Denby G. Jones ATC
railroad museum engineer By Jack Williams STAFF WRITER In a classic
engineer's outfit, complete with red bandanna and pin-striped bib overalls, Denby G. Jones gave nostalgia a head of steam at the San Diego Railroad Museum. He took . passengers from the Campo museum through the East County backcountry or Into Tecate, Mexico, in a steam- powered Southern Pacific train that was originally built in 1912. You only needed to hear his distinctive, melodic train whistle to know who was pulling the cord. He could almost play little tunes on that whistle, said Lewis Wolfgang, the museum's operations superintendent. Mr. Jones, the director of railroad operations at the museum before being disabled by cancer, died Aug. 28 at Scripps Memorial Hospital-La Jolla. He was 60. A retired Coast Guard aviator and lifelong railroad aficionado, he began volunteering at the museum in the late 1980s. Before his appointment as railroad operations director in 1989, he served as a brakeman and conductor, with expertise in diesel and steam-powered trains. He also helped conduct museum tours and gave talks on the museum's history. In 1986, museum volunteers began restoring Southern Pacfic locomotive No. 2353, one of the last steam engines to take passengers along the San Diego & Arizona Railway. A decade later, rebuilt from the ground up, the locomotive began taking museum visitors on weekend excursions in antique coaches. As a railroad museum volunteer, Mr. Jones also helped restore a private Pullman car that belonged to John D. Spreckels, the sugar magnate and newspaper publisher who built the San Diego & Arizona Railway to provide a connection from San Diego to the east. Trains were Denby's life, Wolfgang said. He just looked the part of a railroad engineer. He was a very imposing figure, about 6 feet 3 or 6 feet 4 and substantial in girth Mr. Jones appeared in a KPBS-TV special on the San Diego & Arizona Railway last year and was featured on videos promoting the museum. The videos, including There Goes a Train, made him a heroic figure to children who shared his love of locomotives. A few years ago, an Australian family visited the Campo museum, lured by a video in which Mr. Jones was featured. For their 5-year-old boy, it was like seeing Santa in the flesh, Wolfgang recalled. The kid sat in Denby's lap with eyes as big as saucers. When the vintage locomotive stopped in Tecate, Mr. Jones opened it for tours and invited Mexican children to sit on his lap and pull the cord on the whistle. Seeing how Denby was with those kids reinforced why so many people (about 100) volunteer at the museum, Wolfgang said. A smile on a little kid's face makes it all worthwhile. When Mr. Jones went home to his Clairemont home, his hobby went with him. He had an extensive collection of H.O. and lionel trains. In addition to his volunteerism, Mr. Jones worked for the last several years as mechanical director at the San Ysidro station of the San Diego & imperial Valley Railroad. His cancer, diagnosed in 1997, forced him to retire in 1998. Before devoting his life to railroads, Mr. Jones served 20 years in the Coast Guard. His specialty was performing air-sea rescues in the Grumman HU-16 Albatross. After leaving the Coast Guard in 1979 as a chief petty: officer, Mr. Jones settled in San Diego and began working for Hawthorne Machinery in NationalCity. In 1981, he was appointed commissioner and engineer of the minirailroad at the former Convair Missile Park in Keamy Mesa. Through fund-raisers and individual donors, he built a flat-car with a ramp for the disabled at the Convair railroad. The driving force behind the effort was his wife, Margaret Jeanie Jones, who uses a wheelchair because of childhood polio. Mr. Jones was born in Los, Angeles and raised in Fresno. Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Margaret, sons, Rick and Kelly, both of San Diego; a brother, Forrest of Payson, Utah; half-brothers, Kit of Baltimore and Derick of Fresno and four grandchildren. Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum. Donations are suggested to
the American Cancer Society.
09/08/00 Submitted by: Jones R Pierce ( |
