Dave Garcia

Today we lost Dave Garcia to a heart attack out here in Calif. For those of you who didn't know Dave he was the guy who set up our brake unit room at SCRM (OERM), our unit room has over a dozen brake test stands that can test almost all air brake appliances from the 1860s right up to modern day equipment. Dave not only had test stands, adaptors, and equipment, but the shelf's are full of rebuild kits and manuals for just about every brake system that ran on flanged wheels..Dave has been instrumental in not only diagnosis of many railroad museums air brake equipment but personally taught many people in the industry how to repair and maintain their brake systems on their trains. (Brakes is IMPORTANT!) Especially when you run a mountain railway..

Years ago Dave had loaned Dan Ranger a few brake test stands to set up a unit room over at the CATS, when things didn't work out Dave asked Joanie and I to bring his unused test stands back to Calif..People driving around us would come up and talk to us whenever we would stop for gas and food and ask what those machines that had hundreds of feet of pipes and tubes were for. After awhile we would make a game out of it saying "I will tell you,, but you got to guess first" The most common guess it was some sort of moonshine still. NOBODY guessed their correct use, and all were surprised. The most important thing was that Dave not only knew how to use them,, but would share his knowledge with anyone who wanted to learn..

Green signals my friend, the tourist railroad industry will miss your skills and I will miss your company at dinner at OERM.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2020 09:38PM by John Cole.