I got up early and prepared the items I would be taking to Fullerton Railroad Days. I drove to the Santa Ana train station and parked in the north parking lot.
I took some pictures of from the top level of the parking structure to show the bridge and platform construction. After that, I walked to the northern end of the platform to wait for Surfliner 763 to take me to Fullerton Railroad Days.
Surfliner 763 5/6/2006
The train pulled into Santa Ana and I boarded the lower level of the cab car for the trip to Fullerton. We went by Anaheim, but at Fullerton Junction, we had to wait for a BNSF piggyback train with plenty of UPS trailers and Metrolink's display train to enter the siding at Fullerton. I stepped off and went straight up the stairs for a pair of pictures.
Fullerton Railroad Days 2006 5/6/2006
Fullerton Railroads Days was held in the northeast parking lot and out on Santa Fe Avenue.
On display there was a Metrolink train, BNSF ES44DC 7738, along with private cars Boston & Maine Salisbury Beach 800257, Western Limited RDCX 2001 and CB&Q dome Silver Splendor along with Coast Rail Caboose 1002.
Barry Christensen and I were working the Orange County Railroad Historical Society table. Once we had everything set up, I took a walk around the grounds to see what I could find.
Daylight Sales was there. They had sold me many railroad T-shirts over the years.
The star attraction of this year's edition of Fullerton Railroad Days was Disneyland's E.P. Ripley - Engine No. 2, which was named after Edward Payson Ripley (1845-1920). Mr. Ripley was the first President of the reorganized Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in 1895.
Steve Grande and Ray Burns, owners of Trainweb.com and Trainparty.com were manning their booth.
The Fullerton Railroad Plaza people had a booth.
One of the HO model railroad clubs had a display where I found ex. Amtrak Conductor Andy Jackson running a long California Zephyr.
After that, I went back to the Orange County Railway Historical Society booth and worked until about 11:25 AM. Here I would hand out the group's newsletter and sign-up sheets. My speech was: "We meet the first Monday night of the month except if that is a national holiday when we meet on the second Monday night on the 4th Floor of the Santa Ana Train Station at 7:30 PM, take the elevator up!" I enjoyed Coca-Cola and later a tri-tip sandwich. Cliff Prather and Roy Wojohn joined Barry and me, as did Jim Novell. Chris Parker showed up and let me use his phone to call Lets Talk Trains. Chris decided he would like to take a train ride because he knew I would be going on Surfliner 572 later this morning. I also met Melissa, a reader of my web site, who was finally able to meet me in person. At 11:30 AM Chris, Melissa and I walked over to Track 2 to wait for Surfliner 572.
Surfliner 572 5/6/2006
Surfliner 572 arrived at Fullerton to take Chris Parker and me on an escape from Fullerton Railroad Days for over three hours. The train left Fullerton late and we made our way south through Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine. Bridge replacement at MP 188 had slowed all trains today. We passed 571 just before Irvine and met 775 at CP Los Flores. Just before Oceanside, I used Chris' phone to call Julie at Amtrak to see how 577 was doing. With no report, I checked to see what time 768 arrived in San Diego and learned that it was 12:53 PM. That meant we could get to Solana Beach on 572 with no problems. We detrained there, went upstairs and visited the Coca-Cola machine. We checked to see how 577 was doing before we crossed the bridge and went down to Track 2 to wait.
Surfliner 577 5/6/2006
Surfliner 577 arrived at Solana Beach to take us back to Fullerton. We met 774 at San Onofre and later 578 just before Irvine. We arrived at Fullerton about half an hour late and I went back to the Orange County Railway Historical Society booth with Melissa, who had come to Fullerton Railroad Days to meet me. About 4:30 PM, we walked back to Track 2 to wait for Surfliner 572. Surfliner 572 came into Fullerton to return me home to Santa Ana.
The wonderful Melissa, a reader of my web site, who came to Fullerton Railroad Days to meet me.
Surfliner 582 came into Fullerton to return me home to Santa Ana.
