“STEAM DAYS ON THE WESTERN PACIFIC RAILROAD”
‘The Story of a Second Trick Crew Caller at Portola, CA’

In 1986, “Jack Daly” was a retired Assistant Superintendent of Schools in San Mateo, Calif. He and his wife attended the same church in Union City, CA that my wife and myself attended. They were a great couple and celebrated over 50--years of marriage.

But back during the Second World War, “Jack Daly” was a railroad man.
Jack was employed by the famed Western Pacific Railroad for some fifty-one months during the war years. He was put in charge of the “Enginemen’s Board” at Portola, Calif working on the ‘second trick’ (swing shift) …

“Jack” wrote down several pages of his memoirs from his days at Portola and passed them on to me. They are all typewritten. His story is absolutely fantastic. It is written from the heart of a real gentleman my wife and I were pleased to know. I have never seen memoirs of the WP written by one employee in this much detail.

I had LOST the manuscript until this evening while cleaning out my old file cabinet. I am overjoyed that I found it. It is a story of dozens of STEAM locomotives, wartime action in the Feather River Canyon, hilarious stories, more serious stories, stories of sometimes lonely hours in the Sierra mountains.. and maybe a few surprises…

My plan is to submit a copy to “WP MILEPOSTS” magazine and see if they will print it. What do you guys think ?? I’m sure the gang at Portola would be interested in seeing what it was like at their museum location in the 40’s !

At this time, I would like to give all of you a “look back” at Jack’s story… You will soon see what I mean by the “hilarious stories” portion of his manuscript…. Place yourself back in time in the Feather River Canyon—
Imagine the year is maybe 1942 or 1943… Here is ONE of Jack’s quotes:

“ Engineer Bill Tout and Fireman John Moore came roaring across the Sierra Valley one afternoon on Engine 316. As they did, a low flying airplane hit the sand dome on top of the engine and put a large hole in it.
The pilot knew who was on the engine that day and decided to give the crew a thrill, but in doing so, he misjudged his altitude and nearly lost his life as well. When the crew tied up in my office they confessed to me what had taken place and asked for advice on how to word their Federal report. As I remember it, I suggested that they just state that the engine had been hit by an unidentified flying object but they finally talked the roundhouse foreman into covering up the whole affair for them until the needed repairs were made. F.L. Crissey was the night foreman at that time and he was really a great mechanic and easy to work for. But like everyone else he was working long hours under trying conditions and one night was the recipient of some roundhouse humor when he signed a request for some materials from the Store Department without looking at it. The request asked for 'one hundred feet of rope to hang the roundhouse foreman’ but obviously it was stopped before it reached the head office down in Sacramento. “

This is just a sample of some of Jack’s stories—--hope you enjoyed it…

Cheers.
Ken Shattock (KRK)
keyrouteken@msn.com