Nostalgia & History > Does anybody remember Parker Lyon ?

I have had some prints and slides in my collection from my Aunt Thora from Parker Lyon's Pony Express Museum in Arcadia, California.

Since I am 61 this was long gone by the time I was interested !

The tender in picture #1 says Eureka-Nevada.
That's my Uncle Ken in the second picture

I really don't know much more about the Pony Express Museum except it closed and much of the operation was sold to a hotel in Reno or Sparks, Nevada.

The railroad equipment looks to be NG but what RR did it come from I don't know.

If you know ANYTHING about this equipment, please share.

Thanks for looking and sharing any info you may have

See You Down the Tracks !


Jay

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W. Parker Lyon, former mayor of Fresno, California built the Pony Express Museum in Arcadia, California. It operated from 1935 to 1955. Both Lyon and the museum are long gone. Eureka and Palisade Railroad Company, 1873-1901. Eureka and Palisade Railway Company, 1901-1911. Eureka-Nevada Railway Company, 1912-1938. A logging road that came and went typical of special interest roads of that era.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/13 13:41 by a737flyer.

Hi,

The Pony Express Museum railroad equipment was sold to Wm.Harrah of Reno and displayed at the Harrah's Automobile Collection
until it was auctioned off in the early 1980's. At one time Harrah was planning to move the automobile museum to the west of Reno
and planned a loop of 36"gauge RR around it. That never happened. The locomotive was displayed inside it's own shed with large windows.
The cars were stored outside. All of Harrah's RR equipment was 36"gauge, except for a SF cable car 42"gauge.

The locomotive is a Porter 2-6-2 built new in 1915 for the Eureka-Nevada Railway as #7, of Palisade, Nevada. The E-N was the 1912 reorginization
of the Eureka & Palisade which was built to serve the mining area around Eureka,NV. #7 was sold to Parker Lyon in 1939. Sold to Harrah in 1955
who had it rebuilt to look like an '1870's wild west' engine. At the auction it was sold to the Silverwood amusement park south of Athol, Idaho.
It is in operation there on a loop of track.

Silverwood was also the winning bidder on some of the rolling stock, including SP combine #8 shown in the second photo. This car was built in
1887 in Delaware for the South Pacific Coast RR as coach #69. Transferred to the SP narrow gauge it was rebuilt into a combine. Lyon obtained
the car in 1938. To Harrah 1955, to Silverwood in the early 1980's. Silverwood decided it was too expensive to rebuild it and sold it to the
Nevada State RR Museum in Carson City in 1991.

Lyon also had SP NG Baggage car #3, built for the Carson & Colorado in 1881. This car went to Harrah's and was donated to the Nevada State RR Museum
before the auction.

The third car at Pony Express Museum was SP NG caboose #25. Built as a combine in 1880 for the SPC by Carter Brothers, it went to the SP NG becoming
caboose #467. Then Harrah's. The body of this car was burned in a fire in 1961. The frame and trucks were sold and moved a few times and are now
owned by a private party in California who intends to restore the car.

Harrah's also had a number of former SP NG freight cars, but I don't think they came from Lyon's collection. They still exist at Sliverwood and at NSRM.
The more detailed histories of all the cars can be found in the various books about the SP narrow gauge. (I've condensed their histories here).

Don

Wow! Is there no question that can't get answered on this site? You guys are amazing. Happy 4th!

My brother and I visited the Pony Express Museum on several occasions. I especially remember the stuffed and mounted bear that occupied a "jail cell" and the "nickelodeon" player pianos. Some of their exhibits had been rented out for movie props and had cards giving their "film credits"--"Duel in the Sun" comes to mind. The Pacific Electric Monrovia-Glendora line ran right behind the museum, and there was a car stop nearby, but it was abandoned in 1951. I recall that in addition to the narrow gauge rail exhibits, they acquired a Southern Pacific standard-gauge caboose in the late 1940s.