This year for Winterail, I decided to take Amtrak to Modesto, rent a car, present a show at the now-Railfan and Railroad Magazine Friday Night Slide Show and join the Sierra Railroad Post-Winterail Photographers Special if they offered one again this year. I bought my usual two tickets to Winterail and when they arrived in the mail, there was no Sierra trip postcard as there was last year so I called the Sierra and a few days later, there was an announcement on their websitee. Ken Ruben wanted to join me, so I set everything up for the two of us. Motel 6 on Navy Drive would be the hotel and Mike of AAA, who was now in their Corona office, reserved a rental car that would pick us up at Amtrak and while they were closed Sunday, had a key drop off box. I bought Amtrak tickets from Los Angeles to Modesto via the Thruway Bus that departed LAUPT at 7:45 AM. Metrolink would get me to LAUPT and Pacific Surfliner 796 would take me home. Let this adventure begin!
Metrolink 601 3/11/05I drove to the Santa Ana station and used the Metrolink ticket machine to purchase a one-way ticket to Los Angeles Union Station, the first portion of this trip. Train 601 arrived on time with Metrolink cab car 635, coaches 123, 156, 114 and 154 with F59PHI 872. We departed at the usual time that I get out of bed to go to work and it was an overcast morning as we made our way to LAUPT with stops in Orange, Anaheim, Fullerton and Norwalk as the train filled with commuters on their way to work. We arrived early with the commuters now making their mad dash off to their jobs and I had plenty of time for a picture of the train before I caught the Thruway Bus for Bakersfield.
Thruway Bus 3/11/05I walked out to the bus waiting area and continued to listen to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull solo CD "Secret Language of Birds" which I started on the train. Ken arrived a few minutes later then we boarded for part two of our northbound journey, departing LAUPT at 7:40 and making our way to Bakersfield via Glendale. We escaped the overcast skies at San Fernando now under the bright clear winter sky as we travelled north over the Grapevine. Our crossing of Tejon Pass was as green as I had ever seen it from the near-record rainfall this storm season. We arrived at Bakersfield at 9:51 AM and walked to our train bound for Modesto.
Our train had P42DC 182 "Governor Tommy Thompson", coach 8031 "Mattole River", café 8802 "Sacramento Valley", coach 8001 "Sacramento River" and cab car 8813 "Mt. Lassen". The rear two cars had 114 kindergartners taking their first train trip to Wasco. We departed Bakersfield on time at 10:15 AM and made our way northwest to Wasco, where the buses were waiting for the children then met San Joaquin 702 at Angiola before proceeding to Corcoran. For lunch, Ken tried a Chef Mario honey mustard chicken that would not heat so he had to take it back to the attendant twice. I stayed safe by having a hot dog then enjoyed plenty of fresh air at Corcoran as there was a freight train ahead of us having a major problem. We learned that the train's second locomotive had lost its pilot, it fell and was dragged across several grade crossings, damaging them. "Every trip is an adventure!" as I always say.
During our delay, I talked with William Burket, our engineer, about a variety of railroading topics then we departed Corcoran at 12:24 PM {11:18 AM} and slowly made our way north at ten miles an hour across the rural grade crossings that had not yet been inspected for damage before resuming track speed. We ran down the siding at Guernsey around a track maintainer worker on the main line and met San Joaquin 712 at Kings Park before we pulled in and out of Hanford at 1:03 PM {11:36 AM}. We took the siding at Shirley for BNSF 6856 East and Ken called the rental car office to advise them that we were running late and they told us to call back when we were twenty minutes away from Modesto.
We crossed the Kings River before sprinting to Fresno, from which we departed at 1:40 PM {12:20 PM}. Ten minutes later, our train crossed the San Joaquin River then met San Joaquin 714 at Gregg, tucked in the siding out of our way. Madera's station stop was at 2:00 PM {12:41 PM} and we proceeded to Merced with the BNSF dispatcher keeping all the freights out of our way.
Our departure from at Merced at 2:46 PM {1:20 PM} was delayed by track workers getting out of our way then we made our way to Turlock/Denair, departing there at 3:10 PM {1:42 PM} and called the rental agency before arriving there, so they would be waiting for us at Modesto. The train sprinted to that city, where Ken and I detrained at 3:23 PM {1:57 PM}, ending our northbound Amtrak adventure.
James from Enterprise met us at the front of the Amtrak station and drove us to the Enterprise offices on McHenry Avenue. What I was told about the Sunday drop off and what I would really do were two different things. As I always say, "Everything works out if you let it!" Since there was no key drop off box as I had been told over the phone, I would have to slide the gate over and do a few other things to leave the car on Sunday. After an extended waiting period here, we were finally given an almost brand-new Nissan Sentra then after the usual checking over the car, Ken and I drove to Rite Aid to get him some film before we drove north to Stockton. As I drove, I was quickly impressed with this car and we checked into the Motel 6 on Navy Drive and put our luggage in our room. There was also a biker group who checked into this low-priced establishment. A few minutes later, we were off to the Friday night event.
First Annual Pre-Winterail Media Show and Pizza Party 3/11/05Following the opening announcements, I showed a short program of the Nevada Northern Winter Photo Freight 2004 and last year's Sierra Railroad's Railfan trip after Winterail. Next was the first of the Powerpoint presentations called the "Yosemite Valley - Before and After" by Steve Cope. Richard Barnes showed his "Maintenance-of-Way on the Coast Line after the Storms." Raffle prizes were given out between the shows. We returned to slide programs with Steve Dorsett showing the "Union Pacific Washy Line" as well as some of the BNSF and Camas Prairie in Washington. Matt Vue showed his "Various Normal", followed by Tom Moungovan and his "Southern Pacific 1970-1975". Drew Jacksich did not show his planned program, but instead we saw "Southern Pacific Along the Peninsula and More".
One of Railfan and Railroad Magazine's finest staff members, Steve Barry, showed us "Eastern United States Steam Photo Freights" then Bob Wershila presented "Western Pacific in the 1970's", a program I really liked. To break up the evening, a live auction was held, followed by Phil Gosney's "Donner Pass" views from his Amtrak engine service from Emeryville to Reno, another excellent program. Bruce Blackader presented "Union Pacific Specials Around Reno", followed by Mike Pechner's "30 Years of the Northwestern Pacific" and Mike Huggins gave us "Union Pacific South City Job", a look at a switch job on the Caltrain's Commuter Line. It was then time for the lone open slide show which was by Nate Muhlethaler; on overview of his best work but a highlight was Central Mexico.
At the end, I always feel enthused after seeing all these great programs, as well as meeting my old and now new friends at this event. A special thanks to Mike Huggins for putting this show together and to Railfan and Railroad Magazine and the National Railway Historical Society, for continuing the Friday Night slide show tradition. A great time was held by all.
I drove Ken and I back to Motel 6 where I called it a night and Ken went visiting. I was in a sound deep sleep at 4:00 AM when a motorcyclist playing extremely loud rap music was being chased around the parking lot by the security guard. He did not catch him from what my dear friend Barry Christiansen told me when he saw me on the way to Denny's later that morning. Mental note: "Stay at the Best Western in the future."
3/13/05 After watching CNN, we drove to Denny's and I filled the car with petrol so I would not have to worry about it when I brought the car back tomorrow. "Bring it back with the same amount of petrol 3/8 of a tank or more." I would return it almost full as this car gets great mileage. On the way to Winterail, Ken needed cash so I stopped at a Wells Fargo Bank for him and we drove to the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple where I parked on the street for easy access.
Winterail 2005 3/12/05This is the first year that I arrived before the swap meet opened. Outside, I purchased a very nice-looking Milwaukee Road Electric T-shirt then once inside, I finally bought a Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Montana and Washington Division Joint Timetable No. 1 January 1,1976. At another table, I purchased Central Railroad of New Jersey Timetable No. 2 October 25th, 1964 then at Daylight Sales, I bought a Great Northern Empire Builder T-shirt. Ken called Let's Talk Trains and later I gave the host, Richard Hamilton, my current rail mileage before venturing out to get in line to enter the auditorium at 11:30 AM. Once inside, I saved three seats about three quarters of the way up.
Ken and I were joined by Jeff Wells, who sat with us this afternoon. The first show of was called "Postcards from Promontory" by Father Dale Peterka which took old Union Pacific post cards and compared them with modern pictures, which was very interesting. Throughout the day, door prize numbers were called out. The second show was "The Modoc" by Phillip A Brahms, a look at the very historical former Southern Pacific Route in northeastern California. The Winterail Shorts were next with "The British Columbia Railway's Final" by Justin Tugnetti and Keith Ode, followed by "Indiana Railroad" by Ted Smith-Paterson. From my travels on BC Rail, that presentation really warmed my heart.
The first of today's movies was a DVD entitled "Ross Rowland: Giant of Steam" by Marc Balkin, which was a fascinating look at Ross' interesting love of steam engines throughout his life. The last of the afternoon presentations was movies by Don Olsen and narrated by Fred Kruck called "Santa Fe in the West" and "Rio Grande in Colorado". Fred's narrating really made this program special. After all these fantastic shows, I drove Ken, Bill Davidson and I to Black Angus for dinner. I enjoyed a 12 ounce Filet Mignon and we returned to the show venue with plenty of time and even had the same seats.
The photo contest winners were then announced, with 15-year-old Alex Ramos winning the colour award. Dick Dorn preented a fifteen minute show to the photo work of John Illman, who won this year's Winterail Hall of Fame Award. More door prize numbers were called and all of the prize contributors were thanked. Vic Neves, Winterail's producer, then made a political statement about the lack of Amtrak funding and to contact your representative to restore total funding. The rest of the evening's programs would be digital, a first at Winterail. Mel Patrick's "Night Vision", which I saw a couple of years ago at the Friday night event, but was even more impressive this time on a larger screen. After a break, we enjoyed "California Rails Still Shines" by Ryan Schwingle and the next show started with a hilarious commercial for "Uncle Pete's Used Locomotives in Roseville" before we enjoyed Wendel Bowies' "Logs Rolling", a program about the scorched logs from Arizona moved in unit trains to mills in California.
The night's final program was "Chicago Union Station" by Mel Patrick and I learned plenty about the station from his program. A special thanks to Vic Neves and Ken Meeker for presenting Winterail 2005. Ken and I returned to the Motel 6 for another night of motorcycles and noise.
3/13/05 Ken and I were up early and left for Oakdale and the Sierra Railroad at 5:45 AM, driving Interstate 5 to French Camp Road, where we stopped at a petrol station for some goodies. French Camp Road and California Highway 120 follow the former Tidewater and Southern to Escalon, where we crossed the BNSF mainline and Amtrak route. It was about ten more miles from Escalon into Oakdale, where we parked in the Sierra Railroad station parking lot.
Sierra Railfan Trip 2005 3/13/05As we arrived, the Sierra Railroad was making up our train for our Railfan Special and I went inside to pick up our tickets.
The train reversed into the station as I was there to watch.
Sierra Northern S-12 42, nee Sierra Railroad S-12 42, built by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton in 1955 in the brief morning sunshine.
Other railfans were enjoying photographing our Sierra Railfan Special.
Sierra Railroad 42's builder's plate. The complete consist of our train was S-12 42, baggage generator car, "Nevada Falls", "Yosemite Falls", half dome and "El Capitan". Today we had a total of 43 passengers aboard our Railfan Special and Ken and I boarded the half dome at 7:15 AM and departed at 7:30 AM. Steve Sedaker was seated across the aisle at a table and was great company on this trip.
Passing the Sierra Railroad shops and the various equipment. I spotted fellow Orange County Railway Historical Society member Mark Johnson out videotaping our train as we made our way out of Oakdale this cloudy morning then climbed out into the sand hills.
The first photo runby was at Milepost 6, the same as last year. This time, however, I chose a lower elevation but enjoyed watching the others climb the hill. A good time was had by all and I had an opportunity to talk with Ted Benson, an early railroad photographer hero of mine.
The Baldwin takes one curve on this railroad.
More curves equals more pictures of our Baldwin pulling our special train.
Photo runby two at the Dodge City Curves from the same hill as last year. Our Baldwin certainly sounded good as it rolled below us.
Photo runby three.
The train rolled east to the Windmill, our next runby location.
Photo runby four.
A photo line.
For photo runby five, I crossed back over the fence for a tighter photo then we proceeded to near the turkey barns.
Just around the curve we stopped for our next photo runby.
Photo runby six. Since the sun was not shining, a view from the normally shady side with an interesting stream and bluff in the foreground.
Photo runby seven's location was a going-away shot at Crabtree Road. I shot the forward shot going by Warnersville Ranch.
Ted Benson's marker lights certainly made for a better picture. We travelled further east to Coopersville Road for our next runby location.
The reverse move.
For photo runby eight, I walked further down the road as the train passed the milepost 17 sign.
In the going-away picture, climbing down off the electrical tower is the climber-of-anything James Speaker.
We proceeded east the last few tenths of a mile to the Rock River Bridge at Milepost 17.7, where Sierra Railroad 42 and train was posed on the bridge.
The many angles of our train on the Rock River bridge.
We reversed back to Warnersville, where the locomotive ran around the train for the return journey to Oakdale then reversed to the Crabtree Road grade crossing.
We were all surprised when a group of classic cars came rolling down Crabtree Road, only to be stopped by our train.
We cleared the crossing and the car parade began.
The cars and our train.
After the cars left, it was decided to have another photo runby, so here is the reverse move.
Photo runby nine, westbound at Crabtree Road.
We proceeded west to the turkey barn curve for our next runby and this is the reverse move.
Photo runby ten.
The reverse move after we returned to the Dodge City Curve area and I climbed the hill higher for the runby shot.
A Stan Praisewater photo with me in shorts enjoying my hobby to its fullness.
Photo runby eleven.
Once we were all aboard, we made our way to Milepost 6 for our final double runby but first, the reverse move.
Photo runby twelve.
Photo runby thirteen, after which we returned to Oakdale, arriving there at 2:00, after twelve photo runbys on this great railfan excursion. A special thank you to Engineer Larry Ingold, Vice President of the Sierra Northern, Conductor Mike Edwards, manager of all train operations, Shelia Gaiser, switching engineer and conductor, Cecelia Banks, server and cocktail waitress, Brittany of the wait staff and Lillian, a train manager. A special thank you to Ted Benson for all of his knowledge and picking out excellent photo runby locations. All these fine people combined provided an excellent Sierra Railroad Railfan Trip 2005.
Homeward Bound 3/13/05After Ken bought trinkets for some friends, I drove California Highway 108 that turned into McHenry Avenue once we neared Modesto. Ken called Modesto Cab to get us a taxi to Amtrak but Enterprise gave me the wrong address of where we picked up the car. Remember, we were driven there so I did not need to know the address. We returned the car following their instructions that they had given me on Friday and once I had closed the gate, we discovered we had given the taxi cab company the wrong address. Ken re-called Modesto Taxi Cab and about ten minutes later, Cab 10 arrived with a fantastic driver who returned us to the Amtrak station with 32 minutes to spare. I tipped her $6.50 for her outstanding job and service she provided then checked the status of our train before going out to the platform and catching up on the story since Oakdale.
San Joaquin 716 3/13/05Our train arrived at 3:29 PM and departed four minutes later at 3:33 PM {3:25 PM}. Ken's 3751 hat flew off his head but he retrieved it before we departed. Our train, in push mode, had Pacific Surfliner-style cab car 6961 "Point Arguello", Pacific Surfliner-style coach 6463 "Muir Beach", café 8810 "Owens Valley", coach 8011 "Yuba River" with engine CDTX F59PHI 2004. We made our way south to Turlock/Denair, departing there at 3:45 PM {3:38 PM} and I relaxed on the way to Merced, departing there at 4:10 PM {4:03 PM}. We met San Joaquin 715 waiting in the siding at Planda then Ken and I went to the café for dinner with me having a hot dog and Ken have a Chef Mario chicken dinner, which was heated properly this time. Anthony, our Café Lead Service Attendant, has to be the best one I have had in all of my 852,000+ rail miles. He can take three different orders at once and make not a single mistake. He checks up on you and keeps his car very clean, taking true pride in the service he provides.
We paused at Madera at 4:42 PM {4:39 PM} before arriving at Fresno, from where we departed on time at 5:10 PM, travelling south along Calwa Yard to the Union Pacific crossing which had a Union Pacific freight train waiting to the south for us to clear. We met San Joaquin 717 at Conejo running down the siding and therefore not really delaying us. We departed Hanford at 5:48 PM {5:46 PM} and were off into the overcast evening to Corcoran, where we departed at 6:07 PM {6:02 PM} then held the main for San Joaquin 703 at Allensworth before sprinting to Wasco at 6:42 PM {6:36 PM}. We had a short delay at Shafter waiting for an eastbound freight to clear but reached Bakersfield at 7:11 PM, or ten minutes early.
Thruway Bus 3/13/05I was first on Bus 68012 and a few minutes later, Ken joined me for the trip to LAUPT. One male passenger engaged in a heated discussion with the driver when first he said he wanted to go to Los Angeles and this was the Pacific Surfliner connecting bus. Next, he claimed he was going to take Metrolink to Santa Ana, but there is no late night service on Metrolink and never any service on the weekend. Finally, he decided he would take Amtrak to Santa Ana and boarded the bus, but then could not decide if he wanted to go to Santa Ana or not. Our driver told him this bus would get him to a train in Los Angeles, or he could wait another hour for a bus to Los Angeles or two hours with a bus all the way. A few minutes later, he walked off the bus saying he was not going and off into the misty night he went. Our driver, realizing he did not have his ticket, went in chase of him and ten minutes later, they came back and he sat behind the driver.
We departed Bakersfield at 7:35 PM, five minutes late, en route to LAUPT. This same man then started talking about the breakup with his girlfriend and his baby. He was one angry young man. To drown him out, I listened to "Secret Language of Birds" as Ken fell asleep to all of his ramblings. It rained crossing Tejon Pass and in Sun Valley in the San Fernando Valley. We arrived at LAUPT at 9:24 PM, with our driver doing a great job of driving in less than ideal conditions. Ken walked me up to the platform of Track 9 and 10, but work was occuring on them so I knew my train would arrive on either on Track 11 or 12. The late-running Coast Starlight was due in at 10:20 PM, so I knew we would be leaving Los Angeles late tonight.
Pacific Surfliner 796 3/13/05My train arrived at 9:36 PM and I said goodbye to Ken and boarded Pacific Surfliner coach 6410. This train had F59PHI 460 pulling Pacific Business Class 6851, coach/café 6305, coaches 6405 and 6410 with cab car 6951 "Point Loma". I returned to my seat after getting the consist just as our friend from the bus boarded. Our engineer was trying to get into the cab car to set things up for our departure when our friend blocked the door he was trying to enter. Our engineer nicely told him to move out of the way with our friend getting rude and nasty. He finally crossed the line and was told to get off the train and our conductor helped remove him. It became quiet outside and I thought I should inform the crew about this person. As I was doing that, he returned trying to get back on the train and the crew, as well as two Red Caps, kept that from happening.
I returned to my seat and listened to Kansas' "Live at the Whiskey" to pass the time before the Coast Starlight arrived at 10:30 PM {9:00 PM} and our train departed at 10:40 PM {10:10 PM}, with me off for home. My ticket was collected and I visited the café for a large chocolate chip cookie then relaxed the rest of the way home. Fullerton was at 11:12 PM {10:42 PM}, Anaheim at 11:19 PM {10:51 PM} and then into Santa Ana at 11:16 PM {11:00 PM}. I walked to my car and drove home, ending another excellent rail adventure.
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