Tag Archives: Railway

The Railway Fish Pond

The Trona Railway office used to have a rectangular lily pond by it’s front door. When I was about twelve. the decided to fill it in. Maybe they decided it was a hazard or maybe they decided that it was too expensive to maintain or maybe they didn’t like the traffic of all the kids that were attracted to it.

Anyway, in the weeks before they drained it one of the railway employees decided that a good way to get rid of the goldfish in the pond was too allow kids to fish for them. The idea was us to catch them and take them home to live out their lives in a fish bowel. It started off with just a few kids but word spread fast and there were more and more. The railway had lent it’s net to the first kids but soon we were resorting to hooks made from pins and lines from sewing thread.

The railway staff couldn’t have imagined that fishing in that pond would become so popular. They had to put an end to it. I don’t know if I remember this right but I think they ended up catching fish for kids that brought a fish bowl to put them in and promised to take care of them. I know that I ended up with two that I did my best to care for.

1920 Photos

The following is from Dr. Jim Kennedy Dover, NJ:

In the 1919 and 1920 my father worked for the American Borax and Potash Company. He and two other young men, each independently, took pack horses and armed with Winchester ’94 carbines and for months at a time on horseback rode the perimeter and internal areas of the company’s land. My father’s name was James Davis Kennedy (1902 – 1996). He worked for for about two years. He was originally from San Francisco.

I have pictures of him in Trona (on the company railroad) and in Ballarat. Also a place I believe was called “Indian Joe’s Wells. I would very much like to find out more about that time in Trona or to find anyone who might have knowledge of my dad. Perhaps employee records or other co-workers.

: Bunkhouses # 1, 2, 3, 4 in Trona

: Evaporative Cooing Tower

: Top of Evaporative Cooling Tower

: “Mexican Central” Railway

: Car and Train Car in Front of Plant

: Worker in Front of Railway Office

: Worker Near the Old School

: Intersection in 1920’s Trona

: Worker by AP&CC Sign

Trona Railway Stove

: Trona Railway Caboose Stove

: Trona Railway Property Tag

This is an email sent to me several years ago. Obviously John thought he was contacting the Trona Railroad Company.

“Dear Sir:

Let me introduce myself and why I am e-mailing the Trona Railway. My name is John Giannini and I live in Riverside, CA.

Several years ago, about 15 to be more or less exact I bough a Pot belly stove from an antique store in Pomona CA. The store owner told me that they believed that the stove had once been in an old school and the stove need to be restored some what. I started cleaning up the stove about a week later and found a Trona Railway, property tag attached to the base of the stove (pictured above).

I removed the tag before I had the stove sandblasted and then reattached it after all welding and stove blacking was completed. Could or would anyone know when this type of property tag was used by the Trona Railway. Any information provided would be of great help, thank you for you’re time

John Giannini. ”

If anyone can help John with his question please email me. My guess is that this stove came from a Trona RR caboose.