Los Gatos: Rotarians leave their mark on the Billy Jones 'Wildcat' Railroad

By Judy Peterson

jpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com

POSTED:   08/24/2016 06:01:34 PM PDT

Photograph by George Sakkestad Los Gatos Rotary Club member Paul Christensen put his grilling...

Los Gatos Rotarians enjoyed the fruits of their labors at the club's annual barbecue at Oak Meadow Park, where pit masters piled chicken breasts, steaks and sausages onto new, professional-size grills that were purchased by the club. The Aug. 23 barbecue celebrated Rotary's commitment to the Los Gatos community, which has been ongoing since the club's founding in 1924.

"What we do in the community is critical to our mission," past president Tina Orsi-Hartigan said. "Our mission is to make a positive impact in the community, both locally and globally. So, we ask our members to donate to Rotary International every year--the amount doesn't matter--to support global initiatives such as eradicating polio."

A portion of that money is returned to the club for local use, and after seeing Oak Meadow's old barbecue set-up, members decided a new barbecue area was in order.

The barbecues are used by the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad to grill hot dogs and hamburgers that are sold to park visitors.

"We bought expensive professional barbecue equipment, saving the Billy Jones Railroad a lot of money because their barbecues had to be replaced every year," Orsi-Hartigan said.

Now, there are two Saber grills built into a barbecue island that's adjacent to the railroad tracks. Before, railroad workers used little portable grills.

The project cost approximately $15,000.

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Since the project wasn't finished when Orsi-Hartigan's term was up, it continued into the next club president's term.

"I ordered all the accessories, such as shelving, doors and cabinets," past president Rodger Griffin said.

There's also a brand-new, shiny stainless steel countertop that was set up as a buffet during the party, allowing guests to help themselves.

Griffin said much of the project was completed by club members, although a concrete company installed the slab that the counter sits on.

He gave a shout out to several members who volunteered for the project, including Colin Deursor, Tom Dodge and Ron Cassel. "Ron used to be a shop teacher at Los Gatos High School, and he did the stainless steel top," Griffin said.

Billy Jones Railroad CEO Francesca Alexander said the new grills are great. "They're a lot hotter than we're used to; they get fired up quickly," she said. "But they're very convenient. The old barbecues had to be moved inside at night."

Because the park and railroad are open daily, the barbecue project had to be built between 7 and 10:15 a.m. so it wouldn't interfere with operations.

Still to come: The Rotary club plans to install a permanent natural gas line to service the barbecues and also provide heat in the winter to the W.E. "Bill" Mason Carousel.

Plans are also being made to build a new room where carousel horses can be refurbished.

And Billy Jones board member George Shannon took guests into the railroad's roundhouse, where a new passenger car is under construction. The car will allow more people to ride the train at the same time, which Shannon said is important since most riders are young children.

"We've discovered kids are like time bombs," he said. "They wait in line for 10 minutes to get on the train and then they take an 11-minute ride. So this is a new car to add more bodies."

Incidentally, the car's wheels are from a train that ran during the 1915 Pan Pacific Expo in San Francisco.