One of the nicest Northeastern Pacific rail depots still in existence, is to be found in the Sonoma County city of Petaluma.
This 1914 depot is designed in the Mission Revival style by Southern Pacific Railroad architect, D. J. Patterson. The passenger station originally cost $7,000 to build. The new station replaced the 1871 wooden stations. Patterson also designed the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio station. He also designed the Willits Station for the Northwestern Pacific, north of Petaluma.
This was a busy station with 14 passenger trains stopping at Petaluma daily. The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge cut into the passenger numbers and the last passenger train departed from this station in 1958.
That was until almost 60 years later in June 29, 2017 that a passenger train stopped In Petaluma.
The spot now housed the Petaluma Visitor’s Center but passenger service still lives in the form of SMART trains that travel from Santa Rosa to the ferry terminal at Larkspur.
A southbound SMART train pulls into the Downtown Petaluma station.
I’m not really into horse racing and a few of the racing tracks in the Bay Area are now closed. Golden Gate Fields will become a caption to a photo like Tanforan and Bay Meadows before. The recent reports of horse deaths have put a pall over the sport in days of waning interest in horse racing.
What I am into is California history and there is no denying the story of a thoroughbred horse named Seabiscuit with a deep California connections is a great story.
I know Seabiscuit from a statue at the entrance to Tanforan Mall. Seems such an odd place for a horse and rider sculpture but when you know that from 1899 to 1964 the location used to be a racetrack. Tanforan Racetrack featured many of the best thoroughbreds in racing history. The grandstands burned down by suspected arson and then leveled to make way for a mall which opened in 1971.
Tanforan also has a more dubious history as a processing center for Japanese Americans during 1942, then known as the Tanforan Assembly Center. Around 7,800 Japanese Americans were rounded up here and lived in horse stalls for about eight months. They were then sent on to other interment centers across the west.
The plaque under the statue reads: “Seabiscuit Born 1933, Sired by Hark Tack- out of Swing On, Owner- Charles S Howard, jockeys Red Pollard-George Woolf, World Champion Money Winner to 1938.”
Seabiscuit was stabled at Tanforan for a time and ran races here. In 1939 the horse left Tanforan by train when Seabiscuit journeyed east to race War Admiral.
Another bit of Seabiscuit history can be found just north of Tanforan in the sleepy town of Colma. At the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park rests Charles S. Howard.
Howard was Seabiscuit’s owner. The multimillionaire was responsible for Seabiscuit’s success by finding the perfect combination of horse, trainer (Tom Smith), and jockey (Red Pollard).
Manassas/ Bull Run is about 40 minutes to Reagan National Airport so I couldn’t resist the urge to visit the site of the first major land battle of the Civil War.
When I arrived from Winchester, it was still raining.
The focal point of the first battle was Henry Hill, named after the widow Judith Henry, who lived on a farmstead during the battle. She refused to leave and was killed in the battle when her house was hit by artillery fire.
On the crown of Henry Hill is the grave of Judith Henry, perhaps the first civilian killed during the Civil War. The stone house is one the few structures that still stands from the two battles at Manassas. It was used as a field hospital during both battles and upstairs solider carved their names into the wood. The Union cannon position on Henry Hill looking towards the woods where the Rebels charged their position. It was the first time the northerners heard the bone-chilling Rebel Yell.
One Confederate commander made his name at the first Battle of Manassas on Henry Hill and his name was Thomas J. Jackson. Jackson held his Virginian troops at the brow of Henry Hill and General Barnard Bee of South Carolina, in a attempt to rally his own troops, supposedly said, “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” or it could have also been, “Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall!” Whatever Bee really said is lost in history because a Union bullet silenced him forever soon after his remarks. And the Commander is forever known as Stone wall Jackson.
A quick field sketch of the Stonewall Jackson Monument at Manassas.
The northwestern Virginia town of Winchester changed hands during the Civil War 72 times. But my travels to Winchester was not to see a battlefield or a monument but a humble two story house in a working class neighborhood.
The house’s history had nothing to do with the Civil War but was to home one of the world’s best singers: Patsy Cline.
Patsy is one of the most influential singers in county music who transcends musical genres and her music crossed over into popular music with hits like: “Walkin’ After Midnight”, “I Fall to Pieces”, “Crazy”, “She’s Got you”, and “Leavein’ On Your Mind”.
She was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia on September 8, 1932.
It had been raining all morning on my drive from Staunton to South Kent Street in Winchester. I was able to find a parking spot across the street from the humble two story house with a historic plaque out front.
I sketched the house, where Cline lived from ages 16 to 21, in my rain-proof-automobile-blind. I was here too early to get a tour of the inside (I had a Civil War battlefield to sketch before my flight to SFO).
After my sketch was complete I had one other place in Winchester to visit just south of downtown: Shenandoah Memorial Park.
On March 3, 1963, Patsy Cline performed at a benefit with George Jones, Dottie West, Hawksaw Hawkins among others in Kansas City.
On the following day she chose to fly back to Nashville instead of accepting a ride with Dottie West for an 8 hour car ride, saying, “Don’t worry about me, Hoss. When it’s my time to go, it’s my time.”
Patsy Cline’s time was on the evening of Tuesday March 5, 1953, when the Piper PA-24 Comanche she was traveling in crashed in a heavily wooded area near Camden, Tennessee. The time read 6:20 PM on Pasty’s watch, which was recovered after the tragedy. Patsy Cline was 30 years old.
Her final resting place is in Shenandoah Memorial Park.
Perhaps I was expecting a bit more for a memorial to one of the best singers in recording history but her grave, like her childhood home, is humble and simple.
The only way you would know that this was a person of note was the amount of flowers and coins placed on the marker. I had a quiet moment, sung a tune in my head, and then placed a penny at her grave and then drove through the steady rain to Manassas.
Now it was my turn to be a foamer in a car. I planned to chase 611 from Goshen to Staunton on her afternoon run.
611 being mobbed by fans at Goshen before the afternoon run to Staunton.
I headed into “downtown” Goshen and parked near the railroad. There were already a few chasers getting ready. One was looking over a map and was conversing with another foamer on which grades you could get the best “stack-talk”. He was a serious foamer who had done his research and was willing to share it with the like-minded.
After a wait of about 45 minutes, 611 sounded it’s whistle and the Shenandoah Valley Limited was on it’s way. She had to back her consist onto a siding before headed onto the mainline. Now 611 was facing Staunton and the engineer pushed the Johnson bar forward, released the breaks, and pulled back on the throttle. No. 611 burst in steaming-hissing life!
Down the tracks the sounds of the stack-talk (or the chuff-chuff-chuff of the exhaust) was amazing. 611 blew the crossing and passed the old Goshen Depot and steamed off to Staunton.
Let the foam-fest begin!
611 heading toward approaching the grade crossing at Goshen.
Now this is “stack-talk” as 611 approaches the grade crossing at Goshen. You also hear her powerful whistle.
I then joined the line of foamers in cars on Highway 42, which parallels the line. This has created a traffic jam on the two lane road because the pacers wanted to take pacing shots of 611. I and most others on the road, wanted to drive ahead and get shots of 611 on a run by.
611 and dreaded line of pacers in front of me!!
After some of the pacers pealed off, I was able to get ahead of the madding crowd and pulled off to get a run by shot of 611.
611 at a grade crossing.
From here, I made a b-line to Staunton because I wanted to get a shot on the walkway above the tracks as 611 pulled into Staunton Station.
611 pulling into Staunton Station. 611 is streamlined even from above. Off to the left are the two diesels that will pull 611 and her consist back to Goshen.
Before my train ride on Friday, I wanted find out where Goshen was. It appeared on my Virginia map but was not mentioned in the travel guide. So I set out of lexington on Thursday afternoon to get an idea of where Victoria Station was.
I came to the station and drove down a dirt road and I could see the excursion train on a siding with 611, under steam, on point. There were still setting up the pavilions and grading the road so I could get a good look at the Queen of Steam.
I returned to the main road and then pulled onto the should where I though I was about level with 611, hoping I could get a look at the iconic locomotive from the road. I was able to get a look at 611 and took a few picture which I based the sketch below on.
I couldn’t wait to Friday morning!
I arrived at Victoria Station in Goshen, an hour early and there was already a line forming at the checkin pavilion.
It seemed a mix of casual rail enthusiasts, older folks out for a guffawing good time, and foamers, train addicts that “foam” at the mouth anytime they get near a piece of vintage rail equipment. Better yet if that equipment has steam pouring out of it and is making hissing sounds.
I really wanted to arrive early so I could sketch 611. Norfolk and Western Class J No. 611 is a very beautiful passenger steam locomotive, fully streamlined, giving the machine a sleek look. Her curved and voluptuous lines screamed “speed” and the streamlining makes the locomotive look more an airplane or an ocean-going vessel. She just looks quick!
611 at Victoria Station, Goshen.
It is said that a steam locomotive is like a living, breathing being and I was taking in the sights, sounds, and scents (she’s a coal burner after all) as I was sketching her stately profile.
We boarded and I had a seat in a bi-level car, the type used on commuter lines like Caltrain. I was originally in the bottom level, surrounded by some of those guffawers who were having a Grand Day Out and wouldn’t have cared if Thomas the Tank Engine was pulling our consist. I escaped up to the second level (after first doing a sketch), and had a great view from above.
We backed out of the station at 9:05 AM. This was the first run of the Shenandoah Valley Limited, an excursion that would be running in the month of October, Friday through Sunday with a morning and an afternoon trip daily.
611 backing out of Victoria Station. A foamer is already pacing the Queen of Steam.
611 pulled onto a siding and with a retort of her baritone whistle, she puled onto the mainline, heading towards Staunton (pronounced “Stanton”).
Over the next two hours we headed through the forests starting to show their fall colors. We passed a lumber mill, a few small towns, and backyards scattered with rusted old cars and trucks that were now being repurposed as nature’s planter boxes.
We pulled into Staunton Station at 10:55. From here, two Buckingham Branch Railroad diesels were coupled to the back of the train and be would be pulling the train back to Goshen with 611 riding behind like a big, black smoking caboose.
Throughout our four hour rail journey we were followed by foamers in cars. Some of them would pull ahead of us and then pull off to get a run by photo or video (or both) and them run back to here idling cars and we’d see them a few miles down the line. The worst kind of chaser is called a “pacer” and the drive at the speed of the locomotive which is anywhere between 15 to 40 miles an hour. They hold up traffic and are often driving well below the speed limit to the consternation of other foamers or locals just trying to get to the grocery store.
When we returned to Goshen, I knew 611 would be static for a long enough time for me to get a sketch in (featured sketch).
What a great experience with a legend of the steam era.
I had not ridden behind a Northern type (4-8-4) on the main line since 1984 when my father and I rode a train pulled by Southern Pacific GS-4 No. 4449, from San Francisco to Los Angeles. This was a two day excursion with a stop in the bright lights of Fresno.
For the afternoon run to Staunton I became one of those crazy foamers in a car, but that’s for another post.
I had grown up going to Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. But what of the original Natural Bridge in western Virginia? It was clearly worthy of a visit and a sketch
Only this bridge is much more famous, it was once owned by Thomas Jefferson, surveyed by a young George Washington (apparently), and name-checked in Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick. (“But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia’s Natural Bridge…”)
The bridge was formed in a limestone gorge, carved out by Cedar Creek about 470 million years ago. The arch is 215 feet high, higher that the Statue of Liberty.
When Jefferson purchased the land in 1774 he called the landforms, “the most sublime of Nature’s works”.
I love the rowed seating at Natural Bridge, as if your are watching nature’s theater, which you are. These were perfect sketching perches.
A Roanoke location on my sketch list is the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
The museum is housed in the old Norfolk and Western Freight Depot and parallels the current high iron of Norfolk Southern.
The city of Roanoke was the epicenter of the Norfolk and Western Railroad where the business offices where located downtown and the eastern shops produced some of the most advanced steam locomotives ever built. While the N & W was a small railroad, compared to giants like Southern and Union Pacific, at it’s height the railroad operated 7,803 miles of rail. The railroad merged with Southern Railroad in 1990 creating a new railroad, Norfolk Southern.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation, housed in the former Norfolk and Western freight depot. The rocket to the left is not for human transportation, it is a Jupiter Missile.
While the museum has a large collection of automobiles, I was here for the locomotives and rolling stock.
And because they were on static display, meaning they weren’t moving anytime soon, they were ideal sketching subjects.
The impressive 2-6-6-4 Class A No. 1218. For a time, this was the most powerful excursion steam locomotive in the world. Big Boy No. 4014 put 1218 firmly in second. 1218 is now retired from active service.
The Norfolk and Western Railroad has three iconic classes of steam locomotives: Class A, J, and Y. All three were built by the railroad at their Roanoke Shops, just east of the museum. All three are now owned by the museum. The Y6 Class No. 2156 is on loan to the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Norfolk and Western Roanoke Shops still stands, long after the railroad disappeared in a merger with Southern Railroad in 1990. The 70 inch drivers of 1218.
The Class J No. 611 was not at the museum but was off two hours north on excursion service. (More about 611 in future posts).
It’s not all about trains at the VMT. Here is a vintage Tucker Sno-Cat. The spur leading east out to the Norfolk Southern mainline. This is track that No. 611 uses to head out for excursions.
A big draw for visitors to the VMT is Norfolk and Western Class J steam locomotive No. 611. But she was not here, hence the void in my spread (featured sketch). There was some wall space devoted to the museum’s most famous occupant. On the wall was a plaque, very similar to a plaque I had seen the week before at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
The plaque designated No. 611 as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. 611 attained this designation in 1984, noting, “The last survivor of US coal-fired passenger locomotives, considered among the most advanced of any 4-8-4.”
One of the most touching passages of the Civil War happen on April 12, 1865 as Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse.
The setting was northeast of the courthouse and just past the Peers House on the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. This was the offical surrender ceremony a few days after Lee had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House.
The event is best related in a passage from James McPherson’s Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Civil War,Battle Cry of Freedom:
The Union officer in charge of the surrender ceremony was Joshua L. Chamberlin, the fighting professor from Bowdoin who won the medal of honor for Little Round Top, had been twice wounded since then, and was now a major general. Leading the southerners as they marched towards two of Chamberlain’s brigades standing at attention was John B. Gordon, one of Lee’s hardest fighters who now commanded Stonewall Jackson’s old corps. First in the line of march behind him was the Stonewall Brigade, five regiments containing 210 ragged survivors of four years of war. As Gordon approached at the head of these men with “his chin drooped to his breast, downhearted and dejected in appearance,” Chamberlain gave a brief order, a bugle call rang out. Instantly the Union soldiers shifted from order arms to carry arms, the salute of honor. Hearing the sound General Gordon looked up in surprise, and with sudden realization turned smartly to Chamberlain, dipped his sword in salute, and ordered his own men to carry arms. These enemies in many a bloody battle ended the war not with shame on one side and exultation on the other but with a soldier’s “mutual salutation and farewell.”
This interaction between the victorious north and the defeated south was the first step in helping to bring a divided and bloodied nation back on the path to becoming the United States again. Did it work? I leave it to you, dear reader, to decide.
The Peers House at Appomattox Courthouse. The site of the Chamberlain-Gordon encounter is just down the stage road to the left of the Peers House.
On the morning of April 9, 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia was involved in it’s final wartime conflict. The last shots where fired from the front yard of the Peers House. The cannon shot caused some of the last casualties of the war in Virginia.
The countryside around Appomattox Courthouse is beautiful. The photo above is taken near the spot of Lee and Grant’s second meeting. The meeting occurred on the morning of April 10 with both men on horseback. While the surrender in McLean’s front parlor pertained to the Army of Northern Virginia, Grant tried to persuade Lee to convince the remaining Confederate forces to surrender. Lee refused telling Grant that the decision was up to the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.
To the right of this photo and out of frame is the location of Chamberlain’s Salute of Honor. I sketched the view looking down the Richmond-Lynchburg State Road (featured sketch).
I headed into Colonial Williamsburg early in the morning to beat the crowds and to get some sketching in.
When you are in Williamsburg early in the morning you beat the crowds but service vans replace horse-drawn carriages. Colonial Williamsburg seems less “Colonial”.
I loved the signs of Colonial Williamsburg. On an early morning ramble on a side street I came upon the Sign of the Rhinoceros, an apothecary. So I sketched the whimsical sign into my sketchbook (featured sketch).
These signs are visual and told anyone who was illiterate what was to be found inside. Not everyone could read in pre-revolutionary Virginia.
A golden ball was the calling card of a watchmaker. I’m not sure what is sold here but I bet it’s not bells. If you couldn’t read the words below, the image above tells you exactly what you can procure in this shop.
Corvid Sketcher 