Goleta Depot Dispatch, Vol. 24, No. 3 — Fall 2004 Page 1

Newsletter of the South Coast Railroad Museum

Volume 24, Number 3 — Fall 2004

(continued on page 3)

Sunday, Sept. 26 will mark the 22nd annual DepotDay. The day-long museum event is a celebration of thelong and colorful life of Goleta Depot, which is listedon the National Register of Historic Places, the Califor-nia Registry of Historical Resources and the roster ofSanta Barbara County Historical Landmarks.

Depot Day is the museum’s principal annual commu-nity fund-raiser. Events hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A Donation Will Be Requested

All Depot Day attendees will be asked to make a $1per person contribution in support of the museum andthe continued preservation of the historical landmark.

A Cornucopia Of Rides

Depot Day is the only opportunity during the year forvisitors to enjoy rides on three different types of rail-cars. Inspection-car rides will be offered on BobMahan’s Ventura County Railway speeder. There willalso be handcar rides and rides on the “Goleta Short Line”miniature train. All rides are $1 each on Depot Day.

Silent Auction

The Depot Day silent auction has become a favoritevenue for picking up valuable goods and services at greatprices, while also helping to keep the railroad museumgoing and growing.

This year’s auction tables will be spilling over withabout 200 items going up for bid, including luxury hotelstays, golfing, admission to Southern California amuse-ment parks, tickets to regional performing arts produc-tions, winery tours, Amtrak adventure travel, meals atfine local restaurants, and a lot more.

The auction is a very important source of financialsupport for the museum. Please help by visiting the tables

and placing bids on some of your favorite items.If you have new items, collectibles, or valuable services

to donate to the auction, please give Assistant Director PhyllisOlsen a call in the museum office (964-3540).

Special Guests

Operation Lifesaver will have a booth for Depot Day.Their representatives will be giving away fun souvenirs thatpromote safety around trains and railroads. They will also beavailable to distribute literature and answer questions aboutkeeping safe near tracks, rail yards and railroad crossings.

Musical Entertainment

Returning to Depot Day again in 2004 will be the won-derful young performers of the Monte Vista Elementary

Inspection car rides are only offered on Depot Day.

Depot Day Has Arrived!

Page 2 Goleta Depot Dispatch, Vol. 24, No. 3 — Fall 2004

Goleta Depot Dispatch: Newsletter ofthe South Coast Railroad Museum.

Published quarterly by the Institute forAmerican Research, 300 North LosCarneros Rd., Goleta, CA 93117-1502.

To contact us:Phone: 805-964-3540;FAX: 805-964-3549E-mail: museum@goletadepot.orgWeb-site: www.goletadepot.org

South Coast Railroad MuseumInstitute for American Research

Board of Trustees

David ChapmanKip KramerNoel LangleJohn C. LockeBruce MordenKen PontifexRchard B. Shelton

Officers — 2004

Bruce Morden, PresidentRichard B. Shelton, Vice PresidentNoel Langle, Secretary-Treasurer

Senior Staff

Gary B. Coombs, Ph.D., DirectorPhyllis J. Olsen, Asst. DirectorThea H. Cremers, Resource

Development Coordinator

Jr. Engineers Club PartyAbout 60 club members, family and

friends attended the annual Junior En-gineers Party, which was held Aug. 12on the museum grounds. Everyone inattendance enjoyed the party cake,snacks, beverages and other refresh-ments, as well as the chance to get to-gether and share a love of trains.

The afternoon festivities also in-cluded 116 rides on the Goleta ShortLine miniature train.

Welcome New MembersBruce Winstrom (Goleta Electric

Co.) is a new Milepost 100 member.New active members include BillBerger, Wendy C. Hawksworth, Ri-chard and Rita Rink, Chris and Jes-sica Russell and Walter N. Waldau.

New Junior Engineers are BrendanCarlyle, Luke Gargano, JaimesonHighfill, Spenser Pierce, JustinRasmussen, Amanda Russell, JacobRussell, Charlie Salazar, ShawnSouthard, Andrew Stone, RobertUlmer, Breckin Uwins, RyanMitchell Vance and Josh Zaragoza.

Welcome to all of our new members!

Wish List

Thanks to the generosity ofShirley Baird, the museum now hasits own, brand-new barbecue forpreparing foods for Depot Day andother museum events. In the past,the museum has always needed torent or borrow barbecues for events.In recent years, this has become in-creasingly difficult.

We are still looking for some-one with the time and expertise torebuild the Honda 5-hp enginethat was recently removed from Lo-comotive No. 1316. Once this en-gine is rebuilt, we will have abackup in case of engine troublewith either of the locomotives.

This Issue Sponsored By

Woman’s

Service Club

of Goleta

Wordsworths Adopt “Gray Engine”Museum members Jon and Beth

Wordsworth of Atascadero haveadopted Engine No. 2655. They hadbeen planning to make a donation tothe museum and when Jon saw the no-tice in the last Depot Dispatch he knewexactly where he wanted their gift to go.With the Wordsworths’ generous con-tribution, all of the Goleta Short Lineengines and passenger cars now havesponsors.

In MemoriamThe museum lost a dear friend when Jack Cogan passed away July 30.

Jack and his wife, Harriet, were among the very first contributors to theGoleta Depot Project. Jack was also one of the museum's first volunteers onthe miniature-train ride, back in the late 1980s. Healso served on the museum's Board of Trustees.

A professional photographer and police officer withthe City of Santa Barbara, Jack took a number of pho-tographs at Goleta Depot in the late 1960s, which werepublished in the Goleta newspaper. Jack's photo of AlSingleton, the last Southern Pacific agent to makeGoleta Depot his home, reappeared on the back coverof the paperback version of the book, Goleta Depot:The History of a Rural Railroad Station.

The Cogans had been living in retirement in SantaMaria for a number of years before Jack’s death. Hewill be missed by all at the museum who knew him.

Weekend Free Train-Ride DaysIf you miss Elks Day on Sept. 18,

sponsored by Santa Barbara ElksLodge No. 613, there will be anotherfree-ride Saturday in November. TheNov. 13 free day will be sponsored byBermant Development Co., whichgave us another free-ride day back onAug. 21.

Museum visitors may ride the trainas often they like over the 1:15-3:45 pe-riod during which the rides will be of-fered. For the safety of our visitors, alltrain riders must meet the 34-inch mini-mum-height requirement.

Jack Cogan

Goleta Depot Dispatch, Vol. 24, No. 3 — Fall 2004 Page 3

School Choir and SHOWSTOPPERS,under the direction of Radu Azdril.

Depot Open House

Depot Day offers a rare opportunityto see the second-floor agent’s apart-ment, usually closed to visitors.

Barbecue Offers ChoiceOf Tri-Tip or Chicken

At the Depot Day barbecue you willhave your choice of chicken breast orsliced tri-tip, along with green salad,

Depot Day (cont’d from page 1)

Visitor Center Project AdvancesImportant progress on the Visitor Center construction has been

made over the past two months. Most of the changes are a resultof donations of materials and professional labor.

The roof is now complete – due in large part to a donationfrom Steve Silva and his company, Native Roofing.

The building has its own electricity now, too, thanks to BruceWinstrom of Goleta Electric Co., together with a lot of prepara-tory work by David Chapman and his fellow volunteers.

Some of the exterior paint has also been applied, in advance ofthe roofing and rain-gutter installation. Goleta Valley Paint (Steveand Colleen Ozab) is donating all of the paint for the project.

When the doors arrive, the windows, doors and exterior sidingcan all be added. Delivery of the doors is expected mid-September.

toasted french bread, and ranch beans.BBQ tickets are $8 ($5 for children

under 12) on the day, but they may alsobe purchased in advance for $1 less perticket. Advance tickets are available inthe museum's Trackside Shop, (ticketpurchases can be made by credit card),or from museum trustees and staff.

All members are encouraged to pur-chase their tickets in advance.

Other Refreshments

There will also be hot dogs, snacks,beverages and other refreshments avail-able for purchase during Depot Day.

Train-Hugger Films

Throughout Depot Day, the muse-um’s Gandy Dancer Theater will be fea-turing films on a wide range of rail top-ics of interest to all age levels.

Circus Is Leaving Town

Depot Day will also be your lastchance to enjoy Ken and CarolynWeber’s HO-scale “K&C FamousFamily Circus,” complete with operat-ing circus train, on display in themuseum’s model railroad exhibit room.

Scenes Of Summer (Steaming)

Page 4 Goleta Depot Dispatch, Vol. 24, No. 3 — Fall 2004

Volunteer NewsProgram Expands To Bay Area

The museum completed two suc-cessful test trips to Oakland on Aug.10-11 and Aug. 23-24, the latest stepsin the planned expansion of themuseum’s Coast Starlight InterpretiveProgram to the Bay Area.

Participants in the August trips in-cluded volunteer guides Carla Caba-natuan, Jim Felland, Ed Leska, PatLorentzen, Perry Lorentzen,Nancy Johnke, and MuseumDirectorGary Coombs. Their program, whichreached an audience of about 1,200Coast Starlight passengers, was madepossible by a grant from the NationalPark Service and the Anza NationalHistoric Trail.

The presentation, made over thetrain’s public-address system, includedinformation and anecdotes about lo-cal and regional history, points-of-in-terest, natural history and things-to-doalong the Coast Starlight route. This in-cluded such diverse topics as theCastroville Artichoke Festival; Chan-nel Islands National Park; the ElkhornSlough wildlife preserve; Moffett Field,once home to the world’s largest diri-

Volunteers Train To Be EngineersThree museum volunteers are at different stages in the process of becoming

Goleta Short Line engineers. Samantha Matthew (left) has completed her train-ing, Wally Waldau (center) has only one training session to go, while Rich Thom(right) began his instruction on Sept. 4.

gible; and the community of Alviso,historic gateway to the city of San Jose.

During the presentations, the mu-seum team also gave out complimen-tary impressions of the unique CoastStarlight/Juan Bautista de Anza Na-tional Historic Trail stamp (pictured atright) to children aboard the train, as

well as any passengers carrying theirNational Park Service passports.

A young passenger receives an imprint from Guide Nancy Johnke, while Carla Cabanatuan (left) watches.

Guide Jim Felland describes local sites to passengers viathe train’s public address system.

There is a serious shortage of vol-unteers on the miniature train ride.Both weekday and weekend afternoon

shifts are available. Please contactThea Cremers in the museum office(964-3540) for more information.

More Volunteers Urgently Needed On Train Ride