This last January, my old friend Frank Arthur Saarni passed away. We had known each other for right at 40 years.

Frank was born in August of 1926 and except for his time in the Army spent in the Phillipines during WW2, he lived nearly all his life in the Berkeley, CA area.

When Frank was 13, he got his dad's begrudging permission to bike down the the SP West OAkland shops where he purchased a few builders plates from the company. They were put in his paper route bags, remember the big ones that were worn over the shoulders? His dad told him he was wasting his money on these items, but I think Frank got the last laugh as he amassed one of the finest plate collections in the country. Frank would frequently attempt to purchase both plates if they were available and this gave him some for trading. He did this with Jerry Best back in the late 30's and Jerry was also able to give Frank some insight on how to go about collecting.
Frank & I also swapped a few items during the course of our friendship. He was most generous with both his possessions and his time. I am grateful for both.
Most of his collection was given to the museum at Sacramento (let's please keep the poitical views out of this one, thanks).

Frank was the most organized enthusiast that I have ever run across, he took meticulous notes and I was allowed to copy them late last year.


What follows is info from Franks very first railroad trip at age 15:

Lv Oakland @ 0935 on 11/30/41 on Train X 3237E (3237 was a 2-8-2)
Arr Port Costa @ 1115 (26 miles)
Lv Port Costa @1130 on X4341E (4341 was a 4-8-2)
Arr Sac @ 1330 (60 miles)

Seen going east at Richmond were 2-8-2 3301 EW with 95 cars, Pacifics 2407-2436 D/H on 25, 2479 on
247 with 6 cars
Seen at Port Costa were 0-6-0 1125, 2-6-0s 1742, 1751 and 1772, 4-6-0 2296 and 2-8-0s 2531 and 2574

Frank took the bus back home.