Western
Hobbycraft
PO Box 7449
Mesa, AZ 85216

Phone
480-654-9224

Fax
480-654-8692

"My Heart Belongs To Daddy”
From the owner and founder of Western Hobbycraft.

Dear visitors,

With great gratitude to my customers who so dearly love my Johnstown Trolleys. I will now announce my plans for the future, insofar as My Lord allows me the time and good health to follow through on them. You will notice we are now linked to a wonderful site about the Cambria & Indiana Railroad System, near Johnstown, Pa, and was in the business of hauling coal to the Steel Mills in Johnstown Pa as well as to the PRR mainline for delivery of coal to Pittsburgh Pa. and points West. My father was a Cambria & Indiana Employee from 1916 until his death at age not quite 33 years.

He was crushed to death under the weight of a Crane Car that was engaged in the cleanup and rerailing of a serious derailment when, being improperly shored with outriggers and or cribbing the Crane car toppled over on My Dad, killing him instantly.

My Dad, Albert Waldo Cameron was a brakeman, Conductor as well as operator of the Passenger Coaches (Brill interurbans). The accident was located at Sides, one of the stations on the C&I RR. It happened on May 9,1927. The family lived very close to Sides on a potato farm (Now Christmas Tree Farm) The funeral was held in the parlor of the little cabin type home on Wednesday May, 11,1927. In an adjacent bedroom of the little house, I was born at 8:30 AM on the day of the funeral.

I grew up knowing I had Two Fathers in Heaven. MY Earthly Father was almost the exact same age that Jesus The Christ was when He died on the Cross for all of us.

My Mother moved us into Johnstown Pa when I was three. There I fell in love with Street Cars, and Johnstown Pa was the center of the Universe to me. If I can honor the things and people I love so much, it will bring closure for me in my twilight of life, Knowing I will have done my Father proud. He was on the crew of the train that endured the deadly robbery, trembling as he tried to remain still atop a pile of coal; a robber's gun was aimed at him with the admonishment, “One move and you're a dead man.“ When I grew up I went to work for Republic Steel Corporation, retiring after 34 years service. I now augment my Social Security income doing the thing I love most.

Honoring My Father (Both of them) My hometown (Johnstown, Pa) The Johnstown Traction Company and The Cambria & Indiana Railroad. Now you know why I do it.

Sincerely;

Walter E Cameron, Proprietor Western Hobbycraft.