Re: That other NG

Of the 60 or so coaches built, only one true original survives. Most of them had deteriorated beyond repair in the 25+ years they were scattered around MacDermot's Oakland estate; the better of the lot eventually wound up at MacDermot's short-lived Oakland Zoo operation, roofs removed, and later went with the few others that were salvageable to Billy Jones in Los Gatos. Jones also acquired the remaining hardware from the junked cars, as well as the three-axle trucks from the two longer coaches (which had been re-gauged to 22" for operation at the San Francisco Zoo, of which MacDermot had brief influence, and subsequently burned on site after earning a pension for derailments). Much of the hardware was reused in the construction of replica cars in Calistoga, Los Gatos and Swanton.

Although fairly utilitarian in appearance, these coaches were truly unique, with all of them as built complete with Sharon couplers and automatic air (although later converted to straight air systems at Swanton and Oak Meadow). MacDermot was unable to have castings made from his own air pump patterns, so he fitted the locomotives with oversized 8" pumps on loan from WABCO, I believe only for the duration of the fair. Billy Jones later acquired these patterns from the estate and had a few of them made in the '50s -- one of which went to Jim Holmes (who told me the story while fighting it on the 15" gauge GSP&P #5).

Perhaps the least expected depository of MacDermot coach hardware is the Pacific Coast Railroad. CMO Phil Reader (a Swanton and Wildcat alumnus) got a handful of couplers, triples and glad hands with intent to use them on the 5/8-scale Disneyland "Retlaw" cars.

Here's how the coaches looked in Los Gatos, re-gauged to 18", in the early '50s:


(Top: J&R Holmes Collection, Bottom: Jones Family Collection)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2008 08:24PM by Ed "Oilcan" Kelley.