Re: Kudos to Hal Lewis
Author: Dmac844
Date: 02-01-2012 - 08:57
Good to see folks acknowledging Hal. He is the kind of person that can not only get things done when they are running smoothly, but when they are not. Back in the Pacific Limited days there were 2 weekend trips scheduled Oroville-Portola and return. The Canyon had other ideas, with enough rain for the Saturday trip to have to wait at Virgilia on the return for a couple of hours getting a mudslide cleared. UP was not keen on sending a train with 600 passengers up the canyon Sunday with the rain continuing to come down, so it was changed to a Oroville-Fremont turn. The passenger lunch had been planned to be at the Portola museum, so Hal got in his car Sunday morning, drove to Stockton and found a pizza place that would 'deliver for 600', got them to the Stockton yard and delivered to the train.
There have been so many amazing things like this over the years, hopefully someone will write a history of both Pacific Limited and Central Coast excursions over the years, it would be a great read!