I was fortunately able to meet several railroaders who worked on the Yosemite Valley Railroad while it was in operation. I interviewed many of these railroaders and have included  a couple dozen of their stories in my new book, Trains to Yosemite. Here are a couple of of my favorites:

LEMONADE

“Bill Stipp [an engineer] thought that everybody was out to get him. He used to have a padlock on his lunchbox!

“I fired for him quite a few times. I fired for him on the log train one summer. And it used to get so hot, you know. “Gee wiz”, I said, “Bill, how does lemonade sound?” He said “Boy that sounds good.” I said “Then, I’m going to make some.” And he said “Well, that’s swell.”

“So I made some. I took the canteen but forgot about it being galvanized and put that darn lemonade in there…that’s like drinking poison, you know. It did something to that tin.

“So we were drinking it and we both got so sick. Oh, we vomited, and oh, did we get sick. We couldn’t figure what the Sam Hill it was. So when we got up there with the empties, well I think that it was Jimmie Law who says, “Wow, what was you drinking?” I told him about the lemonade and he says, “No wonder, are you crazy? You nearly poisoned yourselves!” And then old Bill, he says that I was trying to get him, I was trying to poison him. I had a hard time trying to convince him I wasn’t. I told him, “I was just as sick as you Bill!” - H.O. “Happy” Pribbernow, YV Fireman

COMMUTING

“We used to commute from Merced to Merced Falls in an old car that fireman Kenneth Monson bought from the YV. I believe that was the [Buick] inspection car. Monson bought it and fixed it back for highway use.

“Well, one day we were coming home and it hadn’t been running too well, so Kenny was rather apprehensive about its performance. Along about Snelling, Jakie Williams broke wind and just about killed us in the back seat [with the smell], but Kenny thought something was wrong under the hood. So he pulled over, got out, and threw up one side of the hood expecting an ignition fire or at the least an overheated fan belt. No one said anything because, how could they with their gloves [figuratively] jammed in their mouths to keep from laughing! Finally, he got back in and we proceeded. I don’t think he ever knew the true story.” - Bob Lunoe, YV Brakeman

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