Re: Narrow Gauge Preservation leaders

We must add Ward Kimball and his wife Betty who began privately collecting narrow gauge equipment in the late 1930s. C&C/SP coach #5 was acquired in June of 1938. The Nevada Central #2 (named "Emma Nevada" by Ward) was purchased in October 1938. A Pacific Coast Ry caboose and a box car were added shortly after WWII. The Hawaiian sugar plantation engine came a couple of years later. The later an SP stock car and a gondola were added after that operation quite in 1960 The PCRy caboose is now at CSRM and the balance at Orange Empire.

Along the way Gerald M. Best and Gilbert Kneiss added and abetted Ward by acting as purchasing agents to complete the early purchases.

Gil Kneiss was to write the books Bonanza Railroads and Redwood Railways. Bonanza Railroads was one of the early railroad books having been first published in 1941 by Stanford University Press and it covered several of the California and Nevada ng railroads.

Brian Norden