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industries have gone out of
business or modernized their plants and
equipment, thereby no longer requiring the services and
products of the
Knight Foundry. For example, back then the food packing
industry have
replaced chains and sprockets with hydraulic pumps and
motors.
Some good news - the foundry is exempt from a considerable
number of
EPA and other environmental regulations because there is so
little
pollution in the foundry's region and because there are so
few pours.
Carl felt that it took two to three years to fully train a
self-directed foundry
worker. It is not a quick and easy process. Shipping
costs for finished
products makes the foundry uncompetitive in markets which
are any
distance from California, such as the east coast and the
midwest.
The previous preservation effort, "Historic Knight Foundry
Limited", was
co-founded by Ed Arata about 3 1/2 years ago. They offered
three-day
workshops which were successful to a point. Each workshop
required
seven (!) volunteers in order to run smoothly. This
preservation effort was
not financially successful and so Carl took the foundry
back on January 1,
1996.
The goal of the other preservation effort, "Friends of the
Knight Foundry",
was to generate sufficient funds to acquire the foundry.
They were
unsuccessful in even generating the down payment.
Randy Hees summarized the Knight Foundry situation by
stating that:
* The Foundry
needs work to stay busy for 9 to 12 months in order
to restart.
* We are
not in a situation to ask the public for money unless the
foundry is
active.
* The
foundry needs projects in order to generate business.
* The
foundry needs to be owned by a government or private
agency so that it can be
preserved over the long haul.
Andy asked for comments on
people's interests.
Les and Phyllis Sutherland said that they were interested
in all modes of
transportation: rail, auto, air, trucks. They mentioned
that the Great
American Race would be starting in Sonoma on June 21,
traveling through
Stockton, and ending up in Jacksonville, Florida on July
4th. There were
going to be 80 older trucks and cars participating in the
race.
Randy Hees said that Cargill Salt has a open house every
fall during their
salt harvest. Cargill also maintains their own museum
which has some
narrow gauge railroad equipment, screw drive pumps and
other historic
equipment used in harvesting salt. The SPCRR has a slide show on the
salt industry which might be useful as the topic for a
meeting.
Other suggestions for future meetings included:
Rio Bravo
petroleum pumps (Chevron)
Nevada State
Railroad Museum
California
State Railroad Museum (perhaps including a tour of the
shops)
A tour
retracing the South Pacific Coast Railroad (from Alameda to
Santa Cruz)
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