I just came across this truly inspiring story of how much one man can accomplish in the field of railway preservation. Unbelievable? You be the judge:

1952
Walter Knott buys America's last operating narrow-gauge railroad, the Denver and Rio Grande, and moves it in its entirety to Knott's Berry Farm. The steam-powered train is christened Ghost Town & Calico Railroad....

http://www.knotts.com/farmlore/farmlore.htm

In that case, what's even more inspiring is how the Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton managed to take significant portions of the Rio Grande narrow gauge and move them back to their original locations after Walter Knott moved the whole thing to California. For that matter, wasn't the East Broad Top still operating in 1952?

> I just came across this truly inspiring
> story of how much one man can accomplish in
> the field of railway preservation.
> Unbelievable? You be the judge:

> 1952
> Walter Knott buys America's last operating
> narrow-gauge railroad, the Denver and Rio
> Grande, and moves it in its entirety to
> Knott's Berry Farm. The steam-powered train
> is christened Ghost Town & Calico
> Railroad....


Surviving Steam Photo Archive
rjenkins@railfan.net

"Believe nothing you read and only half of what you see"

v-scarpitti@worldnet.att.net

> "Believe nothing you read and only half
> of what you see"

Yeah, Guys, I could swear i ran across two pretty big pieces (and many smaller ones) of the D&RG narrow gage around Durango and Chama and Golden and other places as well when working in CO.

Hey, didn't one nice engine find its way to Michigan too?

Dave

lathro19@idt.net

What is truly amazing about Knotts Berry Farm, however, is that they continue to maintain and operate two 1881 locomotives in daily service, despite the cost of doing so, plus two recent accidents, one fatal.

When many other large amusement parks have even disposed of their diesel/hydraulic trains, Knotts has kept these two antiques running almost continuously since 1952, quite a record.

ryarger1@nycap.rr.com

> What is truly amazing about Knotts Berry
> Farm, however, is that they continue to
> maintain and operate two 1881 locomotives in
> daily service

Not so surprising considering the park had George Sapp working for them for many years.

Dave

lathro19@idt.net

While we all owe Walter Knott a debt of gratitude for saving what he did, at least it's nice to know that the media was screwing up stories about railroads even then. All newspaper reporters who write about railroads should be required to take a Basics of Railroading course from Don Phillips or someone like him.

kevingillespie@usa.net

> I just came across this truly inspiring
> story of how much one man can accomplish in
> the field of railway preservation.
> Unbelievable? You be the judge:

> 1952
> Walter Knott buys America's last operating
> narrow-gauge railroad, the Denver and Rio
> Grande, and moves it in its entirety to
> Knott's Berry Farm. The steam-powered train
> is christened Ghost Town & Calico
> Railroad....
Mr. Knott bought some of the "San Juan" passenger cars - Al Perlman probably helped load the cars to get them out of Colorado.


yrfavsob@aol.com

Knott's is still a very nice place to visit. A few years ago (before those two accidents) I was there with family but took lots of pictures of the loco and talked with the crew almost every time they stopped. Eventually I was INVITED TO GO FOR CAB RIDE! I had not even asked, thinking it was not possible in that setting. I even blew the whistle for their two grade crossings. Nice people, quite a place. Kimball