I arose early and prepared the items to take to Fullerton Railroad Days, the annual public event organized by the Southern California Railway Plaza Association, then drove to the Santa Ana station and parked.
The view from the top level of the parking structure to show the bridge and platform construction progress, after which I walked to the northern end of the platform to wait for Pacific Surfliner 763.
Pacific Surfliner 763
The train arrived and I boarded the lower level of the cab car for the trip to Fullerton. We went by Anaheim, but at Fullerton Junction, had to wait for a BNSF piggyback train with plenty of UPS trailers, as well as Metrolink's display train, to enter the siding at Fullerton. I stepped off and went straight upstairs for a pair of pictures.
Fullerton Railroad Days 2006
Fullerton Railroads Days was held in the northeast parking lot and out on Santa Fe Avenue.
On display was a Metrolink train, BNSF ES44DC 7738, along with private cars "Salisbury Beach" 800257 (former Boston and Maine), Western Limited RPCX 2001, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy dome "Silver Splendor", along with Coast Rail caboose 1002.
Barry Christensen and I were working the Orange County Railway Historical Society table and once we had everything set up, I walked around the grounds.
Daylight Sales was in attendance; 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 Railroad 36" gauge 4-4-0 2 "E.P. Ripley" built by WED Enterprises in 1955. It was named after Edward Payson Ripley (1845-1920), the first President of the re-organized 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 organization had a booth.
One of the HO model railroad clubs had a display where I found former Amtrak Conductor Andy Jackson running a long California Zephyr.
I returned to the Orange County Railway Historical Society booth and worked until about 11:25 AM, handing out the group's newsletter and sign-up sheets. I enjoyed a Coca-Cola and later a tri-tip sandwich. Cliff Prather and Roy Wojahn joined Barry I me, as did Jim Novell. Chris Parker arrived and let me use his phone to call Let's Talk Trains then decided he would like to go for a train ride because he knew I would be going on Pacific Surfliner 572 later this morning. I also met Melissa, a reader of my website, who was finally able to meet me in person. At 11:30 AM, Chris, Melissa and I walked over to Track 2.
Pacific Surfliner 572
This train arrived to take Chris Parker and I on an escape from Fullerton Railroad Days for over three hours but departed late and we made our way south through Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine. Bridge replacement at Milepost 188 had slowed all trains today. We passed Pacific Surfliner 571 just before Irvine and met Pacific Surfliner 775 at CP Los Flores then just before Oceanside, I used Chris' phone to call Amtrak's auotmated agent, Julie, to see how Pacific Surfliner 577 was doing. With no report, I checked to see what time Pacific Surfliner 768 arrived in San Diego and learned that it was 12:53 PM. That meant we could get to Solana Beach on this train with no problem. We detrained there, went upstairs then checked on Pacific Surfliner 577 before crossing the bridge and going down to Track 2 to wait.
Pacific Surfliner 577
Pacific Surfliner 577 arrived to take us back to Fullerton and we met Pacific Surfliner 774 at San Onofre and later Pacific Surfliner 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. About 4:30 PM, we walked back to Track 2 to wait for Pacific Surfliner 582.
The wonderful Melissa, a reader of my website, who came to Fullerton Railroad Days to meet me.
Pacific Surfliner 582 arrived to return me home to Santa Ana.
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