[?]

The Millionth Rail Mile Trip

Everything works out if you plan it!

The plans had been made for months! Trainweb.com arranged a major event to go along with my breaking the million mile rail mark on trains I have ridden with a send-off party at Knowlwoods Restaurant in Fullerton before boarding the Southwest Chief for La Plata. I planned the big event to occur at MP 425.5 of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Marceline Subdivision, which is in the middle of the Missouri River bridge just east of Sibley, Missouri. More festivities were planned when the Southwest Chief arrived in La Plata. I would show my Million Miles of Riding Trains slideshow the night I arrived and be a guest on the Internet radio show "Let's Talk Trains", live from La Plata, the next day.

Returning home, I would reboard the Southwest Chief east to Galesburg, then catch the California Zephyr to Sacramento, before going south on the San Joaquins. When I returned home from the Indiana rare mileage trips, I had to fine-tune my rail mileage to be at the correct number to leave Santa Ana to hit the target.

I came up with one plan after another to make it work. In each case, I would be off by 1.5, 1.7, 2.1 or 3.7 miles, et cetera. My final plan was only nine-tenths of a mile off and it should not be too much of a problem to find a section of track only 0.9 miles close to home. It dawned on me that the Irvine Park Railroad was a 0.9 mile rail line, so on Saturday, April 21st, 2007, I drove to Irvine Park.

I bought my ticket and took a few quick pictures of the train that would be so helpful in my millionth rail mile quest!

I sat backwards in the rear car. Before we left, the crew asked to take some pictures of me on their train; I guess this was the start of my few minutes of fame.

So after that, we took a train ride which was really a lot of fun and gave me an opportunity to see a park I used to go to when I was a child. At the end of the ride, I thanked the crew before returning home then called Let's Talk Trains and gave the host, Richard Hamilton, an update on the rail mileage and the fine-tuning of my miles. I next checked my Metrolink Employee Timetable for the mileage to San Clemente. With the Surfline closed for work on the double-tracking project between Santa Ana and Orange, my rail riding options were limited to Metrolink's weekend service.

I boarded Metrolink 656 and checked with the conductor. The mileage in their timetable is to San Clemente Pier, not their San Clemente North Beach station. The conductor would not make a special stop there to help me so I made a round trip to San Juan Capistrano for the needed 44.0 rail miles, but now would need an additional 15.2 rail miles to reach my target. On the way home I had a quick thought, "What is the rail mileage from Orange to Fullerton?" Believe it or not, the mileage is 7.6 one way, so a round trip would get me the 15.2 miles I needed.

So on Sunday April 22nd, I drove to Orange to ride to Fullerton and back and even saw a pair of BNSF freights while I waited. That left me 133.2 rail miles to travel to reach the magic pre-departure mark, which was easy since it is the round trip mileage from Santa Ana to Solana Beach.

After work on Monday April 23rd, I arrived at the Santa Ana Amtrak station in time to take Pacific Surfliner 578 to Solana Beach for 66.6 rail miles.

Once there, it was only 66.6 rail miles back to Santa Ana. After I upgraded to Pacific Business Class, I returned on Pacific Surfliner 785 and when I stepped off that train, my goal was complete. I would leave Santa Ana for La Plata with all the rail miles needed to hit my mark at MP 425.5 on the Missouri River Bridge on Friday morning. I love it when a plan comes together!

I awoke at 4:30 AM and picked up the newspapers. Once in the kitchen, I found the article by Tom Berg on the bottom of the front page of the Orange County Register and read it as I fixed my breakfast then drove around to try and find some extra copies, but none were to be found at such an early hour. I drove to work, stopping at a 7-11 and picked five extra copies of the Register. Two copies were to be laminated for future use and I started my day at work.

The children in the classrooms in which I worked were very excited about my Millionth Mile rail trip and breaking that milestone. During third period, Mrs. Cano came over to Mrs. Mehl's room, saying she needed me. As I walked into her room, the students gave me a standing ovation. I walked back into Mrs. Mehl's class and received a standing wave ovation. At First Lunch, Mrs. Andrini brought in a chocolate cake for a 1,000,000 rail mile send-off party. I was sky high! We saved the other half of that fantastic cake for Mrs. Andrini's 5th Period math class, as those children had come a long way and really had improved their math skills. As they enjoyed the cake, I read the Register article to them before fielding their questions. Sometimes I think children would make the best reporters as they ask to-the-point questions.

After a testing meeting, I said goodbye to Mrs. Devine's History class and then Mr. Holte's Science class before driving home to finish packing. At 4:00 PM, my mother drove me to the Santa Ana station and I bought a Metrolink ticket for Fullerton before Marti, my fantastic night-time Amtrak agent, used the cart to drive me and my luggage over to Track 1. After two other Metrolink trains arrived and departed, I now waited to start the first short part of this very important rail trip.

Metrolink 609 arrived and I boarded the cab car for the trip to Fullerton. I met my Amtrak conductor, Buck Cleveland, who would be working the Los Angeles-to-Kingman portion of the Southwest Chief. It was a quick trip with stops in Orange and Anaheim. I detrained at Fullerton and no one met me, so I walked over to Knowlwoods Restaurant.

Our normal Train Travel Meetup Group meeting was changed to April 25th. I arrived and Steve Grande gave me a blue trip shirt and five white Million Rail Mile shirts that my friend Tom Anderson designed. I talked to everyone before ordering a hot dog and a chocolate malt. My mother arrived by car and was finally was able to meet all my friends.

My mother Nancy, Carole Walker (who gave me a bottle of Coca-Cola), Bob Manning of Palm Springs with Steve Grande and his wife Barbara Cepinko, Richard Elgenson, Tom Anderson, Winston Walker and his wife Suan, Anton Lazzaro, Tony Escarcega of Mexicali, a reader of my website who decided to make this historic trip with me, Andy Smith, Dan Dalke, Pat Moran, Mr. Seawright, Chris Parker, Charles Varnes of the Pacific Railroad Society, Richard Hamilton of Let's Talk Trains fame and my old and dear friend Jeff Hartmann all made the event and wished me well on my journey.

C.M. A picture from our Nevada Northern Winter photo freight in 2004 was a gift from Carl Morrison. That trip was one on which I had the most fun!

C.M. I autographed a few T-shirts at the party and I must say writing on women's shirts with them wearing them was the most fun of all.

C.M. The back of the shirt. Tom Anderson designed the shirts, the Million Rail Mile hockey jersey and a Million Rail Mile sweatshirt, doing a fantastic job with all of them.

C.M. Charles Varnes of the Pacific Railroad Society came to wish me well on my Million Rail Mile Trip.

C.M. My mother Nancy in black with Mrs. Walker.

My mother, Carole Walker and I.

Bob Manning of Palm Springs, with Steve Grande and Richard Elgenson.

C.M. Tom Anderson, myself and Winston Walker.

Anton Lazzaro.

C.M. Anton along with his dream girl.

C.M. Tony Escarcega of Mexicali.

Andy Smith.

Dan, Pat and Mr. Seawright.

C.M. Chris Parker and I.

C.M. Barbara Cepinko.

C.M. Richard Hamilton and I. Jeff Hartmann arrived late and a good time was had by all. At 6:45 PM, my luggage and I were driven over to the Amtrak station.

I had gone up onto the bridge to check photo angles then returned to the ground and while visiting with members of our group, spotted Maureen Angle coming my way. Maureen is the all-time best science teacher I ever worked with. It was her classroom experiment that led me to getting sober. She always knew that I would reach one million rail miles and in just a few minutes, I would be leaving on that trip. I suggested that we go up onto the bridge to watch my train arrive and a few minutes passed before we saw a headlight approaching.