Ed with his oil can, once used by
Billy Jones, that was given to him
by his firing mentor, Phil Reader.

Edward Kelley moved to Los Gatos, California, when he was two years old. Born in New York, his family made their home within earshot of Vasona Junction, where the occasional Southern Pacific freight could be heard rolling towards the cement kilns at Permanente. But the modern, dirty "dismals" were of little interest to young Kelley, who wished he'd lived to see their older, steam-powered counterparts charging down those tracks.

Since his first ride behind Billy Jones' old "2-Spot," Kelley was hooked on steam. Throughout his childhood, visits to places like Roaring Camp, Disneyland, and the California State Railroad Museum "stoked up" what has become a lifelong interest in steam. Disinterested by model "toys" and eager to learn everything he could about the real thing, a young Kelley would often converse with engine crews, many of whom seemed more than happy to answer an inquisitive young mind. His supportive parents would sometimes make family vacations out of visiting some of the country's premier tourist railroads. In middle school, he volunteered doing trackwork on the little Wildcat RR for community service hours.

Kelley's enthusiasm for writing and history was also realized at an early age. While attending Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, he wrote the "History Corner" column for the student-run Bear Facts newspaper, spending hours browsing through the school's archives. He gained a fascination with the past through Donna Plehn and Jane Donsker's 4th and 5th grade living history classes, and in Junior High, English teacher Karen Clarkson encouraged his passion for writing and "getting the word out." By high school, he had authored numerous articles for periodicals, maintained his own steam railroading "webzine," and served as editor of the school paper.

Kelley embarked as a railroader at the age of 18, when he took a summer job in the shop of the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroad. Since then, the college marketing major has spent weekends and summers, either in the shop or as a fireman, on the Pacific Coast Railroad and the Niles Canyon Railway. He has had the great privelege of working with both first generation "steam heads " and their direct railroading "descendants," including Los Gatos's own. Some of his teachers learned under the likes of Neil Vodden, Charlie Ward, and Charlie Hoyle, themselves apprentices of Fred Reynolds and Billy Jones. home