photo courtesy of The Kentucky Kid2019 activities at the BBCRC kicked off in mid-April with a handmade signpainter convergence organized by Heidi Tullman, from Siskiyou County. A dozen talented sign-painters volunteered over a weekend to paint and letter several of our railcars, paint a mural and make a number of signs for use at the BBCRC.In June, in conjunction with Railroad Days, we hosted an art show opening in our PFE reefer car for Fiona Bearclaw’s amazing show “Paw Prints”The BBCRC again participated in the Dunsmuir Railroad Days parade with a large group of vagabond musicians and friends, enthralling many locals and annoying others.For Railroad Days 2019, we hosted a tribute to Guitar Whitey. The weekend was very well attended, including by several of Whitey’s children.July 20th was the opening for “Nowhere Near”, a group photo show curated by Beau Patrick Coulon which featured over 20 photographers capturing various aspects of train riding. The opening and the show, which stayed up at Black Butte for the remainder of the summer and all fall, was very popular and viewed by hundreds of people. A portfolio of the show will stay in the BBCRC library.Through the summer and fall work continued on our PFE reefer/library car, including the residing, repainting, and application of historic WP/PFE logos and lettering.Our 1926 wooden caboose, donated to the BBCRC last year, received a fresh coat of paint. We decided to leave it in yellow and re-letter it for the Oregon California and Eastern, where it last operated, based out of Klamath Falls. However, in a tribute to its Great Northern heritage, the logos on the ends of the car were restored.In late November one of the earliest big storms in memory hit Black Butte. Named a “bomb cyclone” by the weather service, the storm dumped over two feet of snow on us. But worse were the winds in the 70-80mph range which ripped the metal roofing right off of our PFE reefer and caused much damage and chaos all over the compound.
