Railroaders' Nostalgia > Who are these SP / Caltrain employees?

I would like to put these photos on the "SP Railroaders Pages" portion of my website. Do you recognize any of these guys?

Photo #1: I have no info, though I place the time in the mid/late 1980's, probably at Fourth Street. No rails to whom I've shown the photo recognize him, but he looks familiar to me. I believe he may have been a clerk of some sort.

Photo #2: This slide for this image is dated 4-1976, and obviously it was taken at the then-new Fourth St. station. I am fairly certain that the man with his back to the camera is Ray "Razer" Torres, while the one facing is Ron Ciarlo. Both finished their careers on Caltrain. I recognize the other two, neither of which transitioned to Caltrain in 1992, but I can't conjure up their names.

Ed Gibson
Wx4.org



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/18 13:37 by hogheaded.

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Ray Torres was also known as the "Water Buffalo".

Bill Loach on the right?

I don't think that's Bill Loach on the right. Don't really recognize him, but he looks too young for Loach, even 40 years ago. I want to say the guy on the left is last name Perkins. I forget his first name.

I think Perkins is right. The guy with his back to the camera, Camphouse or Hanson?

I remember a Perkins who was near retirement and once was in a Caltrain ad; his son?. Bill Loach was taller than the guy on the right; didn't have the "hair". I still think that the middle guy is Torres. Hanson was grey-haired by then, and Camphouse (wasn't he the guy who never could pass conductor's promotion?) was younger, and I think a bit taller. Torres always had that brick outhouse look that we see here. He was in a full page Caltrain ad, too. Now where did I file those ads...

Ed
I just recalled spending an uncomfortable Thanksgiving with Torres in SLO in 1978. We were both extra brakeman on the Starlight, and Ray showed up for the job figuring that he would get ride back in the sleepers. Not so, for Conductor Charley Schaefer (sp?) had given me permission to bring my wife, and had sent us to the Pullmans for a nice mini-vacation ride. Ray complained to Charlie that he was the senior man and should get his pick of jobs, which was not what Charley wanted to hear. Dinner was pretty quiet. Not too long after that, Charley retired and I made it a point to go down to the San Jose depot on his last run to shake his hand and wish him well. Torres was nowhere to be seen. Ray and I got along just fine later on, and I doubt that he recalls any of this today, assuming that the old soldier is still kicking.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/18 08:41 by hogheaded.

I agree the guy with his back to us is Healy. Ray Camphouse worked as a conductor as long as I knew him. He and I were among the regulars at a coffee shop in Morgan Hill in the 80s and 90s. He passed away around 2000.

CPCoyote Wrote:
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> I agree the guy with his back to us is Healy. Ray
> Camphouse worked as a conductor as long as I knew
> him. He and I were among the regulars at a coffee
> shop in Morgan Hill in the 80s and 90s. He passed
> away around 2000.

I had Camphouse's name confused with Bob Crossland, who went off to Tucson about 1980 to nobody's lament. Now that you've fired up my memory, yeah that sure looks like Camphouse. Otherwise, I suppose that could be Jim Healy's backside, hard to say.

goldcoast Wrote:
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> Ray Torres was also known as the "Water Buffalo".

How did he get the nickname "Water Buffalo"? Railroader nicknames are always a laugh...

His size.

Great photos-thanks

hogheaded wrote:

> Ray complained to Charlie that he was the senior man and should get his pick of jobs, which was not what Charley wanted to hear.

Are "Charlie" and "Charley" two different people or does this refer to the same person?

johnsweetser Wrote:
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> hogheaded wrote:
>
> > Ray complained to Charlie that he was the senior
> man and should get his pick of jobs, which was not
> what Charley wanted to hear.
>
> Are "Charlie" and "Charley" two different people
> or does this refer to the same person?

Sorry, English is a second language for me, and I lack a first one: "Charlie" on both counts.

Ed