Obituary: Arthur Lloyd, railroad man through and through

Thank you very much for this wonderful and very informative and well-written obituary.

Art was a true legend in the railroad industry, and his passing leaves a huge void that will be very hard to fill. He was a true gentleman, and a consummate professional. His cheerfulness and optimism were infectious, and was always a real pleasure to talk to.

I had the honor and pleasure of knowing Art, and he was always kind, and very willing to go out of his way to help people in the rail industry and also rail enthusiasts.

He had a lot to do with the founding of the California State Railroad Museum, as he was active with the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, whose collection of rolling stock formed the nucleus of the museum’s collection.

He was one of the founding members of the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association, which operates an electric railroad museum in Rio Vista Junction in Solano County.

And I am pretty sure that, most importantly, most of the passenger rail operations here in California owe a lot of their success to his tireless work to promote passenger rail in California.

He wa also a 6th-generation Californian, and was descended in part from the Spanish land-grant Castro family, who owned land that is how part of Mountain View, across which Caltrain now runs. I was told that the former station stop in Mountain View on Rengstorff was named “Castro” because the Castro family had required the railroad to agree to establish a station there before they would allow the railroad lay tracks across their land.

The world is a much better place because Art was in it, and followed his passion for passenger rail.

Mr. Lloyd was a very sweet and lovely man. He always had a smile and treated people with respect. An absolute jewel!

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