News You Can Use: Engine 1258 Lights Up for the Holidays, Holiday Frolic and Boat Parades, Santa House, Library Events, Holiday Pageant, Toy, Food, Pajama Drives and More
Our latest roundup of events and activities in and around Martinez
The following roundup of upcoming events and activities in and around Martinez by freelance writer David Scholz and Craig Lazzeretti is made available in full to paid subscribers only (the first item in this edition is available to all subscribers). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5 a month or $50 annually if not already to take advantage of content such as this and support more local news coverage of Martinez. You can also email craig.lazzeretti@gmail.com for information on other ways to support the newsletter.
By David Scholz
The second consecutive Christmas season is seeing Train Engine No. 1258, parked across from the Martinez Amtrak station near the entrance to Radke Martinez Regional Shoreline Park, lit up for the holidays.
Martinez resident Joseph Chavez stands next to brightly lit Engine No. 1258 after he completed the task of adorning it in more than 2000 Christmas lights for the holiday season. Photo by David Scholz
The duo of Martinez resident Joseph Chavez and Liam O’Leary, of nearby Pittsburg, have taken the lead in the festive project. Phase one saw them initially string approximately 1,000 lights to the engine before Thanksgiving. In phase two, it was adorned with an additional 1,260 lights. The lights are connected to a regular car battery, and a timer has the lights set to go on from 5 p.m. to midnight nightly.
Back in the day, O’Leary said, the engine did the unceremonious grunt work of moving freight cars around a railroad yard before it was finally taken out of service in 1958. The Southern Pacific Co. eventually presented it to the city of Martinez in May 1959. During its time in service, there was never a thought to string lights on it to add a bit of cheer, Chavez recalled.
Joseph Chaves, of Martinez, strings additional lights on Engine No. 1258 the day after Thanksgiving. Photo by David Scholz
So, the TLC the engine has undergone this holiday season has hardly gone unnoticed. The two train aficionados who are associated with the brightly lit Christmas trains that Niles Canyon Railroad operate annually during the holidays — O’Leary is a brakeman and Chavez serves as a docent inside the carriages — recounted a recent evening when a family came by and the children’s eyes beamed with the sight of the brightly lit Engine No. 1258.
Engine No. 1258 is lit up for the holidays from 5 p.m. to midnight thanks to the efforts of Martinez resident Joseph Chavez and Liam O’Leary, of Pittsburg.
While glad to see the reaction and know it is adding joy as the holiday season chugs along, O’Leary and Chavez also hope “it gets more eyes’’ on the plight of the aging Engine No. 1258. Financial support is being sought to give it the cosmetic care to ensure it looks good well into the future. A sister engine in San Jose, which just recently had lights strung on it as well, has been restored to its glory. The hope is for the same results for the one here, Chavez said.
For more information on the project, contact Chavez at 2003joeyc@gmail.com
