Grizzly Flats Train Station Destroyed

Sad news indeed. Can't replace one of a kind items and history.

Ouch! 

Peter

What a shame

A episode of Jay Leno's garage went to Lassiter's ranch, rode trains and showed much of his collection stored there.......1000's of historic items were lost....very sad. You might be able to find the episode on demand.....maybe the last film crew to ever visit. 

Make drawings from that photo and build a repro.

Bummer.  I'll build a repro for you.  Show me the money.

Very sad the station is gone ...very fond memories if driving from Chicago to LA when I was 17 to visit Ward . He was very kind to give me the grand tour of his Railroad Empire .

Her is a link to the Western Division of the TCA...scroll down to see more images of "Grizzly Flats" station 

Cheers Carey  

oops the link    http://www.tcawestern.org/history.htm

William 1 posted:

Bummer.  I'll build a repro for you.  Show me the money.

A repro is just that--a reproduction. It ain't the original.

The original was just Hollywood scenery.  The color photo with the last owners shows the station and the B&W older photos shows the station but it looks much bigger in the B&W photo.

jim pastorius posted:

The original was just Hollywood scenery. 

That "Hollywood scenery" was also something we tend to call "history." Apparently something of little value to you.

Really sad to hear. I'd love to build a repo of the station someday. Ward was truly amazing.

A very nice O gauge/scale version of Ward's station was offered through (I believe) the TCA some years ago. I bought one at the time and it is still in storage pending completion of my train room renovations. Made of a ceramic material, as I recall, but a very accurate rendition.

It is a bummer.  Sorry for being a bit callous earlier.  A lot of history, or provenance perhaps, that is irreplaceable   Something like that will be missed.  For sure.

If your interested in Ward Kimball's train collection and "backyard railroad" check out youtube and look for

Tomorrow with Tom Snyder - Ward Kimball at Grizzly Flats  

Ward Kimball, now this was the way to do it, my hero !

Very sorry to hear that .  I have the ceramic model by Stoney Express as well.  I just took it out to look at it.  Nice piece.  I'll try to take a picture and post later.  Documents and marking indicate it was for the 2003 Convention, done for Western Division TCA.

It also came with a small (business card sized) picture of Ward standing in front of the real thing with the model in his hand, this picture has what I believe is the serial number of the piece handwritten on the back. 

Mine also has a small figure in it painted to resemble Ward in coveralls and engineer's hat (in a baggie with the name of  a TCA member who provided it), but I'm not sure that was standard, or something done for the previous owner, or maybe an "add-on" sale item that may have been done to go with the station by one of the figure companies. 

Sorry to see the original lost in the fires.

-Dave

I like this little station also, but was the original movie version (the three walls for the set) inspired by any prototype station? Or was the movie set version a collection of elements from various stations, probably made to fit a visual dimension as most movie elements are.

Thanks,

Charlie

That stinks. My copy of CTT's featuring Ward Kimball has been staring at me from the top of the magazine pile. It is interesting because that was not there, magically appeared there last week I think.

SMD4 -if you saw my library of books, you would see how wrong your assumption is of my interest in history.

Was there a TV show or video that Ward was involved in that was on Disney for a little bit? I seem to remember hearing about something in the early 90's but can't recall. I tried looking up on IMDB but he is not listed for a show as actor or himself. Maybe it was a show using his short line?

Too, too bad.  Reinforces memories of my two visits there..................  

In the hobby world of G scale, we're fortunate to be able to get a very credible model of the Grizzly Flats station....by PIKO....

And even Ward Kimball's train pulled by Chloe, the diminutive engine....by LGB...

I know....it's not the same as the 1:1, but then again much of our hobby is based on simple fond memories......right?

KD

Charlie posted:

I like this little station also, but was the original movie version (the three walls for the set) inspired by any prototype station? Or was the movie set version a collection of elements from various stations, probably made to fit a visual dimension as most movie elements are.

Thanks,

Charlie

It was based on a Lehigh Valley depot on the Pottsville branch. Ward found the drawings in a book called "Buildings and Structures of American Railroads" by Walter Berg. 

Here is Tom Snyder's program featuring Ward Kimball and his collections. The Grizzly Flats Station figures prominently.

I enjoyed watching Tom Snyder's interview when it originally aired, two interesting people who loved toy trains.

Tom 

Recent Google maps image:

I wonder how many other places were lost?? Lots of RRs, museums etc out there.

   Lots of losses obviously. But the loss of Ward's station will strike nearer to many hearts seeing how much Disney limelight it had encountered over the decades. 

Way back in the sixties on a trip to Cal., I vaguely remember visiting the Kimball "ranch" and walking around the locked station. I don't remember what else I saw, or that any buildings were open when l was there.  I too would like to hear of other fire damaged museums, historical railroad sites, and old mining camps from the recent fire.

An old Army buddy of mine is a  retired LA Fire Capt. living north of LA. I wrote to him about any losses involving the RRs, old towns etc. see if he has any info to share.

Grampstrains posted:

Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Was there a TV show or video that Ward was involved in that was on Disney for a little bit? I seem to remember hearing about something in the early 90's but can't recall. I tried looking up on IMDB but he is not listed for a show as actor or himself. Maybe it was a show using his short line?

Ward Kimball was one of Disney's original artists.  He is the creator of Jiminny Cricket. He was involved with a lot of the early Disney movies as well as the early TV programs.  The Grizzly Flats station was built for the movie "Pollyanna"  and later moved to Ward's place.

Yes, very well aware of Ward and everything he had done. As I said though, I thought there was some short in the '90's that had his railroad featured. Maybe it got cancelled?

Anyone have any current pics? Anyone have an address to google earth it's location?

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Anyone have any current pics? Anyone have an address to google earth it's location?

Try this link.  I just used info in this post to locate it.  In the version of Google maps showing on my PC when I view it, it is obviously pre-fire.  You can get a semi-decent 3D view (well, at least enough to prove we are looking at the right thing) of the station and the water tower if you use a browser that supports that(see below example, as well as aerial view).

The track configuration seems to match what Steve has in the post-fire view in his post as well.

-Dave

Hey Dave NYC...Ward Kimball hosted a season of "Tracks Ahead" on PBS during that early 90's time frame. It often featured model trains and perhaps that is what you're remembering?

John

I called my buddy in Calif. who lives north of LA and he didn't know anything about it ! So, I guess, it wasn't news out there. But with all the devastation I can understand that.

jim pastorius posted:

I called my buddy in Calif. who lives north of LA and he didn't know anything about it ! So, I guess, it wasn't news out there. But with all the devastation I can understand that.

It's also much closer to San Fran than LA (looks to be about 40 miles or so north of San Fran as the crow flies).

I suppose it could make LA news due to the Disney connection, but it's probably a bit far away at around 400 miles to make LA local news.  (I don't see too much local Pittsburgh news in the suburbs of Philly either, and that's only 250 miles or so )

As you said, with the grander scale of the devastation from the fires across the state, the loss of this station is not at the forefront of most peoples' minds.

-Dave

John Meyncke posted:

Hey Dave NYC...Ward Kimball hosted a season of "Tracks Ahead" on PBS during that early 90's time frame. It often featured model trains and perhaps that is what you're remembering?

John

That's what it has to be. I'll look in that issue of CCT and see if it is mentioned(pretty sure it was). Been a while since I poked my nose in there.

"Google" Grizzly Flats Station and there are tons of photos, maps, drawings.