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Railroads of Los Gatos: New History Book Features Billy Jones Wildcat Line and Others By Alastair Dallas - 11/05/2006 Los Gatos Observer More Info on This Book: Railroads of Los Gatos
"The story of Billy Jones has fascinated me my entire life," says author Kelley. Born in New York, he has lived in Los Gatos since the age of two. "This book allowed me to meet many wonderful people, including Billy Jones' daughters, who assisted me in piecing together the complete story of Los Gatos' railroads." The 128-page book features many never-before-published photographs and thoroughly covers the original narrow-gauge, the Southern Pacific standard-gauge, the interurban, and finally the prune orchard Wildcat train that now runs in Oak Meadow Park. Kelley aimed to focus on real railroading, not just history or "train buff" trivia. His experience includes working on the Billy Jones, Roaring Camp, and Pacific Coast railroad in Santa Margarita. Edward Kelley and Peggy Conaway credit many Los Gatans with help on the book with one glaring exception. Somehow, they managed to write a book about Los Gatos history and trains without Bill Wulf, the town's official historian and avid rail fan. Perhaps a future collaboration will offer even more insight into the history of railroading in Los Gatos, but the present book serves well until then. Meet the Authors Edward Kelley and Library Director Peggy Conaway will be available for questions and book signing Thursday, December 7, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. At 8 p.m., the program will include railroad artifacts. Buy It Now: Railroads of Los Gatos $21.99 Rail Trail: A New Book Traces the History of Los Gatos Railroads By Dick Sparrer - 11/15/2006 Los Gatos Weekly-Times
It's a scene that's been repeated for decades in Los Gatos, and thousands upon thousands of youngsters have squealed with delight while enjoying a Sunday ride on the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad. Few of those young riders, though, create a bond with the rails--more specifically, the steam--like Edward Kelley. In fact, it's probably safe to say that no other 4-year-old has ever created a bond such as that which Kelley did after his mother took him for a ride some 15 or so years ago. It was a child's ride on the Billy Jones Railroad that started a lifetime fascination for trains, and ultimately to Kelley's co-authorship of Images of Rail: Railroads of Los Gatos with Peggy Conaway. The book, part of the Images of America series produced by Arcadia Publishing, is just out and details through historical photographs and captions how Los Gatos grew as a railroad town. It was more than a century ago when the rails reached out to Los Gatos to draw the town into the rest of the world. The downtown depot at the corner of Main Street and Santa Cruz Avenue was a bustling hub and a center for travelers and commerce in the community. But the big trains and the depot were long gone before Kelley arrived in town in a youngster. In fact, rail traffic through the town was virtually nonexistent by the time the 19-year-old moved here with his family in the late 1980s--except, of course, for one little train ... the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad. The Kelley family moved West from New York and were drawn to the area. "It was Los Gatos that my parents fell in love with," says Kelley. "They thought Los Gatos would be a good place to settle." So while his father was scoping out the area in search of a home, he says, the Realtor send Edward and his mother to Oak Meadow Park. He had ridden a train as a toddler living in New York, but that day he took his first ride on the Billy Jones Railroad. It was to be the first of countless rides to follow. "It was Billy Jones that got me into steam," he recalls. "I would go there every weekend. I'd ride the Billy Jones, then we'd go to Happy Hound." Kelley's love affair with the railroad has never wavered, and in fact has only grown stronger through the years. "I road the 2 Spot every weekend as a kid, and then I saw this magazine picture of the old depot with all of the passengers waiting," he says. "I said, 'Wow, I didn't know this was here.' So I dragged my dad out to find the old train memories." There wasn't much to find. The old depot had been razed in 1964 and the tracks through town had long since been ripped out and the surface paved over. Still, Kelley felt the presence of the railroad. "I have fond memories of the old railroad in Los Gatos," he says, "even though I wasn't part of it." A love affair with rails That's the very essence of Kelley's love affair with trains. But he wasn't content with his weekend rides in one of the cars that chases the 2 Spot, the little steam engine that once belonged to Billy Jones and that still travels the rails through the local parks. He wanted more. "One day, after shutting down the 2 Spot, the engineer invited me into the shop," he says. "He brought out this dusty old scrapbook." That book chronicled the history of the Billy Jones railroad. Kelley was hooked. From that point on, he couldn't get enough--railroading was in his blood. He volunteered his time working for the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad, and later started working at the Roaring Camp Railroad in Felton. It was the steam engine that proved most fascinating to Kelley. "I was always interested in steam," he says. "I played with model trains as a kid, but to me they were just toys. By middle school, I was sick of toy trains. At that point I realized that I'd ridden on trains all my life--I wanted to learn how they work and I wanted to work on them." Kelley sought out Phil Reader, and the professional steam mechanic took him under his wing. Kelley couldn't have picked a better mentor. Reader tracks back to the local steam pioneer himself, Billy Jones. Jones was an engineer with Southern Pacific in its heyday. Like Kelley so many years later, railroading was in his blood--so much so that he created his own miniature railroad in the orchard behind his Los Gatos home. The Billy Jones Railroad ran on the acreage at the corner of Winchester and Daves Avenue for many years before moving to its new home in Oak Meadow Park. Jones shared his love and knowledge of trains with Neil Vodden, who would become one of the last steam engineers for Southern Pacific. Vodden in turn taught Reader about steam. "Phil Reader learned from Neil Vodden, and Neil Vodden learned from Billy Jones," says Kelley. "I guess I'm considered fourth generation." Reader trained Kelley as a fireman. "That's when I learned how to fire steam," he says. Kelley has learned his lessons well. So well, in fact, that the older railroaders have nicknamed his "Old Can Kelley" and have even passed down one of Billy Jones' oil cans to his care. The only stipulation--he's to hold onto it until he can "train someone else and pass it down." A collaboration While Kelley's interest in trains grew stronger, so did an interest in history and writing that was encouraged by teachers Donna Plehn and Jane Donsker at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos. He started to write in earnest as a seventh-grader at Hillbrook where teacher Karen Clarkson "encouraged my writing." He started writing a history column in the school newspaper. That beginning would lead to a position on his high school newspaper, and later he would create an online magazine devoted to--what else?--railroads. The rest is history. "The editor at Arcadia Publishing called me one day to say that she had received a proposal from a young man who wanted to write a book about the history of railroads in Los Gatos," says Los Gatos Public Library director Peggy Conaway. "I looked online to see who this Ed Kelley was. I thought he was a lot older." Conaway had a relationship with Arcadia Publishing that dated back to 2004 when she authored Images of America: Los Gatos. Her editor at the time was Hannah Clayborn. "Hannah said that there was a whole subculture out there of people who absolutely love railroads and everything about them," Conaway adds. But working with an 18-year-old on such a project? "When I found out how young he was I wasn't too sure," she says. "But I thought I could help Ed, and it turned out to be a good collaboration. Ed knew railroads, and I knew Los Gatos history and why the railroad was so important." It was actually the Images of America: Los Gatos book that spawned Kelley's interest in Arcadia Publishing. "Someone had given me a copy of Peggy's book--it was autographed," he says. The two went on to study the history of railroads in town, interviewing those with knowledge of local rail history and collecting historical photographs. During the process, they contacted Billy Jones' daughters, Betty and Geraldine. "They came down here with their whole collection," says Conaway. "That was a real Los Gatos story. They brought things back to the 19th century." "Los Gatos for so many years was a railroad town," she adds, "and that's the kind of legacy that the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad continues." Keeping rail alive "The spirit of steam railroading still lives on here," says Kelley. "The legacy of Billy Jones is keeping steam alive and keeping railroading in this town." Images of Rail: Railroads of Los Gatos authors Kelley and Conaway are doing their part in that effort, too. Their book is not all steam and rail, but also recalls the people who played such key roles in the operation of the railroad in town. From Phil Reader, Al Martin and Bill Ulleseit to Bill Mason, who led the effort to save the Billy Jones Railroad after the death of its namesake in 1968. From Neil Vodden to his mentor, the legendary William "Billy" Jones. They're all there. "That was my goal," says Kelley, "to pay tribute to the rich railroad history in this town and the people of the rails. They are really among the most unique people." The historical rail moments in Los Gatos are there, too. The early years when the rails ultimately reached out to the town, the 1891 visit of President Benjamin Harrison, the construction and later demolition of the downtown depot, the Interurban Railway that offered a direct link between Los Gatos and the rest of the valley, and ultimately the relocation of a small railroad designed for the enjoyment of children from a backyard orchard to Oak Meadow Park. "While the rails may be gone and the depot long since demolished, Los Gatos remains very much a railroad town," Kelley wrote in the introduction to the book. "In 1877, a year before regular service began, a wood-fired, cinder-belching steam locomotive arrived in town on rails just three feet wide. The advent of the Iron Horse would play a prominent role in defining the economy and culture of Los Gatos." And Images of Rail: Railroads of Los Gatos will play a prominent role in keeping that memory alive. Train Town: A New Book Chronicles the History of Railroading – Full-size and Miniature – in Los Gatos By Michael S. Grant - 12/06/2006 Silicon Valley Metro
Railroads of Los Gatos, by Los Gatos steam-engine enthusiast Edward Kelley, with help from Los Gatos library director Peggy Conaway, parses some 200 historical photographs of railroad and trolley activity in the town. The book is part of the extensive series of local history books put out by Arcadia Publishing, which recently issued volumes about Mountain View and Alviso. The story begins in the 1870s, when mining magnate James "Slippery Jim" Fair and banker Alfred "Hog" Davis wanted to lay rails from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Back then, Santa Cruz boasted, according to the book, "the third busiest" seaport in California, not to mention major timber operations and tanneries. Slippery Jim and Hog created the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1876 using narrow-gauge track (about a foot and a half narrower than the so-called standard gauge that most trains run on). The line reached Los Gatos in 1877 and pushed on through the Santa Cruz Mountain communities of Glenwood, Laurel and Wrights Station before reaching the coast. A decade after its founding, Fair sold South Pacific Coast to the Southern Pacific, which switched the track to standard gauge and regularly ran steam engines from the bay to the mountains until 1957. Most of the book's treasure trove of period photographs concentrates on those big, beautiful steam-churning giants with their distinctive silver boiler doors leading the way. Real rail buffs—the kind who memorize individual engine numbers—will appreciate the 1956 shot of the last Mikado loco in the SP empire, running freight into Los Gatos. A photo taken at Vasona Junction shows the SF-Los Gatos commuter, with a full head of steam rising from its stack, aiming almost straight at the viewer; to the side sits a Peerless Stage bus—two icons of rapid transit lost. A 1909 high-angle view, taken at some ceremony for Civil War vets, takes in a wide swath of downtown, including the Rankin Block and the Opera House. As customary for the times, one and all—men, women and children—are wearing hats. Los Gatos' steam era wasn't just about the big engines. The book also tells the story of local railroader Billy Jones, who rescued a miniature steam engine known as the 2-Spot. This loco, about one-third the size of the real thing, began as a tourist line in Venice, Calif., before being consigned to a scrap yard, where Jones stumbled across it in 1939. After restoring the engine, Jones piloted it around his orchard, giving rides to several generations of grateful children. The Wildcat Railroad, as it was called, drew visitors from far away, including Uncle Walt himself, who modeled his Disneyland train on the 2-Spot. Like a real railroad, the Wildcat suffered derailments. In a 1956 photo, bystanders inspect a caboose after its tumble down an embankment. Another shot is so redolent of the valley's greener past that it hurts—the 2-Spot chugs through a stand of blooming fruit trees, with Mt. Umunhum in the distance. After Jones' death, in 1968, volunteers moved the miniature railroad to Oak Meadow and Vasona parks, where it runs on weekends from March to October. But luckily, you don't have to wait four months to take a ride. The Fantasy of Lights train runs Thursday-Sunday, 6-9pm, Dec. 7- Dec. 20, if the weather cooperates. Railroads of Los Gatos, part of the Images of Rail series, by Edward Kelley with Peggy Conaway; Arcadia Publishing, 128 pages; $19.95 paper. The authors appear on Thursday (Dec. 7) at 7pm at the Los Gatos Council Chambers, 110 E. Main St., Los Gatos. Railroads Remembered: Age of Steam Recalled at Book Party By Alastair Dallas - 12/08/2006 Los Gatos Observer
"The passing of the steam engine happened about 50 years ago," young historian and steam engineer in training Edward Kelley told the crowd, "but there are people in town willing to keep it alive." Before the presentation and panel Q & A, the line for book signings stretched around the room and out into the lobby. Extra chairs were brought in to accomodate the crowd. When a panelist mentioned coming into Los Gatos in the 1940s to see the Southern Pacific steam train, he mentioned a specific locomotive number, and there were several heads in the audience nodding with recognition. Like the book, Mr. Kelley's slide show, "Keeping the Steam," drew a straight line between the town's original 1878 narrow gauge line and the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad in today's Oak Meadow Park. Standard gauge track, with 4' 8-1/2" between the rails, was added to the narrow gauge (3' 0") rails around the turn of the century. Service to Santa Cruz ended circa 1940, making Los Gatos the end of the line. At about this time, retired SP engineer Billy Jones (1884-1968) built his scaled-down railroad on his 9-acre prune orchard on Winchester Blvd. just north of Daves Avenue. (If you are interested in Los Gatos history or you're a train buff, chances are you know this story well.) The last train to Los Gatos came and went before 1960. After Billy Jones passed away, volunteers led by Bill Mason moved his railroad to Oak Meadow Park, where it has been running ever since. "We didn't see much of our Dad," Billy Jones' daughter Betty Ermert told the crowd. "Many mornings he'd catch the first train to San Francisco at 4:45 a.m., and he wouldn't come home until 10 at night." Betty explained that her father bought the ranch in 1917 and she and her sister Geraldine grew up and went to school here. Because their father was so busy, "Christmas was often two days early or two days late." When she married, Geraldine was given a half-acre parcel from the 9-acre prune orchard and she lived "right at the first curve," she said. Many mornings she hoped to escape the blast of the little train's whistle. Images of Rail: Railroads of Los Gatos, $19.99 from Arcadia Publishing, 0-7385-4661-5. The book is available at many retailers, but copies purchased at Forbes Mill benefit The Museums of Los Gatos. |
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