Issue Number 91 – Spring 2025 San Luis Obispo, California www.slorrm.com!
Coast Mail
News from the San Luis Obispo
Railroad Museum
Open Saturdays from 10:00 to 4:00. Other times for
groups by arrangement. 1940 Santa Barbara Avenue.
Our volunteer crew of Brad LaRose, Gary
See, concrete finishers Ken Bennett (at right)
and Mike Burrell, and rebar wrangler Ted
Van Klaveren have continued to prepare and
install former Southern Pacific trackside
signals in the Freighthouse vicinity. Below, a
recently installed spring switch signal. The
Summer Coast Mail will have more information.
Ted Van Klaveren photo
Docent of the year
Our 2024 docent of the year
Gary See is always willing to
take on another task. He has
cheerfully worked on exhibits,
website development, security
and web-feed cameras, wiring,
and various maintenance func-
tions. He often can be seen at
special events, welcoming vis-
itors and taking photos.
More signals along
the Walk of History
Still a few around...
A late September 2024 derailment in the Tehachapis
raised questions if freight trains would detour to the Coast
Route. That used to happen occassionally, notably after the
Arvin-Tehachapi (White Wolf Fault) earthquake of 1952.
There were no detours. But the issue prompted your
editor finally, after passing it for at least 20 years, to snap
a photo of a truck in the neighborhood with a bumper stick-
er that once was more common: “Brotherhood of Loco-
motive Engineers” (out of view to the left in the image below).
Note the message on the other end of the bumper: “My
Other Vehicle Is A Locomotive.”
These days, one obstacle to detouring freights to the
coast is the lack of qualified engineers for the segment from
Guadalupe to Watsonville. It’s not enough simply to be a
licensed locomotive engineer. One must also be formally
qualified for specific routes.
Become a member
Membership provides opportune-
ities for anyone interested in today’s
railroads, railroad history, train tra-
vel, artifact restoration, or model rail-
roading. Membership benefits include
free Museum admission and a 10%
Museum Store discount.
Annual dues: Individual $40;
Family $65; Sustaining $100. Life
member single payment: under 62
$1,000, 62 and over $600. Junior
memberships (ages 12-18) for model
railroaders are available; contact
our Model Railroad Superintend-
ent for details.
You can join at the Museum, by
mail, or online. Download application
forms from the Museum’s website
and mail payment. Or you can join
online by clicking Membership and
using PayPal.
Coast Mail is published quarterly by the
San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum. © 2025.
Farewell to an exceptional
crew member
With great sadness we report the pass-
ing of Diane Marchetti. Diane served as
museum manager since the Freighthouse
opened. She ran the Museum Store, pro-
SLORRM Coast Mail Number 91 Spring 2025 Page 2!
Our Mission
Promote California Central Coast
railroad heritage through commun-
ity participation, education, historic
preservation, & equipment operation.
Contact
Telephone (message) 805 548-1894
email: info@slorrm.com
website: www.slorrm.com
Mail: 1940 Santa Barbara Avenue
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Board of Directors
Peter Brazil Mike Burrell
Stephen Cake Jim Chernoff
Alan Estes Ken Green
Greg Jackson Brad LaRose
Ted Van Klaveren
Crew List
President ..................... Brad LaRose
Vice President...............Mike Burrell
Museum Manager.. ............... vacant
Curator, Restoration .. Brad LaRose
Treasurer/Insurance ...... Dave Rohr
Exhibits ............................. Gary See
Operations ................... Mike Burrell
Events .....................................vacant
Model Railroad .... Andrew Merriam
Membership ....................... Gary See
Fundraising ...........................vacant
Digital Media Coordinator Gary See
Webmaster ................ Jamie Foster
Secretary, Archivist/Librarian, News-
letter Editor ............... Glen Matteson
(newsletter@slorrm.com)
The museum is a 501(c)(3) non-
profit, educational organization,
staffed entirely by volunteers.
Timetable
Board of Directors meetings
are scheduled for April 8, May 13,
and June 10, at 6:00 p.m. at the
Museum. You can participate online.
Contact info@slorrm.com
for help
with on-line participation.
Museum supporters
The Museum thrives only with
the support of many. Membership
dues, grants, and donations of ex-
pertise, materials, artifacts and
funds are all greatly appreciated.
In this edition we recognize Laur-
en Nagle for her donation of many of
her late husband Dennis “Dan” A.
Nagle’s books, videos, lanterns, and
other items. For many years Mr.
Nagle was a conductor working the
White Hills Branch, also known as
the Lompoc line. He usually used bay
window caboose #1886, now owned
and restored by our Museum.
Mrs. Nagle also made a very
generous financial donation to sup-
port the Museum’s S.P. boxcar in-
terior exhibit, "The Southern Pac-
ific Theater, Featuring the People of
S.P." A major goal of our Museum is
to preserve memories of the people
who worked for Southern Pacific on
the Central Coast and who helped
build our community.
On caboose #1886’s last day the crew chalked a colorful S.P. ball-and-
wing logo below the bay window. They also gave a name to the caboose:
"Lompoc Flyer." To the side of the window they wrote "Last Caboose Run
15-Nov-95." A modeler made three HO-scale models of the caboose, one
for each of the crew. Each model was custom painted with the
Lompoc Flyer marking, weathered, and mounted on a wood presenta-
tion base. Behind the model (below) is a photo of the crew. Left to
right are Peter Slavik (Brakeman), Dennis “Dan” A. Nagel (Conductor),
and Mike Miller (Engineer).
More Coast Mail Online
Pages 5 and 6: Starlight reversal,
holiday celebrations, Annual Report.
Brad LaRose photo
cessed memberships,
recruited and trained
docents, and helped
with events.
Her many friends on
the Central Coast and
in Hawaii will miss
her.
At right, Diane posed
with an historical tool
in 2016.
SLORRM Coast Mail Number 91 Spring 2025 Page 3!
We wear many hats
Last year the Museum received a donation of many Southern
Pacific items, including the baseball caps pictured at right. Three
stand out as different from the usual ones associated with loco-
motive engineers, conductors, and track and signal workers.
In the 1980s Southern Pacific’s “Construction Services”
branch had a major role in installing fiber-optic cables along the
tracks. “Plow trains” created trenches, inserted cables, and
covered them while moving slowly and paying special attention
to road crossings, bridges and culverts, and other obstructions.
Much of the nation’s Internet traffic follows rail lines.
Now, researchers are investigating use of existing lineside
fiber-optic cables to detect landslides, rockfalls, and even tres-
passers. The signals carried by fiber cables respond in distinct
ways to ground vibrations. Several companies, including Sen-
sonic in the United Kingdom, are working on this means of
detecting problems. A main advantage of using existing cables is
that a huge number of additional trackside devices would not be
required. On the other hand, such a system generates huge
amounts of data.
Engineers expect machine learning to help automate the
process of filtering actual signals of trouble from the noise of
normal conditions. For example, the system would learn to
distinguish the sound of train wheels going over a firm rail joint
from one that is loose.
Webcam at the Museum
Thanks to Museum volunteers Greg Jackson and Gary See,
and the folks at SouthWest RailCam.com, since November 2024
we’ve had a live video feed at San Luis Obispo. You can watch it
on YouTube or directly through the SouthWest RailCam website.
Greg and Gary mounted the camera on the roof of the Freight-
house, using a bracket that Gary designed and fabricated. The
camera can be pointed all around the Freighthouse and be zoomed
in and out.
In this November 2024 webcam screenshot we see the afternoon
Pacific Surfliner waiting on the layover track, while both the
southbound and northbound Starlights occupy the mains at the
depot. The image has been cropped and the exposure slightly
lightened compared with the full screen display. The Museum’s
boxcar, flatcar, and sugar-beet gondola appear in the foreground,
along with a signal displayed at left. Page 5 (online) has an image
from December 14, when both Starlights stopped short of their
destinations due to storm damage near Salinas.
Museum volunteers often take on many roles,
but not this many. If you have stories to share
about the roles associated with these caps, let
us know. Above left, “SP Construction Serv-
ices” involved fiber-optic cable installation;
right, “SP Bar B Que Chairman.” Below left,
basic Southern Pacific; right, SP “Law Claims.”
Recent history:
Operation Lifesaver!
During the 2024 Central Coast Railroad
Festival Amtrak’s locomotive painted for
Operation Lifesaver paused at San Luis
Obispo northbound (shown below) and south-
bound two days later. Museum member Rex
Miller, who took this photo, comes each year
from Southern California, usually by train.
Operation Lifesaver (“See Tracks, Think
Train”) is a combined safety effort by rail-
roads throughout the country.
Often in nature the combination of orange
and black means Watch Out (“I’m poisonous
or taste bad.”) Also on Amtrak’s Operation
Lifesaver locomotive, the eye-catching theme
means Beware.
!
SLORRM Coast Mail Number 91 Spring 2025 Page 4!
More recent history:
Not gambling, rare beast, weed sprayer, and work train!
Weed sprayer & MOW
Is the face above one that only a maintenance-of-way super-
visor could love? Union Pacific’s train designed specifically to
spray weeds visited the Coast Line in November. Brad LaRose
managed to get a quick photo of it passing through Santa
Margarita on a beautiful clear day in November 2024. Trackside
vegetation is controlled to reduce fire hazard, maintain drainage,
avoid fouling ballast, and assure signs and signals are visible.
At right, a trainload of maintenance-of-way equipment paused
briefly at San Luis Obispo, on a misty late November day. It
carried many Kershaw machines for profiling ballast and other
track renewal tasks.
For ease of access, not gambling
Last summer Union Pacific again ran a ”Slot
Machine” train along the coast, empty northbound and
loaded southbound at San Luis Obispo. The articulated
car sets provide a continuous trough that an excavator
can traverse from one end of the train to the other,
often for handling large rocks to protect against
erosion. These loads were headed to the railroad
location of Honda (on Vandenberg Space Force Base)
for use as fill. A previous visit was reported in the
Summer 2021 Coast Mail.
Last summer Union Pacific’s “Slot Machine” train loaded
with rocks paused in San Luis Obispo (left and above).
Brad LaRose photo
Sneak peek
Learn about our newly
arrived orange truck in
the Summer edition.
A rare beast
Most of Amtrak’s General Electric P32-BWH loco-
motives have been retired, some going to other operators.
This one, not the only Amtrak locomotive to carry the
number 509, was built in 1991, according to an online
source. In November 2024 it rested on the layover track
at San Luis Obispo before resuming duties as the power
for the Surfliner scheduled to arrive about 12:30 and
depart 4:10 for points south.
SLORRM Coast Mail Number 91 Spring 2025 Page 5!
An unusually strong December 14
storm hit the Watsonville-Salinas area,
severing Union Pacific’s coastal route.
Thanks to an effective response, through
Amtrak service was restored in two days.
At least area rail fans were able to see
things that don’t often occur on the Cen-
tral Coast: switching locomotives at San
Luis Obispo, and the rare beast featured
on page 4 leading a Starlight (right).
Union Pacific’s dispatcher in Omaha
aligned switches and set signals to facili-
tate removing the northbound Starlight’s
two locomotives, running them south to a
crossover, and back to what had been the
rear of their train. The southbound Surf-
liner’s departure was delayed a bit by the
maneuvers.
Unfortunate recent history:
Coast Starlights halted
SouthWest RailCam image
On December 14, 2024, Museum visitors and those watching the live web-
cam became spectators for some unusual moves at San Luis Obispo. While
the southbound Coast Starlight was held in the Bay Area, the northbound
train at San Luis Obispo became a southbound. Its two locomotives ran
around the train and, after some work re-activating a stubborn head-end
electrical power system, pulled it from the other end. The Surfliner (far
right above) waited patiently on the layover track during some of the time.
Holidays at the Museum
Santa’s Surfliner arrival was enjoyed again on a
beautiful December day. Three photos by Gary See
!
SLORRM Coast Mail Number 91 Spring 2025 Page 6!
2024 Annual Report
Financial Summary
Beginning Cash Balance $104,426
Income $116,006
Memberships $11,126
Admissions $13,294
Events $25,229
Museum Store Sales (net) $ 5,163
Miscellaneous Income $ 411
Model Railroad $12,122
Grants and donations
Purpose Restricted $26,499
Purpose Not restricted $12,076
Expenses $90,912
Operating $81,996
Capital $ 8,916
Year-end Cash Balance $129,520
The model railroaders made much progress on the San
Luis Obispo engine facilities (below).
Cal Poly transportation engineering students helped
move track materials, and great progress was made
on restoring the repair-in-place office (below).
Before signals were installed they were cleaned and
painted (above left). With the pandemic a memory,
tours by school groups resumed (below).
Removing items from Emily Street Yard required
hand trucks, a tractor (narrow-gauge coupler above),
and lots of crane work (concrete phone booth at left).
Volunteers provided about 4,700 hours in support
work, such as docent services, equipment restoration,
exhibit development, website maintenance and devel-
opment, document preparation, and reviewing and cata-
loging donations. In addition, model railroad members
provided 2,220 hours, about one-third as Saturday
docent time.
The year ended with about 240 museum member-
ships, including individual, family, and life categories.
The major accomplishment in 2024 was completing
removal of artifacts and materials from Emily Street
Yard. Several large signals that had been stored were
painted and mounted on bases as exhibits.