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Ken Middlebrook
In early August, Alida Bray, President of History San Jose, approached me about the possibility of relocating SP #1215 to the front of the museum parallel to Senter Road.
HSJ was investigating upgrading their front yard appearance, the largest change would be a new garden to be installed between the Dashaway Stables and the perimeter fence.
This museum location was underutilized and Alida believed relocating 1215 in this vicinity would attract both passing motorist on Senter Road and on-site museum visitors.
Furthermore, the locomotive could be integrated into HSJ's Historic Transportation Program for grade school students.
The new garden would involve removal of the existing lawns and was planned to occur before the end of the calendar year.
Over the previous eighteen months, CTRC volunteers had cosmetically restored 1215.
The locomotive looked great yet remained hidden in its back parking lot location.
Although less than half a mile in distance, relocating the locomotive would require an outside contractor to move the 75 ton artifact.
Additionally, the new display location would require ground preparation.
Taylor Heavy Hauling was contacted and performed on site walkthrough.
As conceived, the relocation would require removal of the museum's perimeter fencing and passing over the lawn area proposed for the new garden.
Fortunately, the locomotive's north facing orientation in the parking lot would permit a new south facing orientation without a need of a second reload of Taylor's trucks.
Because of the heavy loads, concerns were raised toward completing the move before the winter rains.
Taylor planned for two days to complete the move.
At the August CTRC board meeting, a relocation proposal was made for funding approval.
During the discussions, a suggestion was made toward expanding the display to include a 'train' involving other CTRC rail cars.
As a result, the display would include 1215 and a caboose.
With a plan of how the relocation could occur, permission was sought by History San Jose from the city's parks department.
Several meetings resulted with discussions focused on the various responsibilities of the involved parties.
Final city approval was given October 21 leaving less than two weeks for the planned moved dates of November 1 and 2.
CTRC volunteers and supporters kicked in high gear....
A-Tool Shed (Rob Pedersen) provided much needed skip loader and forklift.
Steve Raby volunteered to prep the new display site with the A-Tool Shed trackor.
Rod Diridon arranged for base rock from Stevens Creek Quarry (Mark McKenna).
John Evoski lead a crew to build three 33 foot track panels for the new display track.
To utilize tools and material at the fairgrounds, two track panels were built at the fairgrounds and moved to the museum by Peninsula Crane and Rigginng (Joe Bauer).
After spreading two truckoads of base rock, Steve discovered additional material was needed and arranged for a donation from Reed & Graham (Sal Guido).
Rob Pederson provided a dump truck to move the Reed & Graham donation.
CTRC volunteers greased and lubed 1215's journal surfaces.
Due to the wet weather forecast for the Halloween weekend, the move dates was pushed out a couple of days to November 3 and 4.
On Wednesday, November 3, Taylor Trucking arrived from Roseville at around 11:00.am with three large truck and a very large forklift.
By 5:30, locomotive 1215 and her tender were located on their new display track.
A scheduled two day event occurred in six hours due to the various preparation and support from the entire CTRC organization.
The following CTRC volunteers assisted in this effort:
- Tom Anderson
- Rod Diridon
- John Ezvoski
- Lynda Jones
- Gene Martin
- Ken Middlebrook
- Denis Murchison
- Larry Murchison
- Ron Pugh
- Art Randall
- Phil Ruhle
- Bob Schneider
- Ray Willaims
- Jack Young
- John Zielinski
A special CTRC 'Tonka' recognition is given to volunteer Steve Raby.
Utilizing the A-Tool Shed skip loader, Steve spent several days removing 20 plus yards of turf only to replace this material with an equal amount and more of base rock.
This vital activity was needed to provide a solid foundation for 1215's new display track.
Before this time, Steve had only spent a couple of hours operating a tractor.
Additional work will be required to complete our new display train.
Final ballast will have to be added; however, thank you to everyone for the work done to this point. |
