This year's Pacific Railroad Society banquet was being held at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. A shop tour was being offered at 10:00 AM, so I signed up and that morning, drove to Knott's Berry Farm and paid ten dollars to park then walked to the front entrance where I found Carole Walker, who was joining me. A few more PRS members soon arrived and we spotted the Knott's train crew. Once the rest of our group gathered, we were led into the park and in a short time, we arrived at the shops just as the train was approaching.
Today's train had Ghost Town and Calico Railroad 41, ex. Rio Grande Southern 41 1916, exx. Denver and Rio Grande 409 1886, exxx. "Denver and Rio Grande Railway "Red Butte", nee Denver and Rio Grande Railway 409 "Red Cliff" built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1881.
Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose 3 which has a Wayne Bus body and was constructed in 1931 and is fifty percent heavier than 2 and longer. She is the first Goose running on three trucks (the middle one being powered) and to be articulated. She is mostly made of 1926 Pierce-Arrow parts for the body of the passenger section and for the engine.
The Galloping Goose (actually the plural should be 'Geese'), or Motors as they were officially called by the railroad, were for sure among the most original railroad vehicles ever built. They largely contributed to the fame of the Rio Grande Southern and were its most prominent symbol from the thirties until its closure in 1951. These engines, built during the thirties, resulted from the absolute necessity for the Rio Grande Southern, then on the verge of bankruptcy, to cut its operating costs. They were meant to replace conventional steam trains becoming too expensive to operate, and were a kind of hybrid between a car or a bus riding on railroad tracks and a truck. They constituted single-car mixed trains, cheap to operate and able to carry a small amount of freight, mail and express, and the few remaining passengers travelling between Durango and Ridgway.
The Galloping Geese were built by the Rio Grande Southern shops in Ridgway, with very little means and a lot of ingenuity, from whatever material was available, spare car parts and other used parts. There are several hypothesis regarding the origin of the weird unofficial nickname (Galloping Goose) of the Motors. One of them claims that the name came from the waddling of the Geese on the uneven Rio Grande Southern track, another attributed the nickname to the goose-like honk of the horn of the Motors, very different from the usual whistle of steam engines. All the Geese have survived until now, except one (of which a replica has been built). Among the survivors, all but one are operational and are used occasionally on the loop track of the Colorado Railroad Museum, on the Cumbres & Toltec or on the Durango & Silverton.
The rear of Galloping Goose 3.
A map showing the route of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.
I always liked the Galloping Goose emblem. I then ventured into the shops.
Ghost Town and Calico Railroad 40, ex. Denver and Rio Grande Western 340 1924, exx. Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad 400 1921, exxx. Denver and Rio Grande Railroad 400 1886, nee Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company 400 "Green River" built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1881.
Denver and Rio Grande Western 340 builder's plate.
I went outside and waited for the next train to pass.
The train, with Rio Grande Southern 41, passed for the second time then once everyone was ready, we walked west along the tracks to the other steam engine on the property.
This steam engine was built by the Davenport Locomotive Works in Davenport, Iowa in July 1927 as N&S Coal Company 55 in Pittsburg, Kansas. It was later sold to the Mackie Clemens Fuel Company in Mulberry, Kansas. In 1977, it was acquired by the Keystone Light Railway Company in Herminie, Pennsylvania. The engine was later restored as a 2-4-4T for Marriott Corporation's Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Illinois. While the engine was delivered to the park in 1980, it was stored behind the park's enginehouse in its shipping crate and never used. Marriott attempted to sell it around 1983 for US$90,000, but it did not sell and was a part of the sale of the park to Six Flags in May 1984.
By 1991, it had been restored for Bill Norred, who was planning a Victorian village in Southern California. Norred traded it to Disney for five of the original 1955 Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad closed coaches (part of the Retlaw 1 passenger train), which had been out of service for nearly twenty years. The engine was too large for Disneyland, and was sent to Walt Disney World where it was named after Ward Kimball. It was placed on display at Epcot before being traded to Cedar Point in 1999 from Walt Disney World for the Maud L., one of the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad original engines running since 1963. The engine sat in the back of the engine house for years and was finally sent to Knott's Berry Farm in California to be restored in 2010.
Denver and Rio Grande coach "Silverton" built by the railroad in 1887, was on display. We then waited for the train to come around the loop again.
Another photo runby. We followed the tracks to a gate and re-entered the park then a had restroom stop before walking to the station area for a tour of the private cars "Edna" and "Durango" then over to the station.
The park train at the Ghost Town station. Our group then rode the train around the park and went to the Hacienda Room for the PRS Banquet. Following the serving of Mrs. Knott's Famous Chicken Dinner, door prizes were announced and I won an American Freedom Train Poster that I would donate to the Depot Inn and Suites in La Plata, Missouri. Russ Davies presented a slide show on Railroading in Colorado Through the Years. After the banquet, Carole and I then stood in a line for 42 minutes to ride the Calico Mine Train, which I had forgotten how enjoyable it was. With that, our visit to Knott's Berry Farm was complete.
