Alfred Stieglitz 100 -- January 1, 2014

Alfred Stieglitz worked hard to make photography an accepted form of art.  In his photograph "The Terminal," we see the driver of a Harlem horse car give his motive power some care at the end of the line on a cold day in 1892.  Stieglitzwas born on 01-January-1864.

My new mostly-movies blog launched today:  The Big V Riot Squad. 
 

Holly Pulls the Horse Car -- July 21, 2013

Holly pulls horse car three around the Depot loop towards Main Street at Disneyland. 

We just got back from vacation. We drove down I-5 to the Los Angeles Farmers' Market.  We were too early to ride the tram at the Grove.  When we got in the car, we heard that 5 was closed at the 2 freeway because a gasoline tanker had caught fire in an underpass.  We missed it completely. 

We had lunch with relatives on Sunday. 

Our trip got truncated because of illness back home.  We drove back up I-5.  Things are better now. 

Ardenwood Farm Railroad Fair Coming Soon -- September 2, 2010

If you are looking for something to do this Labor Day weekend, I can recommend the Tenth Annual Washington Township Railroad Fair at Ardenwood Historic Farm Regional Park in Fremont. Every year, the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources brings in a steam locomotive to join their regular horse-drawn rail operation. There are rides on steam- and horse-drawn trains and handcars. There is a large garden railroad display, and all the regular animals and farm equipment and the beautiful Patterson house.

For the second straight year, there will be two visiting steam locomotives, 1889 Porter 0-4-0T, Antelope and Western 1, which visited 2005-2007, and 1890 Porter 0-4-0T, Cortez Mining Company 1, which visited last year.

It's well worth a visit, and it's just across the Dumbarton Bridge.

I took this photo of Antelope and Western 1, on Labor Day Weekend, 2006.

There were no horse-drawn train rides the last two years because Tucker died in 2008, and his replacement was not fully trained last year.

The SPCRR is building a car house to provide shelter for its collection.

Admission:
$8/adults;
$6/Seniors (62+);
$5/children (ages 4-17)
children age 3 and under are free

Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources:
http://www.spcrr.org/

Fair flier:
http://www.spcrr.org/PDFs/RailfairFlyer2010-v3.pdf

Ardenwood Farm Railroad Fair Coming Soon - September 4, 2009

If you are looking for something to do this Labor Day weekend, I can recommend the Ninth Annual Washington Township Railroad Fair at Ardenwood Historic Farm Regional Park in Fremont. Every year, the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources brings in a steam locomotive to join their regular horse-drawn rail operation. There are rides on steam- and horse-drawn trains and handcars. There is a large garden railroad display, and all the regular animals and farm equipment and the beautiful Patterson house. This year's guest locomotive is Sandstone Crag Loop Line #4, "Deanna," an 0-4-2T built by Baldwin in 1891 for the Kaiwiki Sugar Co. in Ookala, Hawaii.

It's well worth a visit, and it's just across the Dumbarton Bridge, which should not be too badly affected by the Bay Bridge closure.
I took this photo of Sandstone Crag Loop Line #4 on Labor Day weekend, 2008.
Today I took a walk to look at the closed freeway entrances leading to the Bay Bridge. This is the first time the bridge has been closed on a workday since 1989.

Caleb at the Depot -- July 26, 2009

Just back from a visit to Disneyland. The temperature never got above 90F but it was muggy so we saw at least one person keel over from the heat, and cast members repeatedly told people to drink water. I'll post more on my Park Trains page at the end of this month or next month.

Caleb the Belgian horse lays over with horse car 1 at the Main Street Depot. The double decker bus is in the background.

This morning we watched the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, and Joe Gordon went in. Rickey made a good speech. Nick Peters won the award for writers.

Happy Birthday, Horse Car -- November 25, 2007

November 26 marks the 175th birthday of the horse car. On 26-November-1832, the John Mason rolled out for the New York and Harlem Railroad. I added a page about horse cars to my cable car site. It includes:

-- An account of the John Mason's first trip, which included being rear-ended by the second horse car

-- A newspaper article about a franchise-holding horse car line which ran until 1906 on California Street in San Francisco

-- A newspaper article about the last run of the last horse car line to operate in New York (shown in the postcard), on Bleecker Street in 1917

Two notes:

-- Some people claim that the John Mason was just another horse-drawn railway car. They say the real birth of the horse car was in New York and Boston in the early 1850s.

-- I use "horse car" rather than horsecar because I looked at many contemporary sources and the most common usage was "horse car" or "horse-car".

Ardenwood Farm Railroad Fair Coming Soon - August 30, 2007

If you are looking for something to do this Labor Day weekend, I can recommend the Seventh Annual Washington Township Railroad Fair at Ardenwood Historic Farm Regional Park in Fremont. Every year, the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources brings in a steam locomotive to join their regular horse-drawn rail operation. There are rides on steam- and horse-drawn trains and handcars. There is a large garden railroad display, and all the regular animals and farm equipment and the beautiful Patterson house.

It's well worth a visit, and it's just across the Dumbarton Bridge, which should not be too badly affected by the Bay Bridge closure.

I took this photo of Antelope and Western 1 on Labor Day, 2006.

John Stephenson, Car Builder - August 24, 2007

John Stephenson built what many consider to have been the first horse car, a horse-drawn rail vehicle intended for urban transit, 175 years ago, in 1832, for the New York and Harlem Railroad. His company continued building horse cars, cable cars, and electric streetcars until 1919.