Railroad Car Heading for a Jazzy Future

In four years or so, Frank Sano, 55, expects to be whizzing down the tracks in his 1914 railroad car, all the time playing piano as leader of his Paradise Hotel Jazz Band.

“I’d rather do the train bit than anything else on earth,” said the San Clemente private detective who retired in 1986 after 24 years as a policeman in Westminster, the final years as a captain.

“Can you imagine the fun, riding a train with a jazz band to keep you entertained?” asked Sano, who holds a degree in criminology from Cal State Long Beach.

Sano said he only used his gun once in his years as a policeman. “I once shot at a motorcyclist who tried to run me down, but I missed him,” he said.

Sano said that for most of his adult life he has been caught up in the fascination of riding Pullman cars and seeing America from an open platform at the end of a railroad car.

“If you know trains you would understand why,” he said, while walking through the car at a rail siding in Irvine with partner Bryan Reese, a former Orange resident now working in the tour-train business in Oregon.

They are in the process of reconditioning the one-time Pullman Co. coach car they bought for charter trips.

The coach, originally used by the El Paso & Southwestern Pacific Railroad, was converted to a business car for Southern Pacific executives in 1929 and named “Santa Barbara.”

Reese said the railroad car they bought for about $10,000 was retired in 1974 but kept in storage for 15 years by another owner without ever being used or having any attention.

The car is a mess and will take four years and about $80,000 to refurbish, they said.

“People who buy something like this . . . are bordering on insanity,” Reese quipped.

Sano added: “I often wonder why I do it.”

The inside has been stripped to its cement foundation, the kitchen and pantry have been gutted, holes have been cut in the walls and the wheel assemblies are cracked.

But still remaining are much of the Honduran mahogany paneling, light fixtures and most important of all for Sano, the brass-railed observation platform.

When completed it will have observation and dining lounges, an office, twin staterooms with a shower between them, a compartment with upper and lower berths, pantry and kitchen.

In the meantime, Sano will continue keeping himself tuned up with his Paradise Hotel Jazz productions that promote jazz festivals and Roaring ‘20s dance parties in hotels and clubs throughout Orange County.

Roina Sano, his wife of 32 years, is the Charleston dancer with the band.

“We have a lot of fun and make just enough money to put on the next dance,” he said. “I couldn’t do this for a living.”

Sano said he has been caught up in the music of the ‘20s since his early days at home in Albany, N.Y., where his parents had a player piano with tunes of that time.

“Ragtime music is great,” he said.

When the railroad car is complete, Sano and his wife hope to promote tour trips for jazz-conscious fans who also want to travel the Southland in a railroad car.

The jazz trips to San Diego and San Francisco will be an extension of trips they have successfully promoted on other railroad cars.

Sano and Reese also don’t have illusions about making money on their railroad car.

“We’ll never get the money back until the car is sold or some millionaire falls in love with it,” Sano said.