SF Zoo Train

RAILROAD POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

Live Steam in San Francisco? The Cagney Brothers Miniature

Railroad Company of New York built six or seven 22” gauge “Class E”

miniature coal burning steam locomotives in the early 1900’s for use

for mining operations, mills and as amusement rides. One of these

locomotives operated at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition and

reportedly found it’s way to Santa Cruz for the entertainment of beach

goers beginning in 1907. The loco was then sold as scrap in 1915

and languished in a junk yard for several years before being saved by

Cornelius Hayes and refurbished for use as a tourist ride at San

Francisco’s Ocean Beach. Hayes supposedly obtained it by trading 3

cases of gin and a used Oldsmobile! Unfortunately the San Francisco

Fire Commissioner would not issue an operating permit because the

locomotive was a coal burner and a potential fire hazard. The engine

found it’s way to another location at the Pacific City Amusement Park

in San Mateo which soon closed after it’s opening in 1924. Rather

than have the train impounded, the owners hid it in an old abandoned

livery stable in Burlingame. Herbert Fleishhacker purchased the train

in 1925 and installed it at the new Herbert Fleishhacker Zoo were it

carried hundreds of thousands of happy zoo visitors on a 3 minute

ride on 1/3 if a mile track for the next 53 years. In 1965 the train was

renamed the California Zephyr when the Western Pacific Railroad

sponsored a restoration of the popular attraction. In 1971 newspapers

reported that the train was to be permanently retired and replaced

with a larger train on a longer track and powered by a Ford tractor

engine at a cost of $300,000. The aging locomotive and 3 car consist

survived once again only to be removed from service in 1978 to make

way for a new Gorilla exhibit and was stored in the zoo’s Pachyderm

House for nearly 20 years. In 1997 a major $700,000 railroad

refurbishment was undertaken thanks to the generosity of many zoo

patrons and local corporations including refitting the locomotive for

cleaner burning natural gas, new track work, new depot plaza,

landscaping new shop and storage barn. The century old “Little

Puffer” once again operates ever day to a new generation of rail fans.

Steam in San Francisco? You bet!

(I’m still on the lookout for a postcard of the Little Puffer and have

substituted my own photographs instead) -Bill Ralph