Nostalgia & History > NWP in Santa Rosa, Calif.

If you're passing thru Santa Rosa on US 101 or whatever, stop by the restored NWP station at the city's Railroad Square. It's an office for the state tourism agency and one room is full of NWP memorabilia. Open 7 days a week. This pic shows part of a wall of photos and other stuff. Really interesting: a Sanborn map showing the railroad, spurs and also the Petaluma & Santa Rosa trackage.

Note the telegraph key, lower left. You can tap the keys and listen to the sounder. Just like Eddie Sand!

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Typewriter (remember those?), phone and levers for the order board.

One object on display, a tribute to Charlie Neal. MDO has written about Charlie Neal on several occasions in the Chronicles.

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Little scarlet and gray switch engine. You can move this glass enclosed model a-head and back it up.

Lots of things in that room. I was surprised and pleased to have taken a slight detour home.

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Here's a photo of the real deal back when the rails thru Santa Rosa were shiny.

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stash Wrote:
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> Here's a photo of the real deal back when the
> rails thru Santa Rosa were shiny.
>
>


That square box on the pilot, with the wheel on the side - might that contain a fire hose?

Such a nice picture, with the typewriter and trainorder levers. I especially enjoyed the picture of the typewriter since I learned to type on an Underwood exactly like the one in the picture. As I recall, the old Underwood was quite durable, not fragile at all. The typewriter was pretty old even when I was a kid, but it worked well and you developed strong fingers when using it.

For those who want to see the NWP under steam in Santa Rosa, check out the old Alfred Hitchcock movie "Shadow of a Doubt". Not the remake, the old B & W original. I give it 4 stars.