Re: ALTON & PACIFIC RAILROAD

As SCVR66 mentions, in about 2007 Peter Nott did acquire the two locomotives which had been "stored" (read: abandoned) at Alton - the 0-4-0t Orenstein & Koppel #5 and the 0-6-0t "John Fowler" from Fiji.

In the early 1990s Frank Bayliss had sold pretty much the entire place to a fellow named Spice who supposedly planned to use them at an island resort he wanted to create somewhere in the South Pacific, but nothing came of it. Spice died in 2004 and Nott was eventually able to get the two locomotives. I haven't heard anything lately, but Jack Bodenmann, who built Peter's Berkshire, was going to rebuild them and hopefully a several-mile track would eventually be built on which to run them.

Bayliss moved from Fortuna to Florida in 2007 to live with his daughter, and he passed away in 2008 at the age of 92.

Until a couple years ago one of the metal sheds was still standing, with the two home-built Alton & Pacific "coaches" inside, and I wrangled permission to go inside and snap a few pictures. I'll try to locate them. Today EVERYTHING that was the Alton & Pacific is but a memory, and the property - last time I went by - had been graded and some sort of warehouse or large shop building was nearing completion. I've heard that the two coaches were also obtained by the Timber Heritage Association, but I haven't verified it.

Harry Marnell



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2012 06:42PM by NevadaCountyNGRR.