In recognition of Pride Month, a photo taken by Lucius M. Beebe of himself and his partner, Charles M. Clegg, sitting on the rails of the Southern Pacific Keeler Branch. Beebe was a terrific author and renowned railfan, authoring some 35 books on trains. Early on Beebe did both the writing and photography early on, but met Charles Clegg in 1940, and Clegg took over the later photography and allowed Beebe to focus on the writing. There's a definite difference between Beebe's earlier solo works, like High Iron and Highball, which are just random collections of photos with minimalist captions, and the later efforts like Mixed Train Daily or The Trains We Rode, which are rather floridly written and tell fascinating stories.
Lucius Beebe was born December 9, 1902 in Wakefield, Massachusetts to a rather prominent and wealthy Boston family. He ended up getting expelled from both Harvard and Yale as a result of rather outrageous pranks that he played (including toilet-papering J.P Morgan's personal yacht using a rented airplane), then moved to New York City and began writing for the Tribune. Beebe was the first real celebrity columnist while working for the Tribune, reporting on "this actor was seen eating here, this banker went and attended this musical, etc." and is credited with coining the term "Cafe Society". All along, he also was a noted partisan of railroads and passenger shipliners, traveling frequently and photographing and writing several books.
Charles Clegg's early personal life is less frequently remarked upon, and he wasn't nearly as famous. He was born into an old New England family in June 29, 1916, and grew up in Rhode Island. In 1940, both he and Beebe, who did not know each other at the time, were attending a party hosted by Evalyn Walsh McLean, the last private owner of the Hope Diamond, at her mansion and both ended up drinking heavily and spending the night. They were in two separate rooms with a shared bathroom, and in the middle of the night, Beebe got up and stumbled around, ended up knocking over a vase in his room and cutting himself badly. Clegg heard the commotion, came over, helped Beebe get cleaned up and bandaged, then went back to his own room, lit a cigarette in bed, dozed off and partially set the room on fire. The two were told by McLean afterwards that while they were still welcome to attend her parties, they were not welcome to stay over anymore.
Due to shared interests in railroads, the two struck up a relationship, which they were quite open about, especially considering the times. Of course, being wealthy, a prominent socialite, and living in New York City, also likely helped in that regard. They took up traveling, photographing railroads, and writing a number of books. Beebe lent a certain respectability to railfanning, which at the time (much like now) was looked at with suspicion by the general public. During WWII, while still writing for the Tribune and contributing to a number of other magazines and working on his own books, Beebe was accidentally arrested several times on suspicion of being a spy.
In 1950, Beebe and Clegg moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where they purchased and restored the Piper family home and later purchased the dormant Territorial Enterprise newspaper. The newspaper was relaunched in 1952, and by 1954 had achieved the highest circulation in the West for a weekly newspaper. Part of the reason for the move was that the two stated they were tired of the New York City social scene, but part of it was also to get away from the beginning of the "Lavender Scare". Virginia City was full of wealthy, eccentric folks, and no one would judge or scrutinize Beebe & Clegg's personal choices too closely there. While there, they became enamored of the Virginia & Truckee and documented and saved as much of the railroad's history as they could.
By 1960, Beebe had taken up a job with the San Francisco Chronicle and the pair moved to San Francisco. By that point, Beebe and Clegg had moved on from most of their railfanning. They were still publishing some books, but it was mostly older unpublished materials. When railroads made the transition from steam to diesel, they lost interest in it, like many railfans of the era did. Beebe was also in poor health and couldn't make the treks out into the deserts or the Rocky Mountains anymore. On February 4th, 1966, Beebe passed away from a heart attack, leaving the bulk of his $2 million estate to Clegg. Charles Clegg never moved on from Beebe's death and mostly faded into obscurity after that, before committing suicide in 1979 on the day that he reached the precise age at which Beebe had died.
