Club History

The Early Years

With the passage of time, and with the passing of older members whose personal memories extend to the founding and early years of the club, there is a danger that their record of accomplishment will recede into limbo. This brief history then is intended to be a tribute to those stalwarts and a reminder to newer members that our club facilities did not just emerge out of thin air, like Brigadoon! A reminder too that ours is the Oldest Live Steam Club in the country! It was founded by Victor Shattock in 1936, though at that time the club had no outdoor trackage, as we have today, steam operations being confined to the basement of Vic's house.

Vic was born in Devonshire, in England, in 1886, one of eight children of a father who worked as a stationmaster at the Great Western Railway. When Vic started working he was trained as a plumber, having been introduced to that occupation by one of his uncles. During his teens he emigrated to Western Canada, where he lived in Calgary.

When WWI began he enlisted in the Canadian army, serving in France. While there he was instrumental in repairing railroads that had been damaged during the fighting. When the war ended Vic moved back to Canada but began to hear of greater job opportunities, and possibly a better life, in California, a State to which he moved in 1923. Once there he started working for Southern Pacific Railroad and during the late twenties was stationed at Niles. In this period he built a model locomotive layout, in an outfit car on the railroad. Several years later, he was instrumental in building a temporary track for the Spring Festival at U.C. Davis, using S.P. carpenters to lay a runway, on which he built the track. This enterprise was a great success and was seen by an estimated 10,000 people during the course of the event.

During the thirties Vic moved his residence several times, with each move hoping to find a place where he could build a railroad. Finally, in 1934, he found a house, in Fruitvale, under which he could dig a basement, and into which he would be able to install a working railroad. The basement was quite large at 32' x 45', and with the notable exception of the heating furnace and the laundry tubs, it could be entirely devoted to steam railroading! The track ran all the way round the basement walls, and included an electrically operated model of a 110' turntable.

By this time Vic had three or four engines, which were fired up near the turntable, adjacent to where the water tank was located. A blower was used during the startup procedure, the fumes being directed up the nearby chimney. Once the first engine was fired up a test run was made. If successful, a freight consist was coupled to the engine and running would commence, sometimes single headed and sometimes double headed. These weren't passenger hauling runs of course, just free running alcohol burning engines. Although the club later moved to outdoor facilities, the basement track continued in use for twenty-seven years, until the house was torn down, at which time the track was sold to someone who still has it in use.

Vic was not the only one using the track, several other steam aficionados frequented the basement railroad, brining their own engines to run. There were plenty of non-live steamers too who came to watch the proceedings. Even the press got into the act, the concept of a scenic steam operation in someone's basement being the basis of several articles in the printed media. No T.V. in those days of course!

The number of visitors and the questions that they asked, "How do you get them started?" "What do they run on?", began to be somewhat overwhelming. So it was decided to start a club, which seriously interested people could join, and which would provide the means of disseminating information on the live steam hobby to all who inquired.

In a film made of his basement layout, Vic is shown working on his six inch Atlas lathe, which, together with his Atlas drill press, seems to have constituted the extent of his machine shop. Compare that list of equipment to the shops of some of the present club members! Whatever restriction that list may seem to imply, Vic turned out a series of beautifully built engines in 1/2"and 3/4" scales.

As interest grew it became clear that an outdoor track, where larger, passenger hauling, engines could run was a desirable goal, though full achievement of that goal was many years down the road. In between times several temporary outdoor installations were built. One notable example was for Southern Pacific, and the Yard Association on 74th ave in Oakland. An 80' track was installed along which as engine ran back and forth hauling children, succeeding, at least in part, in brining the existence of the club to the publics attention.

In 1940, one of the club members, Lauren Thacker, built an outdoor track in the back garden of his home in Stockton. This track was used not only by Lauren, but was frequented by many of the other club members for it provided a venue where passengers could be hauled, something that was not possible on the basement layout. Once WWII started there was of course no opportunity to advance the club's plans to construct a permanent outdoor track, so those plans had to be put on hold, basement activities continued however, sometimes with an unanticipated result.

It seems that the suspicions of the police, and other authorities, had been aroused by the number of cars parked in front of Vic's house. Perhaps some subversives are planning an insurrection! Or, maybe some other underhand activity was taking place within! The house was raided! But once the raiding officer was invited inside, for an inspection of the plant, he became quite interested, and on leaving, gave a donation!

In 1954 the club began to publish the Callboy, its monthly journal, which it has continued to do to the present day. It has been a record of the club's achievements, a fountain of technical information, and unfortunately, an obituary listing of the passing of members as the years have gone by.

In 1955 the club put on the Model Engineer Show at the Oakland Auditorium, from May 13th to May 15th. Member John Sweet even appeared on KGO TV's 'San Francisco Tonight' to promote the show. A portable track, built by Harry Cook and Bill Anderson, was set up in the studio for Bill Brower to run his 'Mastodon' engine on, while Harry ran his 'Tich'. Both the TV appearance and the Show itself served to promote the interests of the club and no doubt helped to bring more people into the fold.

The April Callboy noted that there would be 33 finished locomotives, 20 unfinished locomotives, 32 stationary engines, 6 boilers, 16 boats and 20 other miscellaneous models and parts as well as 80 feet of track, planes, tools and other items at the show. As an additional promotion, the Emporium, in San Francisco, and Capwell's, in Oakland had window displays of club models.

It was in 1955 too that dues were set at $10.00 a year. Another measure of the prices at that time can be given by noting that Lester Friend's Yankee Shop catalog of engine castings and supplies cost all of 25 cents!

In the mid fifties the search was on for a suitable piece of land on which a permanent outdoor track could be laid. Eventually, the club got word of an area in Redwood Park that might be available for railroad building. On inspection, it was found that a lot of vegetation had to be cleared before a real survey could be done, and stakes driven. But it was a suitable site and it was available for use by the club, under the aegis of the Park Department,whose intent was apparently to provide an entertaining spectacle for the public at large.

But where was the money going to come from for all of the necessary materials to build a track at the Redwood site? During the basement days of the club dues were ten cents a month, mostly for coffee and donuts, but we often ran in the red, so dues were raised to one dollar a month. Even so, the coffers were hardly full by the time the decision to move to Redwood was made. It was decided to use the basement railroad as a fund raiser. When we had visitors and spectators we asked them to make a donation to our new track fund. Many would give a dollar or so, and not infrequently, even a ten dollar bill. Occasionally the donation was even larger, after a visit by a scout troop, the lady in charge sent the club a check for $120.00, quite a sum in those days! Fortunately too, the club still had good connections with people at Southern Pacific, some twenty-six of whom were made honorary members of GGLS. This connection was to stand us in good stead later on.

Within the club there were many discussions as to the type of facilities we should build at the new site. Most members favored having an elevated track so that they could ride behind their engines. Remember, in those days there were far fewer large engines than there are today. So the need arose for a good supply of lumber for the high track construction.

Maybe one of our good friends at S.P. would be willing to supply us with some ties, we needed 150 of them! After some discussion, they came through, but there was still the question of how to get them to the track site. Well, Vic was a foreman with S.P.and had two trucks at his disposal, they were put to good use! As such, the ties were not suitable for use as high track beams, so more 'spare' lumber was acquired from S.P.'s various facilities and sawn into useable sizes, wearing out five bandsaw blades in the process!

The first track built at Redwood was the high track, for the smaller gauge engines. This was a multi gauge (2 1/2",3 1/2",4 3/4") setup that used railroad ties, for the supports. Originally the aluminum rails were fastened to the ties by drilling holes in the bottom flanges of the rails and driving in screw nails, a system later abandoned.

The track was 1,330 feet long and had a transfer table, about six foot six long,that was used to move the engines from the firing up tracks to the operating track. The track was officially opened on September 2nd 1950, at which time the Golden Spike Ceremony was performed.

There was a somewhat disturbing incident on that opening day. One of the engines fell off the high track, together with the engineer! Fortunately neither was badly hurt,the engineer suffering a few scratches and the engine a couple of bent pipes, but both were steaming well later in the day! Such an incident is, happily, extremely rare and to this day high track engineers refuse to wear bulky padding whilst driving their engines!

By August of 1956 discussion was underway as to whether the ground track at Redwood should be 7 1/4" gauge or 7 1/2". It was in this month too that Vic Shattock was asked to write a history of the club. A few months later, in November, Vic celebrated his 50th. wedding anniversary.

It is easy to forget that as well as being the oldest live steam club in the country GGLS has other notable attributes to be proud of. The August 1957 issue of the Callboy noted that the club had the longest 2 1/2" gauge track in the world!

In September of 1957 it was announced that 7 1/2" taken hold as the standard gauge on the West Coast and that would be the gauge that the club would use at Redwood. That adoption has led to many conflicts over the years. Obviously one cannot travel from coast to coast (or overseas ) with a large scale engine and expect to be able to run on all of the tracks belonging to all live steam clubs. In fact, only for the two smallest, passenger hauling, gauges can one find facilities everywhere on which to run.

By June of 1959 work had commenced on pouring concrete piers for the high track at Redwood. They were to be used to replace the wood piers that had been used up to that time. And there appeared to be a definite need for a ground track at the same site since no less than ten 1 1/2" scale engines were announced as being complete, or under construction.

By August, twelve concrete piers had been cast and there was a call for some muscle power to be used in the removal of the wood piers. It seems that only a few members were doing all the work. Isn't that a familiar cry!

At the September meeting John Sweet announced that the Park Department placed some fencing around our facility at Redwood, to provide some measure of crowd control. We were becoming popular enough to require such restraining measures!

The Fall Meet of that year had a low attendance, both by live steam men and the public. This was attributed to there being little advance publicity, that minimization being a conscious decision by the club's members since it was felt that previous meets had been too popular with the public, leading to crowd control problems. Perhaps though we had gone too far in reducing promotion of the event?

A letter from LBSC was read at the October meeting. He claimed to have made, and given away, 181 of his standard size injectors. He also reported that some of the Welsh coal the he had been getting was of poor quality, and that even at the best of times the quality was very variable. Over the years there were a number of communications from this well known writer on building model locomotives. Though he hated the term 'model' when applied to his designs!

At the December meeting there was a lengthy discussion on the potential arrangement of the ground track at Redwood. There were four schemes presented.
#1, A forty foot minimum radius continuous track around the existing high track.
#2, A fifty foot minimum radius continuous track around the existing high track. This scheme would require a trestle and moving the road.
#3, A seventy-five foot minimum radius continuous track, with long trestles across the creek and back.
#4, Two single tracks side by side with 30' turntables at each end, plus firing up and loading bays behind the station.
After a great deal back and forth argument, scheme #4 was adopted.

At the January 1961 meeting the question of financing the construction of the ground track at Redwood was discussed. Several members had investigated this matter and had concluded that some $1,384.50 was required to cover the cost of purchasing rails, ties, concrete, etc. There was a general agreement to proceed with the purchases as the work progressed.

The Callboy for May 1961 reported that construction of the ground track at Redwood was underway. Such a simple statement is inadequate in describing the amount of planning and labor that went into this enterprise, mostly by a hardy few of our members. The ground at the site was not exactly pool table level and much filling and grading had to be done before any track laying could be started.

Most of the money that had been saved by the club was allocated to buying rails for the new Redwood track, which left little for any other purchases. It was at this time that our good connections to S.P. Officials paid off again. We held a meeting with them and showed them how worthy the work that we were doing was and that it deserved their support, adding that any help that they could give us would be greatly appreciated. They seem to have been impressed, with the result that they got their engineers to survey the site, put in stakes for the layout, prepared the contour maps and presented them to the Park District for their approval! Without S.P.'s help the Redwood track may never have got underway. At least it would have been delayed for a long time.

As was to be expected, there was some opposition from other users of Park land, particularly from horsemen. "Why should our group have the use of all that flat land?" But a series of meetings with other interested park using groups eventually brought things to a relatively amicable state and we were allowed to proceed with our plans.

Throughout all of this construction activity the people at S.P. were amazingly supportive, providing us with a planer for squaring up the lumber and many other tools for easing the workload. They even provided us with the redwood for the ties, and cut them for us, many thousands! How was all of this timber held together? With nails supplied by S.P. of course! At the opening ceremony at the track an S.P manager noted that there was more S.P.stuff in use than most anyone would imagined!

Once the track was complete we had to show the Park Department that they had been justified in allowing us to build on the site. At that time though there were only two or three members with suitable engines so these were put to good use in showing the public just what was possible in the way of hauling freight and passengers with small live steam locomotives.

As time went on more and more members completed building engines and ran them on the track, creating ever greater interest on the part of the public.

The Move to Tilden

At the end of 1962, although it seemed that the club had only just settled into Redwood Park, the question arose as to the possibility of moving to Tilden Park. William Penn Mott of the Park District gave a presentation at the December meeting in which he discussed the pros and cons of such a move.

The principle problem of remaining at Redwood was that there was a very limited useable level area for track expansion, in fact even our existing facilities were somewhat cramped. By contrast Tilden would offer a much larger area, for a much more spacious layout. The Park Department supplied us with a simple topographic map of the Tilden area so that some measure of the terrain could be gathered.

By April of 1963 the decision had been made to move to Tilden, even though such a move would require a great deal of effort in building the new facilities, only a few years after all of the arduous construction work done at Redwood. Suggestions were made that the high track at Tilden be made lower, so that straddle riding cars could be used. The lower height would have been necessary since the shorter amongst us would not have been able to 'Jump into the saddle' with a high high track! It was recognized, after much discussion, that building a lower track would necessitate building new track supports, so the decision was made to keep the existing track height so that the existing concrete track supports could be reused.

The years went by, with the club still occupying the Redwood site, though there were frequent planning sessions as to what should be done at the Tilden Park site. Arguments for and against having a dual gauge ground track at Tilden were eventually resolved into deciding to transfer the existing dual gauge track from Redwood to Tilden, but to make all further extensions 7 1/2" gauge only. The final resolution was to make the outside, public hauling, track single gauge and the inner loops dual gauge.

It is May of 1965, the club is still running at Redwood, and the Callboy reports that an air compressor had been donated to the club. Discussion ensued as to whether to install it at Redwood, or to wait and install it at Tilden when the move was made to the new site. These were the transitional years for the Club.

It was not until the Fall and Winter of 1971 that the move to Tilden was finally made. There was, a tremendous amount of work to be done, though the Park Department had graded most of the site and installed drainage. But in those early times at Tilden certain areas, of what is now the track, could become flooded after heavy rains.

By December of 1972 the Callboy reported that the ground level steaming bays had been completed at Tilden. Thus the construction work continued for several more years until, in September 1975, the Golden Spike Ceremony was performed before an audience of several hundred people, and with an attending complement of more than forty locomotives! This ceremony also dedicated the completion of the Heintz Loop, named after Ralph Heintz, who donated some 4,000 feet of track, and other materials, to the Tilden project.

For those members who joined the club after the completion of the major Tilden facilities it is difficult to imagine what a huge enterprise its construction was. Thousands of man hours went into both the planning and the building of this project, which was spearheaded by such notables as Bill Brower, Bob Byers, Jim McDaniels, Dick Thomas, Louis Lawrance, Art Stewart, Frank Larimer, Blair Phillips, John Sweet, John Curtis and a host of others, not all of whom are with us today.

Two other people should be singled out for their great contribution to the Tilden track. Louis Romani, who, together with his crew, built the clubhouse, complete with toilets and kitchen, and Frank Larimer, who was boss and slave driver over the whole Tilden project.

Unfortunately, our founder, Vic Shattock, did not live to see the Golden Spike ceremony, having died in 1974, but his name lives on with the plaque on the side of the carbarn and, it is hoped, it is a name that will not soon be forgotten, but will be revered by all present and future club members.

For members who have joined the club since those years of major construction, ending in 1975, it may seem that the situation has remained relatively static, apart from such projects as the building of the roundhouse. But those with long memories, or those with a collection of Callboys to which they can make reference, will be able to recall any number of proposed construction projects, some of which actually came to completion.

At the end of 1984 there was a proposal to build a heavy lift engine hoist, it having been observed that the existing hoist was somewhat overwhelmed by the weight of the larger engines that were now frequenting the track. By some sleight of hand, someone acquired a hydraulic ram from a service station car hoist. A suitable track beam was designed and built, and in short order a new heavy lift hoist was in place.

In 1985 there was a proposal to build a gauge 1 track on the hill at the back of the clubhouse. There was enough enthusiasm expressed, and energy applied, that this project was carried through to completion. The track opened in November of 1986. However, after a few runs, with a fair selection of engines on display, the enthusiasm waned and the track, fell into disuse, now very little evidence of its existence remains.

In 1985 too there was a major change in the venue of our monthly meetings, from Laurel School to our present, St. Christophers Church Hall. This move was, in part, motivated by the fact that on several occasions we had been locked out of the school when the janitor failed to show up! This could hardly be tolerated when so many members travel considerable distances to get to the meetings.

1986 was a banner year for projects. In March there was a proposal to build a pedestrian bridge, from the parking lot to the station. There was merit in this proposal since visitors, after viewing our facilities from the parking lot, are forever asking the question, "How do we get to the station to take a ride on the train?" They are invariably disappointed to find that they have to walk up to the Redwood Railroad station, then walk down to our track. Stan James designed a suitable steel truss bridge and submitted drawings of it to the club members for their approval. There was a general agreement that the scheme was viable, so the drawings were presented to the Park Department, by Herm Volz, for their approval. Unfortunately, their approval was not forthcoming since there was no provision for wheelchair access, clearly impossible on a bridge of this nature. So the project was dropped.

In September of 1986 Loren Bryon and Bill Schaefer proposed a steep graded loop, for geared locomotives, on a hilly area out in the Heintz Loop. A preliminary rough survey was done and it was concluded that it was probably possible to build such a loop but that at least two bridges would have to be built across the existing ground tracks in order to get track radii that even geared engines could traverse. One of the bridges would have to be of approximately 50' span and again a drawing of a suitable design of a through truss bridge was presented to the club members. This time though there was no immediate need of Park approval, for interest in the project simply faded away!

This was the year too that the proposal to build a roundhouse was submitted to the membership, only to go down in defeat. That was not the first time that such a building had been proposed, and defeated. After a few more years more though the feelings of the membership seemed to have changed, for a roundhouse proposal was finally approved and construction got under way. Although there were some bad feelings exhibited by some members over the method of financing the roundhouse construction, those members who now use this facility have nothing but praise for it. The area in front of the roundhouse building has been enhanced, of recent years, by the inclusion of a number of scale buildings and other structures, as well as the compressor house, so that members can now steam up their engines without having to drag them to the steaming bays near the clubhouse. It seems amazing now that there was ever any objection to this facility!

As the years pass the passenger hauling activities of the club seem to grow ever greater. The club has acquired two engines that are used almost solely for this purpose and one or other of them is in use for hauling the public nearly every weekend. In addition, members owning large engines frequently use them for hauling the public, much to the club's benefit. Then there are the club members who give their time as station masters, brakemen, and engineers on the trains. Without these people the club's coffers would be less full than they are, for voluntary contributions by the riding public constitute a considerable portion of the club's income.

During the summer months those working at the station were often subjected to hours of toil under the broiling sun, so, in April of 1986, a suggestion was made that a canopy be built over the station, to protect these workers from the elements. This turned out to be one of those projects that went very quickly, at least by our standards, and January 1987 saw it completed.

The club's fortieth anniversary was celebrated in 1976, the fiftieth in 1986, and in 1996 we celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of our founding. There have been more than sixty exciting and interesting years and it seems unlikely that Vic Shattock envisaged such a lengthy existence for the club that he started in the basement of his house. But now that we have come so far, it would appear quite possible that we will one day celebrate our centennial. But don't let's get ahead of ourselves, we should be thankful for what we have at Tilden, both the physical entity of the facility , and the fellowship of those other members of our clan who use it.

Editors note

In compiling the information that has gone into this brief history of the Golden Gate Live Steamers I have made reference to a number of sources, principally the Club's collection of Callboys, but also to a previously written brief history published a number of years ago. I have found a degree of variation of noted facts between these sources, though I doubt that these variations are of great significance to the overall history.

Rough drafts of this document have been submitted to several longtime club members for their perusal and comment in the hope that any inconsistencies and inaccuracies will be caught before publication. If such has not been the case I apologize for the errors. The intent has been to provide as complete a history as the currently available information will allow to be written, but with the passing of almost all of the founding members it has been difficult to ensure that complete accuracy has been achieved.

Stan James 1996