Carolwood Pacific Historical Society Ward Kimball Tribute,

Carolwood Pacific Historical Society Ward Kimball Tribute
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After Roger was done with his story, Michael Broggie told about an incident where Ward welcomed a new family to the neighborhood in his own unique manner. Although Ward invited many people out to see his railroading collection, he was not overly fond of uninvited guests. One day Ward noticed that a family that had just moved in across the street was coming over and they were bringing a cake-they were obviously coming over to introduce themselves. Not one to let such a deed go unpunished, Ward told Betty and the kids to take their clothes off. When the couple knocked on the door, Ward opened it and invited them in to meet the Kimball’s in all their natural glory. Ward showed them around, making it a point to tell them that being nude was perfectly natural and the way that they lived everyday. The couple was visibly ill at ease and was looking for any reason to leave. After finding such an excuse, Ward invited them to come over any time-for a picnic or to ride the train or whatever. As a sidenote, when Michael Broggie recounted this story to Ward in 2001, he denied it-although he himself had told it some years before.


John Bentley

The next speaker was John Bentley, who had met Ward in 1955 when he visited Ward’s house and toured his train collection. He gradually became Ward’s friend over the course of some years by talking about trains and collecting. One day he made the mistake of letting Ward know that he had some spare time on his hands during weekends, which Ward promptly filled. John began coming over to Ward’s house to work on replacing bad ties on Ward’s track. Ward always invited John over whenever he acquired a new train so he could see and they could talk about it. Secure in their friendship, John seized the chance to purchase a house two blocks away from Ward’s. Ward’s response to the news was to slam the door in John’s face while yelling to Betty, "Betty, there goes the neighborhood!"

John also gave an example of Ward’s kindness. After finding out that John wanted to give his mom a Disney present for her birthday, Ward drew Mickey Mouse on one of their dinner plates, wrote "Have a Great Birthday" and signed it "Ward Kimball." Betty wasn’t too enthused to lose a piece of her china, but Ward replied, "Well, John’s been a good friend all of these years, so I think it’s OK."

Michael Broggie again spoke, drawing the crowd’s attention to one of Ward’s drawings that LaughingPlace.com’s Dave Mastanich brought. It was a caricature that showed Ward and Betty pulling a toy train. Apparently Dave had won this as a raffle prize.

Knowing Walt’s and Ward’s love of trains, and the intense financial pressure Walt was under during the original construction of Disneyland, it seems natural that there must be a story in there somewhere connecting all three. Michael told the story of "The Great Train Robbery That Never Happened." When Disneyland opened, 90% of the guests rode the trains; with only two trains, there was not nearly enough capacity. To solve the problem, Walt had Roger Broggie find and restore another train; the Fred Gurley was added to the Disneyland Railroad on March 28, 1958. However, before the Fred Gurley took the rails, Walt approached the problem from a different angle. Walt, knowing that Ward had a working full-size engine on his Grizzly Flats Railroad, graciously offered to bring the Chloe to Disneyland, where Ward could run her on Mondays and Tuesdays (in 1958, Disneyland was closed on those two days).

Ward saw the trouble with this proposition right away-he worked Monday through Friday, so he wouldn’t be able to take Walt up on his Monday and Tuesday offer-- but at the same time he didn’t want to just say "No" to his boss. He pointed out that the Chloe was a wood burner and that the cinders would burn down the park. Walt’s counterproposal was to pay to convert her to a diesel burner, which is terrible travesty to a railroader (Walt, as a major railroading fan, must have been fairly desperate to make such an offer to Ward)-Ward told him definitely "No!" And that ended Walt’s first attempt to use Ward’s locomotives for his own purposes.

But Walt didn’t stop his pursuit of Ward’s trains there. Some time later, he suggested to Ward that he bring the Emma Nevada to the Golden Oak Ranch for movie filming. This effort was no more successful than his attempt to bring the Chloe to Disneyland. Ward once commented, "Walt was always trying to get his hands on my locomotives. He wouldn’t leave me alone."


Fred Nikas

Fred Nikas, from the Orange Empire Railway Museum, was the next speaker. Fred first met Ward twelve years ago. Ward wanted to make sure his collection was well taken care of after he was gone. Fred came over to Ward’s house several times for meetings to make plans to move the collection and house it at the museum. As might be expected of Ward’s house, there were many interesting doodads on display to attract (or distract) one’s attention. One that Fred found particularly interesting was a three-foot-long slice of watermelon that was framed and mounted over one of the doors. Upon closer inspection, one noticed that there was a small door in the watermelon; when you opened it, you found a cockroach behind it. If you looked even closer, you noticed that the seeds were little cockroaches. Fred remarked that, "Only Ward could have that sense of humor."

Fred had another story. Ward was a Sunkist grower, so there were plenty of oranges around while the collection was being moved to the museum. Every once in a while, Fred would snack on a few and discard the peels under Ward’s trees. Ward noticed the peels, but it took him awhile to figure out who was the culprit. Once he did, he gathered a few and then drew a portrait of Fred-which he finished off by gluing the orange peels to it. At the dedication of the Grizzly Flats Engine House at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, Ward presented Fred with this portrait.