Julius W. “Jake” Eldridge, a career CSX railroader, neighborhood activist, and streetcar enthusiast, died Nov. 17 from complications of dementia at Springwell Senior Living in Mount Washington. The former Evergreen resident was 88.

“I’ve known Jake since the 1960s, when I was a kid, and he was always very kind to kids,” said J. McDonald “Mac” Kennedy, an Evergreen resident. “He was a very reflective guy who didn’t pull any punches and always told the truth but was always willing to listen.”

Julius Walton Eldridge, son of Julius Spencer Eldridge, a Maryland Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. worker, and Emma Allene Barefoot Eldridge, a Locke Insulator Co. administrator, was born in Benson, North Carolina, and raised in Catonsville. He graduated in 1954 from Catonsville High School.

He attended the University of Maryland, College Park, and began his four-decade railroad career in 1961 in car accounting with the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He worked in various departments, mainly conducting cost and economic research.

“He was a very outgoing sort of guy. Bigger than life,” said E. Ray Lichty, a retired CSX executive. Eldridge later worked in passenger operations until the department moved to CSX headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida.

“He enjoyed working on the railroad,” said his son, Jonathan Eldridge, of Evergreen. “He knew people in every town and every division who knew how to get things done.”

Eldridge had been president and chairman of the local chapter of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. He retired in 2000.

In 1965, Eldridge and his wife, Carolyn Wittway, whom he married in 1963, moved to Alpine Road in Evergreen. He served as president of the Evergreen Community Association for 37 years and was treasurer of the Roland Park Foundation.

“Jake was dedicated to our neighborhood and led the battle against a proposed nursing home that was going to be built there,” said Kennedy, director of alumni relations at Boys’ Latin School.

An inveterate bus rider of the old No. 6, Eldridge believed in public transportation.

“He loved talking about the latest shenanigans on the No. 6 bus,” said Rob Ross Hendrickson, a Baltimore lawyer and lunch companion at the old Woman’s Industrial Exchange. “We called ourselves the Down Under Club.”

In 1977, Eldridge and his son joined the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, where they worked as a motorman-conductor team.

“He also did track work and really was an all-around guy,” said John Engleman, a longtime museum member. “He was the kind of person who said, ‘Let’s try this and see what happens.'”

On the last day of streetcar service, Nov. 3, 1963, Eldridge chartered a streetcar from the old Baltimore Transit Co. and rode the No. 8 line from Towson to Catonsville while a Dixieland band serenaded those onboard, his son said.

A self-taught artist, he enjoyed making stained-glass windows and working on his Alpine Road home. Eldridge was a member of the Greater Homewood Literacy Program, the H.L. Mencken Society, and the Six Napoleons in Baltimore. He enjoyed vacationing with his family on Cape Cod and in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Dec. 28 at the U.S. East-West Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 305 Cable St., Baltimore.

In addition to his wife of 61 years, a retired administrative assistant, and son, he is survived by a daughter, Julie Eldridge Edwards, of Burlington, Vermont; two granddaughters; and several nieces and nephews.

Have a news tip? Contact Frederick N. Rasmussen at frasmussen@baltsun.com and 410-332-6536.