Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad

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Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad
Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad steam locomotive # 2
Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad steam locomotive # 2
Route of the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad
Route
Route length: 3 km
Gauge : 457 mm

The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad is a miniature railway in a scale of 1: 3 with the track width of 18 inches (457 mm) in Oak Meadow Park at 233 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos , California . It is named after the founder of the railway.

history

William "Billy" Jones (* 1884 in Ben Lomond ; † 1968) was the son of a carter and at the age of 13 found a job as a steam engine cleaner on the South Pacific Coast Railroad in Boulder Creek , California, a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 3 Foot (914 mm). At 17, Jones was promoted to stoker and later became a train driver. The South Pacific Coast Railroad, which had been acquired by Southern Pacific Transportation , was switched to standard gauge in 1909 . Jones was one of the first to drive on the standard gauge line that began in San Jose and was eventually used for the Coast Daylight between San Francisco and San Luis Obispo .

After World War II he was in charge of restoring the Gov. Stanford called Stanford University steam locomotive , which is now on display in the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

Jones married Geraldine McGrady, the teacher at Wright's Station south of Los Gatos. The couple moved to Los Gatos to a 36,000 m² plum plantation on the corner of Daves Avenue and the road from Santa Clara to Los Gatos (now Winchester Boulevard), which is called "The Ranch", and had two sons there, Robert and Neal, and two daughters, Betty and Geraldine.

The steam locomotive # 2 called 2-spot

In 1939, in a junkyard in the San Francisco docks , Jones accidentally found an 18-inch (457 mm) gauge park railroad steam locomotive built in 1905 for the Venice Miniature Railway in Venice Beach . He bought the little steam locomotive, nicknamed "2-spot" for $ 100, and got it working again on a route called the Wildcat Railroad that he and his friends built on the ranch.

His sons Robert and Neal died in World War II , and in their honor Jones ran the railroad for the neighborhood children every Sunday until his death in 1968. The railroad attracted visitors from far and wide, including Walt Disney , who was interested in to purchase part of Jones' park railroad collection. The two became friends, and Jones was one of the train drivers when Walt Disney commissioned its 3-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge railway in Disneyland, California, on July 17, 1955 . The logo of the Wildcat Railroad is a comic wild cat with a train driver hat that Walt Disney Animation - Animator Ward Kimball was drawn.

Water tower

Jones retired from the Southern Pacific Company in 1949. In January 1959 he had the honor of driving the last train out of Los Gatos before the rails were dismantled. He died of leukemia at the age of 83 in 1968 and his "Wildcat Railroad" was bought by local railroad friends who founded a non-profit organization to rebuild and operate in Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos . After a two-year restoration and construction period, the railway was opened to scheduled traffic in July 1970. In 1972 a 12 m long trestle bridge was built a 2.4 km long extension into the neighboring Vasona Park. In 1992 the railroad had an average of more than 100,000 passengers a year.

The first diesel locomotive was acquired in 1992. Until then, the steam locomotive # 2, which was found in San Francisco in 1939, only operated steam. Local businessman and railroad enthusiast B. Smith bought the diesel-hydraulic locomotive brand new from the Chicago Locomotive Works and bequeathed it to the Railroad Association a year before his death. In 1994 the boiler of the steam locomotive called 2-spot had to be overhauled. During this time the diesel locomotive # 2502 in the Black Widow colors of the Southern Pacific became the main locomotive in service. After a 10-year renovation, the 2-spot was finally put back into service in July 2005 for the 100th birthday of the locomotive and the 35th anniversary of the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad in Oak Meadow Park and Vasona Park.

The diesel locomotives # 3502 and # 2502

In 2006, the # 3502 diesel locomotive in the colors of the Chicago and North Western Railway was procured. Both diesel locomotives are used on weekdays in summer and on weekends in winter and spring. Another diesel locomotive # 4 was built by Tom Waterfall on a voluntary basis in 2005 in the style of a Davenport Locomotive Works locomotive and is used for track maintenance work. The renovated 2-spot is used on weekends from late spring to late autumn.

In May 2013 the oil-fired steam locomotive # 5 with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement was delivered by the Merrick Light Railway Works , which had also built the # 3502. The 5-spot is operated alternately with the 2-spot . The # 5 is identical to the # 1919 locomotive in Little Amerricka Amusement Park in Marshall , Dane County , Wisconsin .

literature

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Timothy S. Diebert, Joseph A. Strapac: Southern Pacific Company Steam Locomotive Compendium . Shade Tree Books, 1987, ISBN 0-930742-12-5 .
  2. ^ A b c Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad: History .
  3. ↑ Lisa Toth: Pickin 'Up Steam: Ol' Engine No. 2 is returning to the tracks . In: Los Gatos Weekly-Times . June 1st, 2005.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / mytown.mercurynews.com  

Coordinates: 37 ° 14 '12 "  N , 121 ° 58' 28.5"  W.