Re: A Very Unusual Protest By A Narrow Gauge Railroad!

As I recall the book Main Line, Fifty Years of Railroading with the Southern Pacific by Ernest King, as told to Robert Mahaffay (1948) has a whole chapter about John Sexton and the E-N. Mr. King was a member of the Salt Lake Division staff during the 1920s and had several stories about Mr. Sexton among these is the one about this box car. King began his career with the SP as a telegrapher (or was it a telegraph lineman) and retired as Oregon Division Superintendent. Mahaffay was an Portland, Oregon, newspaper man.

Charles Sexton was the brother of John Sexton and after John died Charles became the General Manager of the E-N.

One version of the story about the box car is that John Sexton had heard that the Japanese ambassador (or a Japanese delegation) was going to be traveling on the Southern Pacific and would be passing through Palisades during the day time hours. He was threatening to set it out in clear view when the train would pass.

John Sexton is an interesting and mysterious individual. Many years before he go involved with with the E-N, the San Francisco Call newspaper called him a "man of mystery."

Brian Norden