Tim Rush just sent me an email I felt I had to share, since so many of you knew (and therefore liked) railfan, local historian, and Santa Ana booster Rob Richardson. Although Rob passed away in July 2020, his family -- with help from Tim -- took him on one last adventure that I know he would have greatly appreciated. I'll let Tim tell the story,...
"As many of you know among Rob’s final wishes was to have some of his remains scattered about the train tracks at the Cajon Pass where he loved to go and observe the huge trains come and go along the mountain pass. This past Saturday Bella and the three youngest of the children, Cameron, Ian and Lia and I left my house after a suitable snack of donuts and chocolate milk at 6:45 a.m. for The Cajon Pass. We went to a spot that had been recommended by several folks 'in the know' about where to do this. Along the way we stopped at Rob’s favorite fast food spot, Del Taco for breakfast then we were off to Cleghorn Road tracks. We parked and the family went down to the tracks. I stayed with our rented Jeep Wrangler (Bella was certain we would need a four wheel drive vehicle, and she was so correct) to look out for Railroad Police.
"Along came a train 'foamer' to watch and he was about 25’ ahead of us. Bella took the initiative to ask him about a spot she and Rob used to go to “a hill with a couple of trees and benches, a promontory that you can watch all three tracks with trains coming and going….” As serendipity would have it this fellow knew exactly where she was talking about. That morning on the drive up she for the first time mentioned this spot and I thought, 'our chance of finding that out in the middle of BFE was about zero' but I kept my thoughts to myself. Much to my surprise this fellow led us right to the entrance. We had a rollicking, Mr. Toad’s wild ride up to the summit of what we discovered is known in the train fanatic world as Hill 582*. It even shows up on Google Maps……..Cameron found it. After you have white knuckled up the mountain, and you are seated on one of the benches one can sense why it was a favored spot for Rob to visit several times a year. Bella said he nearly always went on his birthday. To see those massive trains 125-150 cars long plus 3-4 engines traversing that grade (a 3% grade, quite steep in the train world) is a marvel of modern machinery. We were told by a retired trainman who arrived after us on Hill 582 that the train cannot exceed 20MPH going down the grade or they will lose control and likely crash. And in the train world 20MPH means no more, zero tolerance, an Engineer will lose his job at 21MPH.
(*Retired Trainmen/women and train lovers have donated tens of thousands of hours creating this viewing spot, with landscaping, benches, a couple of eucalyptus trees and a reasonably maintained road. They truck 480 gallons of water up there each week to slake the thirst of the vegetation as it only gets 4-5” of rain a year. It is quite the little oasis and a testimonial to the love of train fans and all things trains.)
"We wrote our names in the journal that is there for visitors to sign……..watched some trains, buried more of his remains, said a prayer and enjoyed the view. It was a bit nippy, at 39 degrees with the wind blowing, we were above the fog that was like pea soup going up the I-15. We stopped at Cabella’s Outdoor World ………they had never been there and arrived back in SNA at 12;30pm. Rob’s remains have been placed at the SNA Train Station (our secret), Cajon Pass (two spots) and we will make a trek to Tehachapi soon and our work will be done.
"In case you are wondering about the school naming issue for Rob…….it is a slow process filled with much political intrigue. Not quite at the Agatha Christie level……..but for Santa Ana it is our version. I will keep you all posted. By the way, the City is in process of having a new bronze memorial plaque with much more detail created to recognize Rob at the receiving platform at SNA Train Station. You may recall it was dedicated to Rob in 1999. Every time I hear a train whistle I think of Rob, or see a train on a TV show……….he lives on in our memories of this remarkable human being. As Jane Russo opined at his memorial service, 'his heart didn’t give out, he gave US his heart.'"
UPDATE: I received the following follow-up email from Tim on Christmas Eve:
“…Last week I shared [that] we planned to visit Tehachapi to make a deposit of our friend RR. No great surprise that a little town that for years was known as “Old Town,” founded by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1860s, would be a draw for our friend Rob. Bella (Rob’s widow and three of the four children, Cameron, Ian and Lia) and I trundled off to the Tehachapi Valley this past Saturday at 0700. Everyone promptly fell asleep and I was travelling the 2.5 hours to this historic town that is State Historic Landmark No. 673. …Our first stop was Rob’s favorite, Kohnen’s German Bakery. We gorged ourselves on all manner of sweet treats and then had to order sandwiches for lunch of course. When you make your way up here, this place is absolutely a destination. The food is terrific and right next to the Railroad Museum and Depot, and tracks…how perfect is that?
Of course, everything except for the fact that so many of the attractions were closed due to COVID. We could peek into the windows of the Tehachapi RR Museum and Depot (rebuilt in 2008 due to a fire that burned the original one to the ground). They have a “signal garden” next to the Depot. It has a cool collection of old, retired RR signals and equipment which is rather unique. Their downtown has quite a number of shops and places to spend your dollars.
Tehachapi Depot (Photo courtesy Bella Richardson)
“Whilst we visited the depot……we wandered out to the tracks and made a deposit of Rob’s ashes…just like Cajon Pass the wind was blowing and it was cold, but very clear. A perfect day for train watching. This place gets lots of action, seemed there was a train coming thru about every thirty minutes.
“My nephew and his wife and family live in Tehachapi, he is a plumbing contractor, and she runs a second hand shop. Knowing how Rob loved to paw thru old crap……we of course stopped and purchased a number of items that we couldn’t live without. In memory of Rob of course! We finally loaded back into my car and headed for The Golden City. I had suggested to Bella and the kids that we stop for a tour of the Tehachapi State Prison, but they felt we were tight on time………so perhaps next visit.
“All in all it was a fun outing, and gave us an opportunity to honor our friend and his deep love of trains.”
San Clemente -- another of Rob's favorite spots -- was also on the agenda. (Photo by Bella Richardson)
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