Lounge Chair Road Trip No. 18: Newcastle, California

Good morning, Tina here.


Heading out (in my mind) to the north of us to Placer County to the charming Railroad burb of Newcastle, which I will show you through a few postcards.

I remember this little town near Auburn fondly since a childhood friend of mine moved there while I was still in grammar school and we went to visit. We had so much fun!

I remember feeling like we had the run of the town, which was dirt streets, packing sheds, a railroad depot, small stores, and my very favorite of all... old Victorian houses (one which was rented by my friend's family of nine kids).

Here is one of the long packing sheds. Debbie's dad had a business making oak briquettes coated with wax to barbecue with, which I think was very forward thinking for the 'sixties, and packed them for sale in one of the sheds. We thought it was great fun to ride down the bumpy conveyor belts in the old wooden fruit boxes!



I haven't been to Newcastle in a few years, but now it has a couple of stores and a few restaurants and the long sheds hold commercial efforts of various sorts, changing now and then.

Oh what fun it would have been back in the day to ride the train to or through Newcastle!

I guess maybe I should have called this post a Lounge Chair TRAIN Trip...

Because, although the postcard above, the newest I have, is from the 'sixties. just like Mr. Bumpus's briquettes, the train still runs through the historic town of Newcastle.