The Snug Harbor Train
Click here for a bit of its pre-Snug Harbor history

At "Snug Harbor" in Charleston (Coos Bay) Oregon, before it arrived at the Alton & Pacific...


And after Alton & Pacific, at Aldo Alberigi's ranch near Healdsburg, 1987

After being on static display for several years at the Alton & Pacific Steam Railroad in Humboldt County, the 2-6-2 locomotive and train were acquired by Aldo Alberigi in 1986. He laid about 1000 feet of track on his "Brookside Ranch." There were plans to run the track another 4000 feet or so along a creek into a secluded redwood canyon, but they never materialized. The property and the train were sold in 1988. (See below for "the rest of the story" ...so far)


Photos from Aldo & Carol Alberigi, courtesy of Buck Bateman

With a puff of steam we're underway

Hard to starboard !

Aldo and the 2-6-2 "Running with the Wind"

ALLLL Aboard !!
Aldo and his wife Carol appear to be running the steamer in push-mode, with the caboose just barely visible at the extreme left side of the photo.

"Da whole thing"


After the Alberigis sold their property - and the train - in 1988, the Snug Harbor equipment and track found its way into the hands of David Stare, the owner of the nearby Dry Creek Vineyard. When last seen, the train was way in the back of David Stare's rural Healdsburg yard, supposedly awaiting an overhaul by a professional boilermaker. The last really documented sighting of the train was in the July 15, 1992 issue of "The Wine Spectator" magazine, which featured a photo of Stare alongside the caboose. The article mentions that he "amuses himself with his recently purchased, fully operable and ridable 3-foot-high toy train, which he is restoring in his garage."


After unsuccessful phone and email attempts to contact Mr. Stare, in August 2002 I made a trip to check it out further. Nobody at the winery had any infomation to give me, and Stare's expansive yard is securely fenced and gated. The only evidence of anything rail-related I could find was the the mailbox...

So for now we have no idea of the condition, or even the existence, of the once-, twice-, thrice-, FOUR-times-popular "parktrain" called the Snug Harbor.

 

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