After many years, I have a place again where I can replicate a Southern Pacific ticket office from the 1930s. My first SP office was in a home I lost after the Great Recession of 2008.
My original SP office on Pine Trail Drive in Bakersfield, Ca.
My home was built in 1947. I plan to research the builder at a later date. There are a number of homes in the Bakersfield area with my floorplan, and a mirror image of that floorplan. In some of those homes, one of the bedrooms was walk-through, having an entry door at two different places. My home has such a room on the south side of the house. One entry door goes to the hallway with the other bedrooms. The other door goes into the laundry room.
The SP room begins to take shape with lighting, SP paint colors and a new ceiling fan.
The room needed three doors to be hung. I had help with the large glass door at the east side of the room. In hanging the other two doors by myself, I have had to learn some new skills.
Before and after photos of the west entry door from the hallway.
I was fortunate to find new/old door hardware.
A Formica hobby desk, purchased from Facebook marketplace for $10, has become the new Railway Express Agency counter. This also serves as the SP ticket counter.
Two old cabinet doors were found in a yard sale. I replaced the glass with wainscot paneling in historic SP putty and Samoa Brown colors.
Here are the re-purposed cabinet doors built onto my new Western Union counter. The inside of the counter will conceal a large screen TV.
Another skill I have had to acquire, is making molding on a router table. The chair rail requires two different bull-nose moldings. The small one at the bottom is readily available. I made the large one, which is out of production, from furring strips on the router table. I also used the router table to make the edges on my counter tops. The chair rail and countertops are painted in SP red-brown.
The new telegraph counter at Christmas
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