Re: Dan Ranger's last ride

Somehow I missed the announcement of Dan's passing. I hadn't seen him in several years. I met him shortly before I began working on the C&TS in 1996. He would occasionally invite some of us to have dinner with him after work. I still remember one invitation I received (and accepted) to have dinner with him and Earl at the Rendevous Steakhouse at Los Pinos one evening. After accepting, I was getting ready to leave when one of the 18 year old snack car cuties came wandering up and asked if I had dinner plans. Not wanting to upset the boss I told her I did. Not sure if that was the right move, but the cutie eventually hooked up with one of the other railroaders (another very long story).
After I no longer worked there if I was visiting I'd often wander over to his house in the late afternoon/early evenning and he'd graciously ask me in even insisting I stay for dinner, and spend hours spinning great stories about railroading. He'd fill me in on the latest research for his Patterson & Western Railroad book and I'd fill him in on the latest thing I was doing. I have some great photos somewhere of him firing and running to the top of Cumbres with Earl.
Two great stories he told me: Once when firing a Cab Forward through Livermore (my hometown) he got up on the tender in the middle of the night and fell in the tank when he was trying to push the spout out of the way. He had to fire the rest of the trip soaking wet.
Another time he was fireman on a set of F Units heading north towards Fairfield at night. They were just south of Travis Air Force Base and they saw the dark shadow of a large military plane fly over them on the approach to the base. The engineer (a really old guy according to Dan) immediately put the sanders on. Dan asked why he was doing that as the track was nearly level. The Engineer just said: "You'll see..." Sure enough about 30 seconds later a faint mist of jet fuel rained down upon them and made everything slick. The engineer told him lots of young guys had stalled out there and usually had no clue as to why...
Green Lights Mr. Ranger, you were a wonderful friend!