Kelley Park is home to History San Jose Park and the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation, established in 1982 and dedicated to preserving and reflecting the legacy of rail transportation in the Santa Clara Valley. Its two main railroad related attractions are ATSF 0-4-0 #5 “Little Buttercup” and SP S-10 0-6-0 #1215.
There are also other historic vehicles, including a 1916 Detroit Electric Touring Car, a 1921 Huron Traction Engine and a 1927 Kleiber Oil Truck at the park, as well as 27 original and reproduction homes, businesses and landmarks highlighting Santa Clara Valley’s past.
The CTRC has restored a number of historic trolley cars for operation at Kelley Park, and is also carrying out restoration to operation of SP Class P-10 4-6-2 #2479, as well the cosmetic restoration of #1215. Once work has fully completed on #2479, it is planned to turn attention to restoring #1215 to operation. Another area of work is creating the San Jose Steam Railroad Museum, with the restored former six-stall Lenzen Roundhouse and turntable, currently in storage, as the focal point.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway #5, an 0-4-0, was built as a saddle tank locomotive in 1899 by Burnham, Williams & Co., an early incarnation of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA, as Santa Fe Terminal Railway #1 to work in San Francisco, CA.
It was transferred to the AT&SF in 1912, where it was renumbered #02419. In 1945 it was renumbered again to #9419.
Above, it was rebuilt with a tender to appear in the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair as "Little Buttercup" named after a character in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, HMS Pinafore. An oil burner, it weighs 69,860 lbs and has 17" x 24" cylinders and 51" drivers. Operating at a boiler pressure of 160 psi, it delivered 18,500 lbs tractive effort.
Below, three years later, it appeared in the Columbia Pictures movie Santa Fe starring Randolph Scott and based on the novel of the same name by James Vance Marshall.
Part of a batch of twelve S-10 Class 0-6-0 switchers built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA, for the Southern Pacific in 1913, #1215 was one of the first “modern” steam switchers on the railroad, equipped with superheating and piston valves. Seventeen more were built by Baldwin in 1920. Six S-10s have survived.
#1215 weighs 154,600 lbs. An oil burner with 51” drivers and 19” x 26” cylinders, it operated at a boiler pressure of 190 psi delivering 29,720 lbs tractive effort.
The locomotive was originally assigned to the Dunsmuir rail yard near Mt Shasta, CA, and used mainly on the Southern Pacific’s Western Division out of Oakland, Sacramento and Bakersfield. It last operated in San Francisco before being retired in 1957. The following year, it was donated to Hanford, CA, for a park display. The Feather River Railroad Society bought #1215 in 1995 and moved it to their Portola Railroad Museum.
The California Trolley and Railroad Corporation acquired the locomotive from the Museum in 2004.
