Railroad Supply History

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Comstock-Friend
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Comstock-Friend »

In the shop photo, Jerry Brown is running the lathe at the top, far left.

I started my CP-173 in 1976 after years of hanging around the store to look things over. About the second or third trip down for parts, Nick Edwards (who I had never seen before) rang me up at the register. A week later I received a letter from Nick asking me if I could come by and pay California sales tax. He being from Nashua, New Hampshire, had forgotten to add the tax to the bill!

And yes, John Darby had it for a little while. The shop was on the other side of the 5 Fwy from the Victory Blvd location, a little more cramped. That location is now gone, lost to redevelopment. A divorce caused him to sell and RRSC was gone from California.

John
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LivingLegend
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Comstock-Friend wrote:In the shop photo, Jerry Brown is running the lathe at the top, far left.....
John....

Isn't that Mike Cornett holding the drawing to the right of Nick?

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Atkinson_Railroad
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Atkinson_Railroad »

John,

Recalling your sales tax story is just too funny. It made me laugh.
In the 1980s, you better have an additional .39 cents on you if you want the full illustrated catalog.

JDA
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765nkp
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by 765nkp »

Steve PM sent.
Cary Stewart
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Cary Stewart »

That panorama photo of the shop has people I remember. Left to right, Bill Shermier owns the mustachio, the plaid shirt is Jerry Brown, I don't recognize the fellow half hidden behind the engine, the fellow kneeling is Chet Peterson, man in shirt and tie is Nick Edwards and I think the fellow on the right has been IDed. However, it might be Jim Oetting - not enough detail for my old eyes.
By the way. In the beginning Chet was in partnership with Winton Brown and Chet's first catalog, No. 6 I think) was a follow on to Winton's series. It included Winton's 2-6-0s and all of beautiful cast aluminum trucks from Rolly Bollis including the high level trucks and the Blomberg engine trucks. One interesting item is the 3 axel High Level trucks. They were only used on the High Level dinning cars. in a couple of years Chet and Winton had a falling out and the partnership ended. I was told by someone that Chet objected to the many photos of product that had cats in them. Winton and his wife were avid cat fanciers. Chet thought that it was no appropriate and that they were selling railroad equipment not cats. I have, I think is his last before the partnership, and Chet's first one which is, think No.6.
RRSC had several silent partners that provided what Chet called heart money. Omar Miliken form Oklahoma was one and Nick was another. I believe there were two more but I don't remember their names. Omar was a very wealthy oil millionaire.
When Chet died the company went to ??? who after a couple of years died of a heart attack. The company then went, I believe, to Riverside for a few years but I don't remember his name. When he sold out some of the product went to Mike McClure and some went elsewhere. You will know more about that part than I.
Joe Nelson did most of the design of the valve gear for CP 173. There are other names on some of the prints. Chet has a bad habit (In my opinion) of making changes in red on production prints without telling the engineering and shop people about them. Two more people that worked part time for Chet were my brother William (Bill) Stewart and Hal Hoadley. Others came and went. There may be names in the old catalogs.
I will add more info as I remember it.

Best, Cary Stewart
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LivingLegend
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Cary....

Don't think that's Jim Oetting, Jim wore glasses in those days and was thinner in his body and face. And I don't think I ever saw him at RRSC wearing a shirt with a collar, either.

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Gary Armitstead
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Gary Armitstead »

Could that be Barry Hague with Nick? About the right age for that time.
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LivingLegend
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Gary....

Barry always wore his glasses and was a bit taller.

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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by Atkinson_Railroad »

From 9th Edition Catalog Published Spring 1984
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LivingLegend
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

Atkinson_Railroad wrote:From 9th Edition Catalog Published Spring 1984
That was the catalog where names went to the wrong photo....

They have Ken Prather's name next to Royal Wright's photo and Royal's name next to Ken's photo.

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Re: Railroad Supply History

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LivingLegend
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Re: Railroad Supply History

Post by LivingLegend »

McNown wrote:I assume you all have seen the vidios on youtube? Very cool footage....
In addition to Chet's Little Engines 4-8-4 at the beginning of https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qGz5AbwJcZ0 (A Visit to Railroad Supply Corporation, 1984), is the prototype RRSC Mikado. The CP173 that's on display with them belongs to Ken Prather, who worked at RRSC at the the time. The CP173 shown towards the end of the video, is RRSC's 173 prototype.

LL
Do it right.... Or don't do it at all
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It's not that I'm apathetic, I just flat don't care
An Intellectual is nothing more than an Over-Educated IDIOT
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