Allan D. Krieg; Railroad Historian

Allan D. Krieg, a nationally known railroad buff, historian and writer, has died. He was 74.

Krieg, who had lived in Pasadena for 34 years, died Friday of complications of Parkinson’s disease in an Oceanside hospital near his retirement home in Carlsbad.

Growing up in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, Krieg became fascinated with “big engines that move.” During summers of his years at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., he worked as a railroad brakeman.

When Krieg served in the Army in India during World War II, he made a memorable trip on a two-foot cog railway up the Himalayas to Darjeeling tea plantations. He wrote his first published story about that adventure.

After attending business school at Harvard, Krieg gravitated to a job as publicist for Union Pacific, serving as the railroad’s spokesman for 30 years.

Before private railroads were linked to form Amtrak, he made award-winning industrial films and wrote a column called “Wish You Were Here” about train trips in California.

He also wrote a book, “Last of the 3-Foot Loggers,” about the logging railroad that operated in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley before that area’s conversion to a reservoir.

Krieg is survived by his wife, Marjorie; two sons, James and Roger; and two young granddaughters.