Steam & Excursion > Final Highball: Bob Church

It's with great sadness to report that my close personal friend Robert (Bob) Church has passed away. Over the period of more than 60 years, Bob established himself as an author and an authority on railroad subjects, especially Southern Pacific steam locomotives. As a native of Sacramento, California and as a retired dentist, he was a longtime resident of nearby Wilton. Dr. Church had a long and intense interest in the Southern Pacific. His interest in railroading went back to his early childhood with parents that allowed him to cultivate a model railroad hobby. His desire eventually developed to put materials he had collected into book form to share the information with others of similar interest.

His first two books, Those Daylight 4-8-4s and Cab Forward are definitive works on these subjects. Along with Tony Thompson, he founded Signature Press and published other steam locomotive books to include 4300 4-8-2s, and Southern Pacific Ten-Coupled Locomotives. His other SP titles include Snowbound Streamliner, the story of rescuing the stranded City of San Francisco in 1952, and Steam Days in Dunsmuir. He was also among three co-authors of the book Pacific Fruit Express.

Bob was a noted railroad historian, and has long been active in railroad historical and preservation groups. Among the historical societies in which he served were the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, for which he was the longtime Chairman of the Pacific Coast Chapter, and was a past member of the national Board of the R&LHS. He was a recipient of the R&LHS Fred and Jane Stindt Award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the organization. Bob volunteered as the Vice President and founding Director of the Southern Pacific Railroad History Center. He was also a recipient of the Guy L. Dunscomb Award from the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society.

Along with these activities, he devoted many volunteer hours with hands-on work helping to restore historic steam locomotives. One of his proudest accomplishments was becoming a certified steam locomotive engineer on the Sacramento Southern Railroad at the California State Railroad Museum.

For most of my life, Bob and I lived in neighboring communities and for many years were part of a breakfast club that met every Friday morning. My memories with Bob are too many to share here, but his friendship and the knowledge I gained from Bob will live on with me forever. My most sincere condolences to his wife Jeanne, their two sons, daughter, and grandchildren on the loss of their husband, father and grandfather. Rest in Glory my friend. I hope the first thing you hear from Jesus is, "Well done thy good and faithful servant."

Respectfully,

Scott Inman
Sacramento, CA

---

Thanks Scott, very sad news. Bob was such a wonderful,person, and a wealth of knowledge! He will be missed.

Dave 

Hi Scott, many thanks for passing this along.  My condolances to his Family.  I have four of his books, all first rate, super writing and excellent photos. The Cab-Forward book, ther Daylight and the Snowbound Streamliner should be in everyones library. I re-read them often. His writing is exceptional and the detail especcially the Snowbound book is exceptional.

It was great working with Bob on the Steam Days in Dunsmuir book and hearing his stories of visiting Dunsmuir as a young man on trips with his folks. He also was gracious enough to donate his 1/87 scale model of Dunsmuir to the Dunsmuir museum. It now resides in the museum 50 feet from the tracks and in the building that is next to the original Dunsmuir Depot location. Best to the Church family. 

---

---

Sad news indeed.  We lost a great one here.  Nice tribute Scott.  Sorry for the loss of your friend.

Martin

Good grief! Almost every day we are losing the best from our hobby. Stay well my friends!

At home in Wilton, March 2010

---

---

Yes, as said, very sad to hear. Met him a couple times and his nuts and bolts knowledge was incredible!
Wow, we're losing some really excellent people.

Out 

I have most of the books that Bob Church published, and I always looked forward to new books from him.;  Great work, both in the text and the photographs.

Only got to meet Bob a couple times, but the first was quite memorable.  It would have been around 1985 or 86 and he was running a steam engine at CSRM (UP 4466 IIRC) running the excursion south from Old Sacramento.  I got a cab ride and he was very gracious in explaining everything that was going on.  I was just starting to learn about steam and was working with Jim Boynton on Clover Valley / FRSL 8.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Z

Oh dear, what a loss.

One of his books sits on my living room coffee table. His work and spirit will live on.

Deepest sympathies to his family.

Posted from iPhone