‘Buddy’ Courcy (on right), youngest railway president, and His Train

The Urbita Lake Railway was a long

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petro ...

with a gauge of , which operated from approximately 1910 to at least August 1915 at Urbita Hot Springs Park (since 1966 the location of the Inland Center shopping mall) in

San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

History

In 1910, the Pacific Electric Railway took-over the San Bernardino Valley Traction Company and thus became owner of the Urbita Hot Springs. At this time the Hot Springs were a very profitable business, which had been originally developed by R. Paragette in 1901. According to a contemporary newspaper, the railroad was unique, because it had probably the youngest president and oldest engineer in the world, the president being Buster ‘Buddy’ Courcy, at the age of two, and the engineer being the retired railway worker Bill Simpson from the San Bernardino Valley.‘Buddy’ Courcy was ‘president’ of miniature Urbita Lake railway in 1915.
/ref>

Locomotive

The locomotive had been built as (Original) No 1903 by John J. CoitPeter Panacy
Venice Miniature Railway. A Brief History and Its Influence on the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad.
/ref> and has previously been used on the

Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway The Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway was a profitable but short-lived miniature railway with the unusual gauge of , which operated from 1902 until 21 August 1903 at Long Beach in California. History John J. Coit, an experienced locomotive dr ...

, the Venice Miniature Railway and the Eastlake Park Scenic Railway. The oilfired steam locomotive with a total length of from tip of pilot to end of tank couple and a height of from the top of rail to the top of stack was of the

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...

type.Eastlake Park Scenic Railway (Lincoln Park), Los Angeles, California, 1904.
/ref> The locomotive had some technical innovations, such as a valve control without eccentrics, which was easy to adjust and to maintain. The locomotive had automatic couplings and a bespoke oil burner, for which Coit filed a patent. The locomotive had a weight of including the tender, and excluding the tender. The tender had a capacity of water and

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

. The weight of the locomotive was spread over six driving wheels with a diameter of and two smaller wheels of a pony truck with the diameter of onto the rails. The Vanderbilt type boiler had a maximum pressure of and delivered . The cylinders were bore x stroke. The locomotive had a pulling power of .Arthur W. Line: ''Model Railways - XIX. - Eastlake Park Scenic Railway, Los Angeles, California.'' The Model Engineer and Electrician, 23 April 1908. Pages

395 __NOTOC__ Year 395 ( CCCXCV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Olybrius and Probinus (or, less frequently, year 1148 ...

396 __NOTOC__ Year 396 (Roman numerals, CCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Augustus (or, less ...

397 Year 397 ( CCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesarius and Atticus (or, less frequently, year 1150 ...

398 __NOTOC__ Year 398 ( CCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 395th Year of the Common Era ( CE) and Anno Domini ( AD) designations, the 398th year of the 1st millenniu ...

and 399.

References

{{Coord, 34.0849282, -117.2972699, display=title San Bernardino, California 18 in gauge railways in the United States

History

Locomotive

See also

References