C9
11-23-2003, 11:02 PM
Seeing the Daylight
Off topic?
Maybe.
It’s got big and littles, style, loads of horsepower and for a long time it was the fastest thing running the coast.
You tell me if it’s off topic.
The Daylight used to roll down the tracks next to the old neighborhood at 70-80 or so and you could feel it coming before you heard it.
The houses started vibrating and before long they were shaking like nobody’s business. Seems like mom was forever sliding her knicknacks back on the shelf where they were supposed to be. If she forgot to do it for a couple of days, the knickknacks would walk right off the shelf and you’d find more than a few broken pieces of porcelain or whatever lying on the floor.
Used to tick her off on a regular basis, but she realized there wasn’t much she could do about it so she learned to live with it.
For us wannabee hot rod guys, I never knew anyone who was working under their car who didn’t crawl out from under when the Daylight came through. Not to look, simply because you couldn’t make yourself stay under the car when it went by.
For most of my life, from a pain in the ass two year old to a still pain in the ass 15 year old we lived about a half block from the tracks. A very short half block.
The tracks were quite the draw for us, they went interesting places, were interesting their own selves and along with the rope swings from the big trees a little ways back from the tracks there was a large sewer tunnel that ran for about a 1/4 mile from the tracks to the marshy area just inland from the beach. We - we being our little gang - knew the area along the tracks from the east end of Ventura to the depot at the west end. The caves, ravines, creeks, the sometimes strange houses along the bluff overlooking the ocean, both of the hobo jungles, the fairgrounds, the whole ball of wax.
There were few places we hadn’t been and if we heard about a new one, we’d go there first chance we got.
Aside from the tracks being a dangerous place, it was a place of adventure as well.
More than a few times we’d be hanging onto the outside of the wooden rails that were part of the railroads sewer and creek crossing mini-bridges. When the trains went by and you looked at the engine cab, you’d see the Daylight engineers waving their fist at us and if we’d been able to lip-read I’m sure we would have learned some new and interesting words.
There was nothing quite like hanging onto the bridge, passing one of the boyhood tests for bravery - or stupidity depending on your viewpoint - and having the Daylight whistle by about 3-4 feet away running maybe 60 or 70. The wind and the sound darned near took you off your feet.
The experience created darned near enough adrenaline to carry you through the rest of the week.
The big Mallet cab-forwards hauling freight would rock and roll through town touching on 60 in the daytime hours if there weren’t too many freight cars strung out behind , but most times it would be clicking off 50 or so on it’s way to 60+. The Daylight shook the ground, but it was the Mallets running hard and fast that shook the earth.
Like you’d expect, a guy or a gal could get used to it and sleep right through the noise.
In 1955 the folks bought a new house even closer to the tracks.
Right behind the back fence as a matter of fact.
Just a stones throw away as little brother found out when he and his buddy were dumb enough to toss rocks at the Daylight when it went by.
Not only the engine, but the passenger cars as well.
The railroad detective was at the house in a couple of hours, had the two of them ID’d and between them and Dad, the fear of God was instilled within them.
He’s lucky he’s not still grounded.
Sometimes the Mallets would come through at 3-4 in the morning, clicking off some ungodly speed, hauling who knows how many freight cars and having accelerated up to speed from just south of Santa Barbara and hitting Ventura wide open. And if not wide open pretty darned close to it. The house shook so bad that you’d wake up from the vibration before it got there and when the engine roared by, you had to make yourself stay in bed cuz it sounded like that old Mallet was coming right through the house.
I guess a guy can get used to anything though, but it took a few weeks before I got used to the hard running Mallets shaking the heck out of everything in the middle of the night.
Like AV8 alluded to though, the Daylights and the Sunset were class acts.
They were passenger trains that ran the coast at high speed carrying passengers in style and comfort and were like nothing known before and there’s never been anything like them since.
The pic below is an HO model of the Daylight.
Not the best pic in the world, but you can see the vivid and bright colors that were one of the best color schemes ever put on a passenger train.
The cars, all of them, baggage, post office car, sleepers and diners were all painted to match.
As much as we hung out at the tracks and as many trains, cars and engines we saw we never really got a close up view of the Daylight until the day we were running the coast, headed back from a Santa Barbara beach and saw the Daylight broke down just west of the Rincon railroad bridge which is a couple miles west of Ventura.
We were hot rod guys, but we were train buffs as well. On a small scale for sure, but, kinda hard not to be interested in them having lived next to the tracks for most of our lives.
There was nothing else to do, but bring the car down from it’s hard running 65 per - which was about 10 per over the speed limit - pull over and park.
Right across from the engine as luck would have it.
It was a short walk across the highway and up the dirt berm to the tracks so we could look the Daylight over up close and kind of personal.
We’d hoped the engineer would invite us into the cab, but it was not to be.
We were lucky that the conductor and engineer didn’t run us off and truth to tell if they’d tried we wouldn’t have gone far.
Seeing the Daylight sitting there, still and quiet, framed against the green hills of early summer late in the afternoon brings to mind a picture I can still see in my mind.
The Daylight had it all, speed, power, grace and beauty.
Even when it was standing still.
Off topic?
Maybe.
It’s got big and littles, style, loads of horsepower and for a long time it was the fastest thing running the coast.
You tell me if it’s off topic.
The Daylight used to roll down the tracks next to the old neighborhood at 70-80 or so and you could feel it coming before you heard it.
The houses started vibrating and before long they were shaking like nobody’s business. Seems like mom was forever sliding her knicknacks back on the shelf where they were supposed to be. If she forgot to do it for a couple of days, the knickknacks would walk right off the shelf and you’d find more than a few broken pieces of porcelain or whatever lying on the floor.
Used to tick her off on a regular basis, but she realized there wasn’t much she could do about it so she learned to live with it.
For us wannabee hot rod guys, I never knew anyone who was working under their car who didn’t crawl out from under when the Daylight came through. Not to look, simply because you couldn’t make yourself stay under the car when it went by.
For most of my life, from a pain in the ass two year old to a still pain in the ass 15 year old we lived about a half block from the tracks. A very short half block.
The tracks were quite the draw for us, they went interesting places, were interesting their own selves and along with the rope swings from the big trees a little ways back from the tracks there was a large sewer tunnel that ran for about a 1/4 mile from the tracks to the marshy area just inland from the beach. We - we being our little gang - knew the area along the tracks from the east end of Ventura to the depot at the west end. The caves, ravines, creeks, the sometimes strange houses along the bluff overlooking the ocean, both of the hobo jungles, the fairgrounds, the whole ball of wax.
There were few places we hadn’t been and if we heard about a new one, we’d go there first chance we got.
Aside from the tracks being a dangerous place, it was a place of adventure as well.
More than a few times we’d be hanging onto the outside of the wooden rails that were part of the railroads sewer and creek crossing mini-bridges. When the trains went by and you looked at the engine cab, you’d see the Daylight engineers waving their fist at us and if we’d been able to lip-read I’m sure we would have learned some new and interesting words.
There was nothing quite like hanging onto the bridge, passing one of the boyhood tests for bravery - or stupidity depending on your viewpoint - and having the Daylight whistle by about 3-4 feet away running maybe 60 or 70. The wind and the sound darned near took you off your feet.
The experience created darned near enough adrenaline to carry you through the rest of the week.
The big Mallet cab-forwards hauling freight would rock and roll through town touching on 60 in the daytime hours if there weren’t too many freight cars strung out behind , but most times it would be clicking off 50 or so on it’s way to 60+. The Daylight shook the ground, but it was the Mallets running hard and fast that shook the earth.
Like you’d expect, a guy or a gal could get used to it and sleep right through the noise.
In 1955 the folks bought a new house even closer to the tracks.
Right behind the back fence as a matter of fact.
Just a stones throw away as little brother found out when he and his buddy were dumb enough to toss rocks at the Daylight when it went by.
Not only the engine, but the passenger cars as well.
The railroad detective was at the house in a couple of hours, had the two of them ID’d and between them and Dad, the fear of God was instilled within them.
He’s lucky he’s not still grounded.
Sometimes the Mallets would come through at 3-4 in the morning, clicking off some ungodly speed, hauling who knows how many freight cars and having accelerated up to speed from just south of Santa Barbara and hitting Ventura wide open. And if not wide open pretty darned close to it. The house shook so bad that you’d wake up from the vibration before it got there and when the engine roared by, you had to make yourself stay in bed cuz it sounded like that old Mallet was coming right through the house.
I guess a guy can get used to anything though, but it took a few weeks before I got used to the hard running Mallets shaking the heck out of everything in the middle of the night.
Like AV8 alluded to though, the Daylights and the Sunset were class acts.
They were passenger trains that ran the coast at high speed carrying passengers in style and comfort and were like nothing known before and there’s never been anything like them since.
The pic below is an HO model of the Daylight.
Not the best pic in the world, but you can see the vivid and bright colors that were one of the best color schemes ever put on a passenger train.
The cars, all of them, baggage, post office car, sleepers and diners were all painted to match.
As much as we hung out at the tracks and as many trains, cars and engines we saw we never really got a close up view of the Daylight until the day we were running the coast, headed back from a Santa Barbara beach and saw the Daylight broke down just west of the Rincon railroad bridge which is a couple miles west of Ventura.
We were hot rod guys, but we were train buffs as well. On a small scale for sure, but, kinda hard not to be interested in them having lived next to the tracks for most of our lives.
There was nothing else to do, but bring the car down from it’s hard running 65 per - which was about 10 per over the speed limit - pull over and park.
Right across from the engine as luck would have it.
It was a short walk across the highway and up the dirt berm to the tracks so we could look the Daylight over up close and kind of personal.
We’d hoped the engineer would invite us into the cab, but it was not to be.
We were lucky that the conductor and engineer didn’t run us off and truth to tell if they’d tried we wouldn’t have gone far.
Seeing the Daylight sitting there, still and quiet, framed against the green hills of early summer late in the afternoon brings to mind a picture I can still see in my mind.
The Daylight had it all, speed, power, grace and beauty.
Even when it was standing still.