THRA’s mission is to preserve, enhance, and interpret the rich railroad history of Tuolumne County, CA. However, we realize that we are new on the scene – others have been doing this for decades. Therefore, in order to honor others who have made a significant contribution to that same mission, THRA created the Tuolumne Historical Railroad Hall of Fame in May 2025.
Each year, several individuals will be chosen by THRA’s board of directors for induction into the Hall of Fame. The “Hall” will reside on THRA’s website; there is no physical location. The initial class of inductees was announced at THRA’s annual Banquet on May 3, 2025. They are shown below.
2025 Inductees
Bob Brown
In 1964 Bob Brown started the magazine Finelines, which thrived with a focus on 1/4” fine scale modeling. Eleven years later, Finelines merged with the Slim Gauge News (a fairly new magazine) to create the Narrow Gauge and Short Line GAZETTE.
Bob became the GAZETTE’s founding editor in March, 1975, and has been its editor throughout the magazine’s 50-year existence. This publication is widely considered to be the highest quality periodical in the field, and has subscribers all around the world. Bob is quick to share credit with others for the magazine’s success, including the 34+ years that his late wife Irene ran the magazine while he taught school, the 40+ years that Sharon Olson has done the art work, and Charlie Getz’s having written his column in every issue but one. The GAZETTE is going strong as Bob begins his 51st year as editor.
Throughout his life Bob has been a fan of Tuolumne County railroads, which are the epitome of the railroads on which the GAZETTE is focused. Throughout its 50 years, the GAZETTE has featured numerous prototype photos, plans, and articles about Tuolumne County railroads, including the Sierra Railway, West Side Lumber Company, and the Hetch-Hetchy Railroad. Also included have been numerous feature articles about individual models and entire model railroad layouts based on Tuolumne County prototypes. By actively encouraging the creation and publication of these plans, photos, and other materials, Bob Brown not only has helped to preserve this historical information, but also has made it available to a wide audience.
Dave Connery
Dave’s contributions to preserving the history of Tuolumne County railroads have been long-term and multi-faceted. Despite a 4-hour round-trip commute to Jamestown, he was a weekly (or more) volunteer docent at Railtown 1897 for 27 years. He was one of the 3 founders of the annual Sierra Railway Seminar in 2009. Throughout his years as a fan of the Sierra Railway he has written numerous articles and given many presentations on Tuolumne railroad subjects, both to railroad groups and to the general public. Dave’s preservation and dissemination of Tuolumne railroad history also resulted from his modeling efforts. His well-known HO scale Sierra, Carson, and Truckee layout included exquisite models of the Sierra Railway, and his garden railway was based on the West Side Lumber Company. In addition, he was part of a modular group which modeled the Yosemite Short Line Railroad.
Dorothy Newell Deane
Dorothy was the author of the seminal book Sierra Railway, which was published in 1960. Just about every fan of the Sierra Railway has at least one copy of this book in his/her library. Many of those fans first became interested in Tuolumne County railroads because of this book. Dorothy was the daughter of William H. Newell, who in the fall of 1897 joined the nascent Sierra Railway as its Engineer in Charge of Locations and Surveys. Dorothy had been born several years earlier in Mexico City, where her father was doing railroad location work at the time. Dorothy grew up in Tuolumne County as the Sierra Railway was being built, and witnessed sections being constructed. Later her brother and husband also were connected to the Sierra Railway. Her familiarity with the railroad and the old timers in the region put her in a good position to tell the story of the Sierra’s early history. Her book not only preserved and publicized that early history, but also inspired others to follow her lead.
Al Rose
Al Rose was born in San Francisco in 1918 and moved to Modesto in 1926. He became a prominent early railfan and prolific photographer of the railroads then operating in the Sierra Nevada and the surrounding foothills, particularly those in Tuolumne County.
Al and his friend Guy Dunscomb were the Bards of the Sierra Railroad and preserved much of its history from the 1930’s until the 1970’s on film. On a well-known trip in February 1949 they followed a freight behind Sierra #18 to Tuolumne in a heavy snowstorm. They followed the freight back to Jamestown, and then followed the snow-covered freight cars west out of Jamestown behind Sierra #28.
While the Sierra Railroad was his focus, there simply was not a railroad in Tuolumne County that Al Rose did not visit and photograph. Al rode a freight powered by Sierra Railroad #34 from Hetch-Hetchy Junction all the way to Mather on the Hetch-Hetchy Railroad and photographed the trip. Al made many trips into the backcountry of the West Side Lumber Company and Pickering Lumber Corp. logging lines. His photos of these operations have been used in several books. He also photographed the remains of the Empire City Ry out of Lyons and the remains of the ill-fated Yosemite Shortline.
An enthusiastic railfan, Al acquired Hetch Hetchy railcar #19 and took it on a day-long trip on the Hetch-Hetchy, and later on the Sierra Railway. He later donated it to Railtown 1897.
A lithographer by trade, he was an expert in the taking and publication of photographs, and his photos appear in many railroad books. The Al Rose Collection of photographs now resides at the Western Railway Museum. In March of 1955 he also compiled and drew the map of Tuolumne County railroads that has appeared in numerous publications, most notably the book Sierra Railway by Dorothy Newell Deane. Al Rose passed away in 1995, leaving behind a strong legacy of Tuolumne County railroad preservation.
