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by Steve Eshom
I’m lucky my family history includes railroading. In fact that history is probably one of the reasons I enjoy the railfan hobby as much as I do. While visiting with my parents a couple of weeks ago I came across one part of my family railroad history that I knew about but had never looked at too closely.Â
In the early 1960s after a stint in the Air Force my Uncle Dale landed himself a telegraphers job with the Southern Pacific at Surf, CA. He and his new bride moved themselves to nearby Lompoc and started their life.  With the arrival of their first daughter in 1963 the family from Washington had to come for a visit. It is photographs from this visit that survive today and document my uncle’s history in southern California.
 
Uncle Dale and wife on the platform
Trains ran an article in the March 2008 issue on the last years of operations at Surf. At the time I read it I didn’t realize that Surf was where my uncle worked. It was only during the later discussion with my parents and reviewing these photos that I put the pieces together about Uncle Dale’s work location.Â
With these pictures in hand I poured back through the article looking for things I recognized. By the 1970s and 1980s era of the article Surf had moved to the ’new’ depot and of course looked much different than what is shown in these photos. Despite that I did pick out one common thing though.  Pictured on the top of page 50 is the ’new’ Surf operators desk and just above it is the same model board as pictured below.
Uncle Dale listens intently on the dispatcher’s phone.
By 1968 on the job injury and other illnesses ended my uncle’s SP career.  It would be really cool to say that he had a long career with the SP and that I fondly remember depot visits. Alas, the realities of life have prevented that but I am still happy that I do have these photos that I can look back on to remember this bit of my family railroad history.
A quick break
Rough Weather:
More Creative Panning: