Steam & Excursion > We Can Only Wonder What This One Railfan Was Thinking That Day!

On this beautiful spring day some 76 years ago the world was very different in so many ways. On the positive side steam was still very much in control of the nations railroads and excursions like this one were becoming more common. On the negative side the world was on the brink of being plunged into the second world war.

We can only wonder what was on the mind of this one railfan seen here in the Jamestown, California yards of the Sierra Railroad on May 4, 1941 as Sierra #34, #24 and #28 all take turns getting water before continuing on their way.

Let's hope he is simply enjoying the scene rather than worrying about what the world has in store for him in the next few years.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/17 03:31 by LoggerHogger.

---

He looks to be of draft age, so his life likely changed forever a few months later.

Reminds me of watching my college roommates faces in the late 60's anxiously awaiting the draft number announcements on TV. I had already served in Viet Nam so it was a bemusing experience for me. None of my 3 roommates were called up. I hope this young man survived WW2 if he was indeed drafted or volunteered. God bless all men and women who serve our country!

LoggerHogger Wrote:

> We can only wonder what was on the mind of this
> one railfan

The world may have been different, but people were still people, and a lot of the same kind of thinking that pervades railfanning today was present back then, too. He's probably thinking, "I wish I was born 20 years earlier. It's all crap now."

I see none of the engines have their spark arrestors on, so I presume 1941's Tuolumne County weather kept things green, at least until this date.

The good news is that the people in that photo didn't know what was coming and were still enjoying life. Unfortunately, in December all that would end. My mother worked as a phone operator for Pacific Bell in Sonora at the time and my dad worked for Pickering. Remember, there was no internet, few people had TV and in Tuolumne County getting a radio broadcast from out of the area was "spotty" in 1941.

My mom was the only operator on duty on the morning of December 7th when the attack came on Pearl and Ford Island. She told me many years later how she was the person people in the County were calling for news, which she in turn was relating from Pac Bell operators in San Francisco. People were desperate in calling about family, friends and loved ones. She had to field all those calls alone and only eventually were more operators called to handle the lines. I suspect, at least in rural America this was repeated in many small towns where people wanted assurances while the world was turned upside down.

The role of phone operators in providing news in small towns was mostly overlooked as just one tiny aspect of the surprise attack, but back then those operators served a very personal and critical link to the outside world, for people trying to find out if those they cared about were still alive and unhurt, or an early casualty of the many millions to come.

Knowing the future can be a curse. Remembering the past and never letting it happen again is something to keep in mind.

It was a peaceful May in Jamestown and that's the best thing about that photo.

Fear or gladness may have been on this fellows mind, but as for myself, I had been in this world three months and fifteen days and am sure I was keeping my mother busy changing and washing diapers. Too soon to enjoy Rock Island steamers, but my memories take me to somewhere in 1945 when I began realization of such trains. I have yet to loose those memories and later ones into the early 50's of side-rods and iron pounding the rails.