Edward Charles Wuelfing

Ed Wuelfing, also known as Cape Horn Ed, passed away peacefully with his three children at his side on October 7, 2025, the feast day of the Holy Rosary. The Johnny Cash gospel song "I'm Bound for the Promised Land" was playing.
Edward Charles Wuelfing was born on April 10, 1937, in Oakland, California to Edward and Madeline Wuelfing. He was raised in the Fruitvale area of Oakland near St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church. He spent much time with his Freuler grandparents up the street on Coolidge Avenue. He would play Pinochle with them for the treat of sugar bread after the card game. He spent his free days watching trains all through Oakland and fishing in Alameda with his best friend, Vincent Boiteux. A tower operator on the Southern Pacific Railroad offered to let Ed watch trains from the tower if he would play cribbage with him. So, Moe Dyer taught a young Ed how to play cribbage in a train tower in Oakland. After graduating from St. Elizabeth's High School, he decided to enter the Franciscan Order and attended seminary at multiple missions in Southern California. This was the same year that the Brooklyn Dodgers moved west, starting his life-long love of the Los Angeles Dodgers which he enjoyed until his last day. He stated that many are called, and few are chosen and ended up leaving the Seminary although he kept his love of the Franciscan Order and St Francis of Assisi until his final weekend with the Feast Day of St. Francis and Mass on TV with the Eternal Word Television Network of the Franciscans.
He had always wanted to work for the railroad. Because he knew how to type, the Southern Pacific Railroad hired him as a train order operator working at the Melrose tower. Despite his father working for the Western Pacific Railroad for 36 years, he was told that there was no future in the railroad. He was taken into the ceramic tile business by Wilfred "Wink" Winkenbach. He worked in the tile industry as an estimator for Superior Tile, Spinardi Art and Tile, Superior Tile again, RJM Tile, Fischer Tile, and Capitol City Tile. He said that he was "the best est in the west".
He moved to Colfax, California in 1986. He had purchased property above Cape Horn and had a house built with the upstairs office and all the windows of the house facing the train tracks. He moved into the house on January 1st, 1988, and lived there to his last day. He became known to the railroaders as "Cape Horn Ed". He would flick the lights, wave from the deck, and walk the tracks. He had been a model railroad hobbyist all his life. When he stopped drinking in 1995, he started on his G gauge layout. He modeled downtown Colfax by going to town on weekend mornings to measure all of the buildings and their structures on the street. He was stopped by one of the bar owners one time and asked if he was the tax collector. He followed his Catholic faith and was an involved parishioner at St. Dominic's Parish in Colfax. A usual attendee of Saturday night Mass, he transitioned to weekly Mass on Wednesday mornings.
He is survived by his daughter Kim Laehle (J.R.), his sons Budd Wuelfing (Linda) and K.C. Wuelfing (Cristi), and his seven grandchildren: J.J. and Sarah Maria Laehle, Chase and Colton Wuelfing, and Skylar, Kris, and Hayden Wuelfing. He is also survived by his sister Anne Pearce and his brothers Mark Wuelfing and Victor Wuelfing.
A funeral Mass will be held at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Auburn, CA on October 23, 2025, at 11:30 am. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at wplives.org; the Placer Sierra Railroad Heritage Society at psrhs.org ; The Markie Foundation at markiefoundation.org; or St. Dominic's Parish in Colfax.