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Placer County, California News & Stories |
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Items of Interest
Local Brevities
BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF THE OLD DAYS OF '49
Walsh Bros., proprietors of the Freeman Hotel at Auburn,
have received a menu of the
El Dorado Hotel
at Placerville,
which is an echo of the good old days during the '49 gold
excitement in
California. The document shows what the early miners had
to eat, and what they had to put up for it: "Bean soup, $1;
oxtail soup, 50c; sauerkraut, $1; bacon, $1; hash, low grade,
75c; hash, 18-karat, $1; beef roast, Mexican prime cut, $1.50;
beef, uplong, $1.50; beef, tame, $1.50; beef, plain, $1; beef,
with one potato, $1.25; codfish balls, 50c; grizzly, fried, 75c;
jackass rabbit, $1;
baked beans,
plain, 75c; baked beans, greased, $1; two potatoes, 50c; two
potatoes, peeled, 75c;
rice pudding, plain, 75c; rice pudding and brandy
peaches, $2; rice pudding, with molasses, $1; square meal, with
dessert, $3. Payable in advance. Gold scales at end of bar."
Roseville Register, Thursday September 1, 1910. Submitted by
Kathie Kloss Marynik.
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PAGES OF THE PAST -
Roseville
Railroad History
Is Recalled
Rudolph E. Noble, 84-year-old retired engineer, can
probably recollect further back into Roseville's railroad
history than anyone else in these parts. Noble, who was born at
9th and Kay Streets in Sacramento, started work with the
Southern Pacific
Company in the Sacramento machine shops when he was 15
years old at the startling sum of $1.25 a day.
The SP then had accumulated trackage in the valley region,
and the Central
Pacific Railroad went over the mountains to Wadsworth,
Nev., 36 miles from the present yards in Sparks. In 1890, the
Southern Pacific
absorbed the
Central Pacific under its name.
Noble piloted a switch engine for awhile and in 1894 he was
promoted to engineer and was "on the road" taking trains across
the "big hump," as the
Sierra Nevada
is known to railroaders.
The first engine driven by Noble was a wood-burner, and
average speed across the mountains was 10 to 12 miles per hour.
He has since seen the transition from
steam engines
to coal burners in about 1900, then to steam, and finally to the
diesel power which is used today.
NUMBER OF CARS
In those days, the train size was not measured by tonnage,
but by number of cars. The maximum train length was 15 cars,
whether they were loaded with feathers or iron. Therefore, the
trip time varied depending on the cargo. The railroad began to
make up trains by tonnage in about 1908.
The trip "over the hill" was much more rugged prior to
1906, not only because of the unrefined equipment, but because
of an unusual
natural phenomenon described by Noble. He said that
before the San Francisco quake, rain never went above 4,500 ft.
elevation, and there were no showers to help melt the snow. It
just stacked up.
After the quake, wintertime rains began to fall on the
slopes of the Sierra, alleviating the snowpack, but before that,
every trip across the mountains was a battle between man and the
elements. Forty-two miles of snowsheds ran from Blue Canyon to
Truckee.
Noble moved to
Rocklin, site of the
Southern Pacific
installations then, in 1898. Roseville was known as the
Junction then, and consisted of a water tank tower, a few stores
and farmland. He recalls the moving of the railroad from
Roseville to Rocklin over a period of time from 1907 to 1909.
The retired engineer started at the first Roseville
roundhouse and commuted from Rocklin to Roseville until 1909
when he established his home here. The commuters special was the
local train which ran from Colfax to
Sacramento
every day. Other commuters used horse and buggies.
THE WAVE HIT
Five hundred homes were moved from Rocklin to Roseville in
"the wave." Noble built his home is 1909 in Roseville, which is
his present residence, on Coronado Avenue. It was high on a
hill, and there were no surrounding dwellings -- he could see
from his window to the Lincoln Street crossing.
He is one of the first members of the Granite Division,
Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers, which was instituted in Rocklin in
1863. The charter was transferred to Roseville when the railroad
was moved. He is also a charter member of the
Native Sons of
the Golden West organized in 1906. He retired from active
railroading in 1937 and still holds membership in the
Brotherhood.
Noble is looking forward to the annual BLE dinner which
will be held on Saturday evening, March 26, in the Veterans
Memorial Hall, where he will enjoy swapping stories with other
Rosevillites who grew up with the railroad.
Roseville Press-Tribune, March 21, 1955, Monday, Submitted by
Kathie Kloss Marynik. |
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