Railroad Supply History

This forum is dedicated to the Live Steam Hobbyist Community.

Moderators: cbrew, Harold_V

Mikadoguy
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:23 pm
Location: Nashua, NH

Railroad Supply History

Post by Mikadoguy »

Good evening, I was wondering if those who worked for Railroad Supply back when it was in Burbank California could share stories and or history of RSC. With the 50th anniversary coming up 2020, I would like to dedicate a section on our web site on the history of RSC. Some of the things i have found were 16" gauge a track and train built for Travel Town in LA, which i found some pattern boards of. I also found out that RSC built a scale model for the TV show Super Train and an engine and box car for Silver Spoon. Also they helped in a part where a train blows up in the movie Swarm. These will be shared on our web site in the history part. Please feel free to share your stories and or history of RSC. Pictures would be great too. I have yet to dig though the pictures my dad has. Any help would be great. Thank you again for your time guys.

Steve
User avatar
LivingLegend
Posts: 2149
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2006 3:55 pm
Location: The Boonies of Alabama

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Almost all of the older guys who worked RRSC Burbank starting back in the 1970s when it opened are no longer with us.... Many long time employees, among them Jerry Brown and Royal Wright. Joe Nelson (So You Want To Build A Live Steam Locomotive) who wasn't actually what one would call a "real" employee, but did some consulting work as well as some drafting in the early days is gone. Jim Kreider and I were two of the pallbearers at Joe's funeral in the 80s.

Of those who were "youngsters" in their teens and twenties and who worked for Chet in the 70s into the early 80s, many are still involved in the hobby although one of them recently left us, Barry Hauge. Jim Otting, who died a few years ago was a full time employee Jim is the one who drew many drawings of RRSC products as well as all of the original drawings for RRSC Mikado in addition to other work Jim's drawings were the most beautiful drawings you'd ever want to see or work off.

There are a few others who are still around and active in the hobby..... Larry Fisher (who recently started up his own "Fisher Detail Foundry"), Matt Swain and Bill Schirmer are some I can name off the top of my head. I will PM you contact info for them.

LL
Do it right.... Or don't do it at all
I have no life. Therefore, I have a hobby
It's not that I'm apathetic, I just flat don't care
An Intellectual is nothing more than an Over-Educated IDIOT
Blogs: Where people with nothing to say..... Say it
User avatar
LivingLegend
Posts: 2149
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2006 3:55 pm
Location: The Boonies of Alabama

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Tom Snyder would occasionally drop into the original RRSC to visit when he was working at the NBC studios in Burbank. I ran into him a few times at RRSC back in those days myself. Snyder was an NBC network news anchor as well as host of The Tomorrow Show which followed the Tonight Show in the 70s, and also host of a show on CBS in the 90s that followed Letterman. Snyder was an avid Lionel and toy train collector. and his The Tomorrow Show interview with Ward Kimball, including a tour of Ward's Grizzly Flats RR and toy train collection can be found on Youtube.

LL
Do it right.... Or don't do it at all
I have no life. Therefore, I have a hobby
It's not that I'm apathetic, I just flat don't care
An Intellectual is nothing more than an Over-Educated IDIOT
Blogs: Where people with nothing to say..... Say it
User avatar
LivingLegend
Posts: 2149
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2006 3:55 pm
Location: The Boonies of Alabama

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Oops.... In my list of list of early RRSC employees still active in the hobby, I left out David Rohrer.

LL
Do it right.... Or don't do it at all
I have no life. Therefore, I have a hobby
It's not that I'm apathetic, I just flat don't care
An Intellectual is nothing more than an Over-Educated IDIOT
Blogs: Where people with nothing to say..... Say it
Mikadoguy
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:23 pm
Location: Nashua, NH

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Mikadoguy »

These pictures are of the 3 RRSC (2-8-0) engines that Don Marshall built. One is in Texas, The green one is here in New Hampshire. The third one was shipped back to Cali after my dad rebuilt the engine cause nothing machined correct and all three engines did not run right. My dad to this day fixed all three of them. A guy named Tom owned RRSC at that time. Not sure what happened to it after that.
Attachments
NELS_Waldo02_05.jpg
Eastbrook_last04_377.jpg
User avatar
makinsmoke
Posts: 2260
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2003 12:56 pm
Location: Texas Hill Country

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by makinsmoke »

Steve,
You should get in touch with Nick Edwards.
Kimball McGinley
Posts: 809
Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 2:13 pm
Location: Laguna Niguel CA

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Kimball McGinley »

Chet Peterson lived in the house directly behind the Welding and Trailer Hitch Shop in Glendale that my Dad and Uncle started in 1947. (The M +M Shop is still in business at the same location.) My dad claimed to have welded up the boiler for his famous Northern. ( too late to check with Dad about that now...) We lived just a few blocks from LALS and Chet's location on Victory Blvd. in Burbank and I often rode my bike to one or the other. Chet was also running the park gauge railroad down by Los Feliz Blvd. in Griffith Park at the time; he offered me a job running and working on it but I was still in school. This was about 1974 or so. At the time, he claimed that they had hauled more passengers in the last year than Amtrak, west of the Mississippi River. Someplace I have bunch of B+W photos of him on the Northern at LALS. I was shooting photos on the trestle; pretty handy since they all seemed to stop there. Then some guy came over and yelled at me for blocking traffic; apparently they were all stopping to pose for me! Kimball McGinley
Mikadoguy
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:23 pm
Location: Nashua, NH

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Mikadoguy »

This is from catalog edition 8. This would be the shop floor where most of the machine work and building was. Chet is down looking at the Mogul (Virginian) which was a wooded prop and is in our storage shed. The gentleman with the tie on the right of the picture looking at drawings is Nick Edwards who was also i believe at one time was the owner for RRSC.

Past Owners:
Chet Peterson (Founding Father)
Nick Edwards
Tom (not sure what his last name was)
John Darby?
Mike McClure/ Roland Gosselin
Mike McClure

I found original RRSC pictures my dad has from Burbank. Im hoping to scan these and share them with all. Some are group pictures of guys that worked in the shop at the time.

When Chet was making the Mikado, was there at any point in time that he was going to try to make other locomotives using the same parts as the Mikado? Reason i ask is as we were moving the pattern boards i found a cylinder block pattern board that had USRA 0-6-0 on it.


Steve
Attachments
Railroad Supply Cat 8.jpg
Craig
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 5:29 pm
Location: Lemoore, CA

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Craig »

I think it was Tom Summers.
User avatar
Dick_Morris
Posts: 2841
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:09 pm
Location: Anchorage, AK

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Dick_Morris »

There is mention on page 58 of the fifth edition catalog (1973?) with specs and photo of a partially completed USRA 0-6-0. It said it was first in a family of USRA locomotives. From what I've seen in the catalogs, I wonder if the Mike and 0-6-0 represented unrelated projects?
User avatar
dnevil
Posts: 373
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:19 am
Location: Springtown, Texas
Contact:

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by dnevil »

The Introduction page of the old red RRSC "Engineering Handbook for Recreational Railroaders" is signed by both Chet and Nick Edwards.
RRSC Introduction to "Engineering Handbook"
RRSC Introduction to "Engineering Handbook"
See http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Nick_Edwards

Daris
Daris Nevil
IBLS Secretary
North American Region
http://www.ibls.org
User avatar
backyardrails
Posts: 228
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2004 8:08 pm

Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by backyardrails »

Correct me if I am wrong, but there was also a gentleman named Gerry Bowden who worked at RRSC.
Bernie Grow
Post Reply