Swanton Pacific Railroad
The Swanton Pacific Railroad was constructed in the 1980s by Albert Smith. The railroad is scaled to 1/3 standard size with three miniature steam locomotives built by Louis MacDermot in 1915 for the Overfair Railway. The Overfair was originally part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 which was an official celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal. However, after the exposition, the Overfair Railway did not have much success. The locomotives were stored on MacDermot's estate and would not run again until the 1980s. Al Smith had previously worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and decided to purchase the locomotives from an auction because of his love of railroads. In 1979 he began laying the rails along Scotts Creek with the help of volunteers. Today the railroad is maintained and run by the Swanton Pacific Railroad Society which is connected with Cal Poly. It attracts many visitors, especially railfans, who volunteer to support its on-going operation.
Read more about this topic: Swanton Pacific Ranch
Famous quotes containing the words pacific and/or railroad:
“The doctor of Geneva stamped the sand
That lay impounding the Pacific swell,
Patted his stove-pipe hat and tugged his shawl.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Though the railroad and the telegraph have been established on the shores of Maine, the Indian still looks out from her interior mountains over all these to the sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)