The Rotary Chief , Roeding parks original train 1955

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Supersonic

The Rotary Chief , Roeding parks original train 1955

Post by Supersonic » Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:44 am

In 1955 the Fresno Rotary club helped largely in funding a small ride on train for Roeding park in Fresno. The train to be named the “Rotary Chief” after the club who funded it was ordered from a small company in California known as Arrow Development. This same company was at the same exact time building all the rides for another soon to open theme park in Anaheim CA, known as Disneyland. They actually built Mr toads wild ride, Peter pans flight, the pirates of the Caribbean, the haunted mansion, the Matterhorn and many others. I recently found this train listed in a farm estate auction in Ceres California and only discovered it’s identity after sanding the paint off the front of the train to find the words “Rotary Chief” hidden below the top layer of paint. I am in the process of restoring the train and am converting it to rubber tires with steering so it can be used in parades. It will be painted exactly as it was in 1955 and will now have all kinds of fun new hidden features added. I am looking for information on the train which so far, no one has been able to help me with. I have spoken with the Fresno historical society and the Fresno rotary club and neither have been able to help me so far. When was this train taken out of service in Roeding park? Why was it taken out of service? Where did it go when it left fresno? We are trying to piece together where this little train has been for the last half a century or so. Any information would be greatly appreciated. I would post pictures of the train here but this page requires outside image hosting and it’s pretty complicated for me and I can’t figure it out. 🤷‍♂️.anyway, we hope to one day bring the train back home to Fresno to some event or parade where the whole town can see it again as it once was and see if any old timers remember it. thanks for any info🙂

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