 Guajome Gulch Guajome Gulch (pronounced hwa-homey...the first syllable sounds like the first part of the word "what") started life as a single building called the Guajome Emporium (now rebuilt and better than ever! Click here to see it.) located at the Vista Antique Steam and Gas Engine Museum. The small building was moved to the present location where the train ticket office was added onto the building. The loading platform for the train ride was then built and a roof added after several years.
The train station and an extension of the loading platform was built in 1998 and is almost complete. The train we ran for many years has met an unfortunate end. We had the engine off the tracks so the drivers may be rebuilt. During a storm in 2004 we suspected a mini twister or perhaps strong wind shear felled a large Euculyptus branch right onto the engine! This spelled the end of the the old engine, #240. The branch caved in the cab, cracked the frame at many points, and bent the remaining parts and is now scrap iron. Since then a small group of voluteers has re-built the engine and is scheduled to make its debut at the Fall 2006 show. There is still work to be done on the engine and tracks and that work is starting in earnest.
Above: Scott, John and Mike Fraser gaging and ballasting the tracks. I have discovered the only remaining video of the train and it can be viewed here. The file is about 4.5 MB in size.
The Garden Tractor Shed A covered area for the garden tractors in the train area was needed. John, Scott, Mike, and Jack Fraser along with Dean Williams, Erik Groscup and Ron Foo were there to build the tractor shed. It has running water and electric service. These small tractors were the forerunners of the modern lawn mowers, small garden tractors and implements that we use today.
The gas station was constructed in 2000 and it is styled after a 1920’'s era service station. The construction style used is called "stud and bat." A 3/4 inch wide by 1 inch deep channel is cut lenghtwise in the middle of the narrow edges of a 2”x3” stud. A "bat", or a 1 x 10” piece of lumber is then inserted along two pieces of stud material and this is continued until the walls are completed. The tops and bottoms are attached to a 4 x piece of lumber that has a notch cut into it and the stud and bats are attached to it. Work progresses along rather quickly as we discovered. We used standard 3 tab shingles for the roof with shiplap underlayment for the roof deck. Sand was spread inside the garage area and red bricks make up the flooring. Solid oak tongue and groove flooring was installed for the office. Most of the lumber used in this project was taken from a building that was to be demolished. We salvaged the lumber from this building for use in ours. Updated: 08 JUL 2006 Home l Lanterns l Engines l Generators l Contact l Guajome Gulch |
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