching at Saugus, he'd noticed a rusty spot in the dirt so he started kicking at it and, eventually, dug up the link. Later that same day, and a few yards away, he kicked up the pin. The link has a piece broken out of it and the pin is bent. Likely, some conductor, angry that he had to walk his train and repair the coupling, had sailed the pin over his shoulder and it landed a few yards away for Denny to find a hundred years later. Today, the link and pin resides in my curio case, to remind me of Denny and one of the most enjoyable times of my career.

BTW- The pin is stamped "L&N RR". It sure made it a long way from home!

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/16 13:24 by crackerjackhoghead.

---

Jeff, you ever work with Jim Mahoney, Val Favero or Rufus? ??, that was a crew to draw to. I use to ride the KING blitz local out of Palmdale worth these guys on Saturdays, never a dull moment. Stuart Chenard was the engineer that had 2 speeds, on and off. Valid heated at can of stewed tomatoes on the expansion talk on an SD39 one day, until it blew up shooting maters all over the place in the back of the unit. Rufus would get the old coal potbelly stove going so hot that it would run you out of of the caboose, cupola of course. Those were good times back then.

Posted from Android

Great stuff Crackerjack, keep 'em coming.

SP4360 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jeff, you ever work with Jim Mahoney, Val Favero
> or Rufus? ??, that was a crew to draw to. I use
> to ride the KING blitz local out of Palmdale worth
> these guys on Saturdays, never a dull moment.
> Stuart Chenard was the engineer that had 2 speeds,
> on and off. Valid heated at can of stewed
> tomatoes on the expansion talk on an SD39 one day,
> until it blew up shooting maters all over the
> place in the back of the unit. Rufus would get the
> old coal potbelly stove going so hot that it would
> run you out of of the caboose, cupola of course.
> Those were good times back then.
>

Dale,
  Can't say that I know any of those names. They may have gone to the Roseville hub or maybe they were gone before the merger.

Probably gone by then. If you worked with them, you wouldn't have forgotten them. Torpedoes in the couplers were just one of things they used to do to Stu.

Posted from Android

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>.... I've walked
> every inch of the Saugus line from Sylmar to
> Harold (albeit a few miles at a time), more than
> once.

Including the mile through the tunnel???

Done that, there's a signal repeater in the middle of tunnel 25.

Posted from Android

jmonier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >.... I've walked
> > every inch of the Saugus line from Sylmar to
> > Harold (albeit a few miles at a time), more
> than
> > once.
>
> Including the mile through the tunnel???

Yes, all of the tunnels. Through and back. Including a partial exploration of the collapsed tunnel #20 which you could get into back then but not now. These are the dumb things we do as teens. In #25, there are "cutouts", about 6' wide and 2' deep, in the south wall every couple hundred feet to allow you to get in the clear of a train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/16 13:11 by crackerjackhoghead.

Dale , Rufus is alive and well. He and I are members of the Tehachapi Car club . I see him all the time. I think Val still lives in Mojave but not sure.  Denny Rolls also has a brother named Mike that is a retired SP San Joaquin engineer.

http://www.tehachapicarclub.com/
Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/16 17:44 by switchlamp.

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>   As I've mentioned a few times, I grew up in
> Canyon Country, California, in a house overlooking
> the S.P.'s Saugus line and I've always been very
> interested in local history. As a kid, in the 70's
> and early 80's, I would ride my bike over to
> Saugus and watch the Saugus local do their work.
> When I was in my later teens, a couple guys like
> Vince Cipola would give me rides to Bakersfield
> and back. Or, on many occasions, I would catch the
> helpers, on the oil cans, at Lang or Humphreys and
> ride them down to Sylmar and back. I've walked
> every inch of the Saugus line from Sylmar to
> Harold (albeit a few miles at a time), more than
> once. When I was old enough to get a job, I wanted
> to work for the S.P. but they were never hiring
> when I needed a job. However, I would finally end
> up going to work for the U.P. in 1988. So, it was
> by a twist of fate that, in the summer of 2000, I
> would find myself as the engineer on the Saugus
> local, having taken a two week vacation hold-down
> while the regular engineer was off.
>
>   The conductor on the job was Denny Rolls, also
> a native of Saugus and local history buff. In
> fact, Denny was about as native of a rail as you
> could ever find. Denny's grandfather had hired out
> as a signalman in 1905, when the S.P. was first
> signaled the Saugus line. His dad was born in a
> section house at Ravenna and became an locomotive
> engineer. Denny, in turn, was born in a section
> house at Saugus. Needless to say, we hit it off
> right away. We had a great time working together
> during those two weeks, sharing stories of local
> history and I learned a lot about the area that I
> didn't already know.
>
>   When I arrived at work, on the last day of my
> hold-down, Denny handed me a rolled up paper
> grocery sack with something very heavy in it and
> said, "This is for you". I unfurled the bag and
> found an old link and pin. Denny said that, years
> before, while switching at Saugus, he'd noticed a
> rusty spot in the dirt so he started kicking at it
> and, eventually, dug up the link. Later that same
> day, and a few yards away, he kicked up the pin.
> The link has a piece broken out of it and the pin
> is bent. Likely, some conductor, angry that he had
> to walk his train and repair the coupling, had
> sailed the pin over his shoulder and it landed a
> few yards away for Denny to find a hundred years
> later. Today, the link and pin resides in my curio
> case, to remind me of Denny and one of the most
> enjoyable times of my career.
>
> BTW- The pin is stamped "L&N RR". It sure made it
> a long way from home!
>
>  During my 35 years with SP and then UP (by default), I had the pleasure of working with both of the Rolls brothers...Mike and Denny. I fired for Mike on the coast and the valley back in the early 80's, and then worked with Denny on various jobs out at GEMCO up until he retired. As you stated, the Rolls Family had an interesting railroad history. Their dad, Jimmy Rolls, was a San Joaquin engineer, as was I, and their uncle, actually owned the Saugus Cafe at one time...
There's a picture taken by Richard Steinheimer of Jimmy Rolls, on page 272, in the book "The Central Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads", by Lucius Beebe. It shows Jim (in the plaid shirt), who was the fireman, and his engineer, Jerry Weese, standing next to their engine, the SP 3625, at Saugus, while waiting to help a perishable train off the Santa Paula Branch...
Unfortunately, Jimmy Rolls passed away from a heart attack before collecting his first pension check...

Jim,
  I know that photo. Denny told me about it.


> >  During my 35 years with SP and then UP (by
> default), I had the pleasure of working with both
> of the Rolls brothers...Mike and Denny. I fired
> for Mike on the coast and the valley back in the
> early 80's, and then worked with Denny on various
> jobs out at GEMCO up until he retired. As you
> stated, the Rolls Family had an interesting
> railroad history. Their dad, Jimmy Rolls, was a
> San Joaquin engineer, as was I, and their uncle,
> actually owned the Saugus Cafe at one time...
> There's a picture taken by Richard Steinheimer of
> Jimmy Rolls, on page 272, in the book "The
> Central Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads", by
> Lucius Beebe. It shows Jim (in the plaid shirt),
> who was the fireman, and his engineer, Jerry
> Weese, standing next to their engine, the SP
> 3625, at Saugus, while waiting to help a
> perishable train off the Santa Paula Branch...
> Unfortunately, Jimmy Rolls passed away from a
> heart attack before collecting his first pension
> check...

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jim,
>   I know that photo. Denny told me about it.
>
>
> > >  During my 35 years with SP and then UP (by
> > default), I had the pleasure of working with
> both
> > of the Rolls brothers...Mike and Denny. I
> fired
> > for Mike on the coast and the valley back in
> the
> > early 80's, and then worked with Denny on
> various
> > jobs out at GEMCO up until he retired. As you
> > stated, the Rolls Family had an interesting
> > railroad history. Their dad, Jimmy Rolls, was a
> > San Joaquin engineer, as was I, and their
> uncle,
> > actually owned the Saugus Cafe at one time...
> > There's a picture taken by Richard
> Steinheimer of
> > Jimmy Rolls, on page 272, in the book "The
> > Central Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads",
> by
> > Lucius Beebe. It shows Jim (in the plaid
> shirt),
> > who was the fireman, and his engineer, Jerry
> > Weese, standing next to their engine, the SP
> > 3625, at Saugus, while waiting to help a
> > perishable train off the Santa Paula Branch...
> > Unfortunately, Jimmy Rolls passed away from a
> > heart attack before collecting his first
> pension
> > check...
Close...It's Jeff...(My San Joaqiin "Handle" in LA was Jeffrey Willie...)

I've heard that the Saugus Cafe is the oldest, continuously-operating restaurant in Los Angeles County.
Bear in mind, the current location is not the original.
Where was tunnel 20 ? 
I hadn't heard of that one before.
TIA!
...Lorenzo

567Chant Wrote:
> Where was tunnel 20 ? 
> I hadn't heard of that one before.
> TIA!
> ...Lorenzo

  Tunnel 20 was right at the east switch of Lang, or at least where the switch was before Metro extended the siding. It was on a curve, on the inside of where the track is now. When I was a kid, there was a small opening at the west end, just large enough to crawl in and then, once you were in, it was wide open, with the timebers still in place, however, there was a cave in about three quarters of the way through. That may well have been the reason for the realignment in 1945 that bypassed tunnels 20, 21 & 22. Tunnel 22 just collapsed in the past year or so. There was also a tunnel 23 and 24 at one time as well as a tunnel 17-1/4 and 17-1/2.