3/12/2004 I had enjoyed the 25th Anniversary Winterail in Stockton so much last year that I decided to bring a friend this time and invited Richard Elgenson, a fellow Trainweb.com writer. I drove to his house in Long Beach before we attempted to Mojave but a major accident on Interstate 5 made us detour through East Los Angeles to avoid a five-mile traffic backup. We stopped in Saugus at Carl's Junior before continuing to Motel 6 in Mojave for the night.
3/13/2004 Up early, we departed just after a westbound BNSF and made our way on California Highway 58 to Sand Canyon Road, where we saw our first train of the morning coming out of Monolith.
We drove through the Town of Tehachapi before driving west on California Highway 58 to the Keene exit, where we followed the road to the Tehachapi Loop. This was Richard's first visit to this great railroading marvel.
After a few hours, we went west to Bealville where we saw an eastbound BNSF train.
From there we made our way down to Caliente where we heard an eastbound Union Pacific approaching and drove to Tunnel 2 for Union Pacific and BNSF trains.
We continued into Bakersfield and found Federal Railroad Administration track geometry car T-2000 being serviced then drove California Highway 99 to Delano for petrol and found a welded rail track gang south of Traver, which meant trains would be backed up. The first siding north of Madera had the first of the waiting freights.
At Berenda, we found these two Union Pacific trains with one holding the mainline and the second about to exit the siding. Richard and I then made our way to Stockton, where we checked into the Best Western off Waterloo Road and after I went to the KFC/A&W for dinner, we went over to the nicely-restored Altamont Commuter Express, formerly Southern Pacific, station.
There we waited for ACE Train 02 to arrive to pick up Steve Donaldson and Gordon Follet. Steve is the well-known author of "Railroads of Orange County Volumes 1 and 2", while Gordon is an active Orange County Railway Historical Society member just as Richard and I are.
Altamont Commuter Express F40PH-3C 3101 built by Motive Power Industries in 1997. We then stopped at the Howard Johnson in downtown Stockton before going to the Trainorders.com Friday night party at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, the home of Winterail, where I presented my Tribute to Amtrak 1971-2003. The four of us stayed until 9:30 PM and all the shows were excellent. I really enjoyed Mel Patrick's presentation of "Light Impressions". We dropped off Steve and Gordon at their hotel before we went to ours for the night.
Winterail 2004 3/13/2004Following a good night's sleep and breakfast at Perkos Café, we drove back to the Winterail venue for the swap meet and show. I purchased a Central Montana and Pend Orielle Valley RailroadtTimetable for my future rare mileage trips, as well as a gift for Angel, the most wonderful substitute teacher at McArthur Fundamental Intermediate. After finding Ken Ruben and calling the Internet radio show Let's Talk Trains, I joined the line to enter the theater and once I chose our seats for the afternoon, found an Official Guide from 1969 and public timetables of Spokane Portland and Seattle, Burlington Route and Great Northern railroads before the show started.
The afternoon shows this year were "Portland & Western Railroad" by Daniel Sheets, Matthew Robbins and Dan Haneckow, "The Life & Times of Harre Demoro" by John Harder, Al Rose's "Yosemite Valley Railroad" by Jack Burgess and "A Tale of Two Cites" by John Kirchner. This year's Winterail Shorts were Union Pacific's Santa Cruz Branch by Phillip Smith, Two of a Kind by Evan Werkema, Flatlands and Foothills by Fred James, followed by Depots of Los Angeles by Joseph Lesser. We skipped the Three Favorites, electing to go dinner at Black Angus and good times were had by Richard, Steve, Gordon and I with all of us well-fed.
The evening's programs were "Treasure Island: Cuba" by Gary Hunter, "Get Cold" by Debra Baer, "California's Hidden Valley - Salinas Valley" by Elrond Lawrence and "A Life Wasted Chasing Trains" by John West. All shows were excellent and we all had a fantastic time then Richard and I returned to the Best Western for the night.
The Post-Winterail Photographers Special on the Sierra Railroad 3/14/2004
On a slightly foggy Sunday morning, Richard and I drove the 45 minutes to Oakdale and I ventured into the Sierra Railroad station to pick up the tickets before photographing our train.
On the point was Sierra Railroad GP9 46, ex. Southern Pacific 3773, exx. Southern Pacific 3572, nee Southern Pacific 5731, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1957, not S-12 42 that was supposed to pull our special train. It turned out that last night, some low life had stolen the horn from the Baldwin and this stupid and selfish act caused disappointment to all of us who had came here to ride behind her. The railroad was offering lifetime cab rides to anyone who could return the horn and the offer was good on any of their properties.
After 46 had been on the train for a while, it cut off to bring 42, minus its horn, as a second unit for the excursion and the plan was to cut off 46 at runbys so only 42 would be in the pictures. Unfortunately, 42 would not start so 46 returned to the train.
While all that was happening, the passengers waited and talked amongst themselves, with one topic being the flashing lunar signal at North Mott. No one present could tell the meaning of that one. I learned in an email that "The flashing light at Mott is to alert trains that the next signal is better than approach. The signal is around the corner and is not visible from the crossing at Mott. So if you do not have a flashing lunar, you hold at Mott, rather than tke the crossing". Thank you to the person who has the handle 'North Coast Conductor' on Trainorders.com for that information.
I always enjoy trips where there are people I know and those I have not seen for a while. Everyone on this excursion boarded "Yosemite Falls" and "El Capitan". Richard and I took our seats at table 8 A&B. In seats C, D, E and F were all people I knew fairly well. What were the chances that out of 70 people aboard a train, I would know everyone sitting at a table of four and across the aisle at a table for two? I was amazed that had happened. Our boxed lunch of a tri-tip sandwich with chips, salad, water and a Sierra Railroad chocolate bar wrapped over a Hershey bar were at each person's seat.
At 8:37 AM, the train started moving with a happy load of passengers and we passed the shop where the Baldwin was sitting quietly minus its horn then rolled along the Sierra yard with a few hulks of old locomotives, including the other two Sierra Baldwins, a BN GP9, a former Spirit of Washington Dinner Train power car and the still-operational former Burlington Northern B30-7A's. We proceeded east out of Oakdale, passing the homes in this bedroom community and a few minutes later, were out in the open ranch lands, then turned southeast, arriving at our first photo runby just short of Milepost 7 before Paulsell. Here all the passengers went to their photo locations with me choosing the side of a hill.
The train reversed down the rails to about a mile away before it came forward providing a wonderful photo opportunity. Everyone reboarded and I enjoyed my excellent lunch as we continued after turning east at Paulsell where we made our way to the "S" curve along a bend in Dry Creek where we stopped for our next double photo runby on a hill overlooking the "S".
I moved for the second runby.
After another great photo runby, we continued past the first of the covered turkey farms. Why do turkey farms have rooves? If there was no roof and it rained, the turkeys would raise their necks and drink until they drowned.
We stopped at a dirt road crossing over an unnamed creek, where we did our third photo runby of the day and as we waited for the train, a fleet of vintage cars drove by on Warnersville Road, which was really something to see.
The train passed more turkey farms and continued east to Warnersville where I was now on new mileage, as well as from the Jamestown end to Chinese. We proceeded to Rose Point where we held our next photo runby.
This was the reverse move and engine came forward.
The train was not the only item of interest here. One of the photographers ran across the field to a high power line tower then climbed about two-thirds of the way to the top, an act that amazed everyone. We resumed our journey to Cooperstown where we passed the wye and loading ramp to just beyond the road crossing. Here someone jumped off the train and ran southeast down the road for a picture. We reversed to near the loading ramp, where we detrained for the last runbys.
Almost everyone climbed up onto the loading ramp for the first runby.
After the train had passed, everyone crossed to the sunny side for the last runby with our climbing friend up in a tree.
Once everyone was back onboard, we were pushed to Warnersville where the power ran around the train so the engine would pull us back to Oakdale "long hood forward". We could have all detrained here, but everyone at our table was having such a great time so no one wanted to. Great conversation sometimes takes precedence over photographing trains. We talked and laughed all the way back to Oakdale, where we arrived at 1:49 PM, ending an excellent post-Winterail Sierra Railroad photographers special.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Richard and I drove to Chowchilla, where we filled the car with petrol and I took over driving Richard's car, a five-speed manual and a first for me, south on California Highway 99. I drove until a major accident caused a traffic jam where Richard and I switched places north of Delano. We drove to the top of the Grapevine before stopping for a break at Vista Del Lago then Richard drove us to his house, where I drove home to Santa Ana, ending the second great Winterail weekend in my life.
| RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE |
