Patrick Henry Creative Promotions at Fullerton, CA July 27, 2015

Patrick Henry Creative Promotions

Fullerton Station with the SouthWest Chief

July 27, 2015

Photos by Carl Morrison, Carl@TrainWeb.com

Like my buddy Bob Williams says, "Always carry a camera with you." That is much easier with the improved iPhone cameras these days. However, this evening I did have my DSLR with me.

July 27, 2015 was the monthly meeting of the Train Travel Meetup in Fullerton, California near the Fullerton Amtrak Station. When I arrived, Peter Warner had already pushed four tables together and had onion rings and french fries available for the group. Each month we meet and chat at the Knowlwoods hamburger joint across the parking lot starting about 5:30 p.m., then when the nightly Amtrak Southwest Chief comes through about 6:50 p.m. heading from LA to Chicago, we walk over to the platform and mingle with the travelers who are boarding to head east on the train.

Before the Southwest Chief arrived, Chris Parker, Robin Bowers, David, Peter, Tom Anderson and I chatted with a couple of young Amish fellows from Iowa, one a farmer and the other works in a saw mill. The Amish farmer had just had leg surgery in Tijuana, Mexico and they came back form San Diego on a Surfliner and would board the Southwest Chief in Fullerton. As it turned out, the Amish fellows were going back to La Plata, Missouri where they had boarded the train to come to California. We Train Travel Meetup fellows have all been to La Plata and stayed at the Depot Inn and Suites since the leader of the meetup owns the Depot Inn there and La Plata is the home of the American Passenger Heritage Foundation (APRHF.org). The president of the APRHF is also the caretaker of the station in La Plata, Bob and Amy Cox. So I told the Amish boys to kid Bob Cox about being told by Carl Morrison in California that they should watch their luggage closely in La Plata. The boys and I agreed that the world is a small place when you meet someone 2,000 miles away in California who knows the Station Manager at their home station.

Chris Parker, right, telling the two Amish boys the best seat for viewing the countryside in the Sightseeing Car on their way to La Plata, Missouri.
Robin Bowers, left, in the red hat and J. David A. is over Chris' right shoulder.

Chris noticed that the Southwest Chief had a private car on the end, so we walked down to the multi-level parking garage and were lucky that the owner, Patrick Henry, was on the platform on the back of his two beautifully restored, former UP cars.

Noticing that we were all taking photos, Patrick asked that we send the photos to him and he would send us a nice goodie bag. This page is a result of that conversation.

After returning home that evening, I searched for information about the cars, Patrick Henry and found this excellent website about the cars: http://www.phcp.com/the-train/ and this excellent interview with the owner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3rbLhbeYjw.