A look back

Sometimes you need to give credit to the people that light a fire under your ass to get things done. Jim Kreider, I guess I can thank you, you referenced I needed to dig into the Ratliff Vault and pull out a few treasures. I grabbed four cubes of slides and scanned them to the computer; Joshua Tree & Southern Annual Meet, November 1980. We did not name it the Rudy Run, in his honor, till after his passing.  Quite a turnout for four hundred feet of track. Looks like we had three Steam engines, a Steam Donkey and a Steam shovel, and a plethora of talent and admirers. This a just a few pictures to whet the appetite to a look back on a weekend just past 38 years ago.
The first picture, riding the flatcar. That is Rudy Van Wingen, who's crazy vision to build a 7 1/2" railroad up a mountain instead of around a circle is why we are out here. Who said you couldn't have fun running back and forth on 400 feet of track, moving dirt from one end to the other? The next time out we would have 420 feet of track to do the same.

Those two distinguished gentlemen pictured had forgotten more that I will ever know. Francis Moseley and Dick Bagley. Francis owned the Corwin Shay and it enjoyed it's time on the mountain, working up a real grade. I think this might have been the only time Dick saw the railroad at Joshua Tree, it surprised me when I saw the pictures. It had been a while since I took them. Francis' generous donation from his Foundation allowed us to continue as we are today and his collection was the beginning of our Station- Museum.

Francis taking lunch while the Shay waits. This location would be by the power pole above the Shelter. Notice the breeziness of the Shelter in the pictures. Not protected as it is now.

Enjoy a slice of history, there are some interesting ones to come. See you in a few weeks for the New Years Weekend. December 28- January 1. Any questions, send me a line at ratsgarage@yahoo.com.