Nostalgia & History > Window Advertising: Southern Pacific General Offices

The year is 1937. Four years before Pearl Harbor. Southern Pacific is going full steam ahead in advertising its various products and services.

In this view of the main window at company headquarters, 65-Market Street, San Francisco, a miniature freight train brings the subject home and gets the point across to its patrons and other customers.

And naturally, the train 'must' be powered by one of the popular P-4 Class 4-6-2 "Pacific"-type locomotives. And actually STEAM-powered, at that..

That photo was taken seventy-four years ago. The model locomotive was built in 1929.
That SP Caboose was built in 1925. The other freight cars whereabouts are unknown.

Today, both the locomotive and the Caboose reside in my home. I think most of you probably have guessed by now who built them. Yep-- my Grandpa, Vic Shattock.

He would loan his models out to various corporations for special occasions.
Advertising, luncheon or dinner headtable "centerpieces", corporate meetings and on and on. I doubt if he was ever paid for doing this.

I have a letter from Leland Cutler, President, Golden Gate International Exposition, thanking him for bringing his trains to the World's fair on Treasure Island.

I have a letter from the secretary of the famous "Bohemian Club" in San Francisco thanking him for the use of a locomotive at one of their big luncheon meetings.

When I was barely in my teens, I helped him take four locomotives, two Pacific's and two Mikado's to Goodman's Hall in Jack London Square-Oakland for a big meeting of the "Old Rails Club" ...

During the 1940's he constructed a portable track and installed it out in East Oakland on 76th Avenue for a benefit sponsored by the Southern Pacific Storekeeper's Assn.
Kids were lined up for blocks to take a ride behind a steam locomotive.

This was my Grandpa.. Always wanting to help out when called upon--but getting paid very little if anything. Thanks for letting me share more memories!

Ken Shattock (KRK)

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I wish I could have met your grandfather Vic.

Tony J.

Thank you, Tony.. I wish you could have too.

I think he could have become an outstanding Officer of the railroad. But either he never got the opportunity to advance in the ranks or maybe he just didn't want it. Instead, he became an Officer of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, and served the needs and problems of his fellow workers. When you become the Division Grievance Chairman for the Western Division, you are one "busy-bee".

And remember too, when you're doing all this Union business and working a regular job and trying to raise a family of six kids, ME being the seventh later on, and being active in the Masonic Lodge, and planning an outdoor track in Redwood Regional Park, and "trying" to maybe get a couple of hours sleep now and then and making all these public appearances, et al-- when do you have time to "build locomotives" ???
Understand what I'm saying ?? By the way, he retired from SP at age 72.

Thanks again for your comment.

KRK

An amazing man.

Ken, would you PLEASE post current pictures of that caboose. From that photo of the equipment in the SP window, the models look like they were astonishingly well-detailed for the 1920s, but that photo is not clear enough to appreciate those details.

Ken, what a unique item to share as we head into the holidays. Thanks