Harold and Maude
Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the Western Railway Museum with a Railroad historian, an absolute encyclopedia of RR knowledge. Because I was with him, I was allowed into cars that regular visitors never see. He's doing a restoration feasibility study for an recently discovered car somewhere out of state and requested to get inside a number cars to verify hardware details. One of those cars is the one seen in the movie Harold and Maude.
If you haven't seen the movie Harold and Maude, you really should. It's a 1970's cult classic. After walking through here I decided I'm going to find a way to be Demouderah. What a great environment to call home. The museum is planning to running ramps on the outside of this car so visitors can view the inside w/o out risking too much foot traffic. And this car is rail-ready. In fact, Mr. Historian has ridden it.
We went inside lots of cars and the condition of the insides of them ranged from nearly complete to total disasters. Here in the left front are many, many pictures of this car when it was active, sometime mid 1920's. The museum's volunteers take great care in the restoration of these cars to produce an end product that looks just like the original. It was fascinating to see.
There were four isles just like this and had six cars lined up on each side. Remember, this area is not open to tourists. I'm soooo lucky!
While we were there, we took in the local tour. The docent missed many facts, unbeknown to everyone except Mr. RR Historian. Most of it went over all our heads but when the docent said that the San Francisco RR was a branch line, he turned to me and whispered "silent scream!" That error was too much for him to ignore. After all the tourist left we walked with the docent for awhile and Mr. Historian informed him the SF was a mainline and not a branch. The docent replied "Well, hehe ... I think most historians would disagree with that" which prompted Mr. H. to pull out his business card. Mr. Docent knew him by name only so didn't recognize him and understandably ... ate some crow. He then later introduced him to a new group of vistors as "the ESTEEMED Mr. H." Made me chuckle and I then realize I was with a heavy weight.
It was a cold clear day, so we walked along the row of cars just outside the main gate.
Mr. Historian taking a picture of some numbers stamped on the bottom of these trucks. And me taking a picture of him. That shadow is the closest I got to a self-portrait.
If you enjoy making images of texture, this is the place to go.
This line was used for electric cars running from San Francisco to Sacramento and up to Chico. A lot of it had a third rail to power the trains where overhead power lines were impractical. We took this little tour car for about 3 miles, it was very cool, swaying back and forth and what a different sounding whistle is made. Lot of photos in the museum taken during the lines hayday. In the early 1990's Union Pacific (god-bless their greedy-money-hungry heart) donated 23 miles of right-a-way hence the beginning of this museum.
It was the BEST day. Last year on my birthday I was in Maryland/West Virginia watching and learning about trains and this year, once again but with a different focus. I've created my own tradition and now I'm looking forward to next November 22nd.
If you haven't seen the movie Harold and Maude, you really should. It's a 1970's cult classic. After walking through here I decided I'm going to find a way to be Demouderah. What a great environment to call home. The museum is planning to running ramps on the outside of this car so visitors can view the inside w/o out risking too much foot traffic. And this car is rail-ready. In fact, Mr. Historian has ridden it.
We went inside lots of cars and the condition of the insides of them ranged from nearly complete to total disasters. Here in the left front are many, many pictures of this car when it was active, sometime mid 1920's. The museum's volunteers take great care in the restoration of these cars to produce an end product that looks just like the original. It was fascinating to see.
There were four isles just like this and had six cars lined up on each side. Remember, this area is not open to tourists. I'm soooo lucky!
While we were there, we took in the local tour. The docent missed many facts, unbeknown to everyone except Mr. RR Historian. Most of it went over all our heads but when the docent said that the San Francisco RR was a branch line, he turned to me and whispered "silent scream!" That error was too much for him to ignore. After all the tourist left we walked with the docent for awhile and Mr. Historian informed him the SF was a mainline and not a branch. The docent replied "Well, hehe ... I think most historians would disagree with that" which prompted Mr. H. to pull out his business card. Mr. Docent knew him by name only so didn't recognize him and understandably ... ate some crow. He then later introduced him to a new group of vistors as "the ESTEEMED Mr. H." Made me chuckle and I then realize I was with a heavy weight.
It was a cold clear day, so we walked along the row of cars just outside the main gate.
Mr. Historian taking a picture of some numbers stamped on the bottom of these trucks. And me taking a picture of him. That shadow is the closest I got to a self-portrait.
If you enjoy making images of texture, this is the place to go.
This line was used for electric cars running from San Francisco to Sacramento and up to Chico. A lot of it had a third rail to power the trains where overhead power lines were impractical. We took this little tour car for about 3 miles, it was very cool, swaying back and forth and what a different sounding whistle is made. Lot of photos in the museum taken during the lines hayday. In the early 1990's Union Pacific (god-bless their greedy-money-hungry heart) donated 23 miles of right-a-way hence the beginning of this museum.
It was the BEST day. Last year on my birthday I was in Maryland/West Virginia watching and learning about trains and this year, once again but with a different focus. I've created my own tradition and now I'm looking forward to next November 22nd.