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Famous Like Me > Actor > J > Billy Jones

Profile of Billy Jones on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Billy Jones  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 18th April 1912
   
Place of Birth: Artane, Dublin, Ireland
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

A local railroad legend, Billy Jones (1883-1968) was born the son of a lumberjack in the town of Boulder Creek, California. At the tender age of 13, Jones took up employment with the narrow-gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad in Boulder Creek as a "roustabout". At 17, Jones was promoted to fireman, and made it to engineer a few years later. The South Pacific Coast was acquired by the Southern Pacific and converted to a standard gauge road by 1909. Jones remained with the company on the run to San Jose, and transferred to the Coast Daylight (SP) run after the abandonment of his line in 1940.

Jones married Geraldine McGrady, the schoolteacher at Wright's Station; south of Los Gatos, CA. The two settled down on a nine-acre prune orchard at Daves Avenue and San Jose-Santa Clara Rd. (Winchester Blvd) in Los Gatos. The Jones' had four children; two sons (Robert and Neal Jones) and two daughters (Betty Jones-Ermert and Geraldine Jones-Peters). In a San Francisco junkyard in 1939, Jones discovered a miniature steam locomotive built in 1905 to run on the Venice Railway in Venice Beach, California. He bought the little engine for $100 and got it running again on a railroad he and his railroad buddies constructed on the ranch...dubbed the "Wildcat Railroad". Sons Robert and Neal were victims of World War II, and Jones operated his "Wildcat Railroad" for the neighborhood children every Sunday until his death in 1968 in the memory of his two lost sons. The railroad attracted people from across the valley and beyond, including Walt Disney; who considered purchasing some of Jones' collection of miniature railway equipment. The two became friends, and Jones was behind the throttle of Disney's narrow-gauge locomotive on opening weekend at Disneyland in 1955.

Jones retired from the Southern Pacific Company in 1950 as an engineer on the Daylight. In January of 1959, Jones ceremoniously ran the last train out of Los Gatos before the rails were taken up through town.

Jones died quietly in 1968, and his "Wildcat Railroad" was purchased by local residents who formed a non-profit organization to relocate and operate it at nearby Oak Meadow and Vasona Parks...where it has remained since 1970. The ranch was subdivided and sold, though family heirs still own some of the lots.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Billy Jones