The morning after Winterail 2008 was the Sunday morning when we "Spring Forward" (i.e. lose an hour of sleep), so it was a little tougher to get out of bed at the Best Western Stockton Inn. Tom Anderson and I walked over to McDonald's to get some breakfast then waited for Chris Parker and Larry Boerio to drive down from Lodi to pick us up. Soon we were all on our way to Oakdale for the Sierra Railroad Railfan Trip 2008. We parked in the Golden Sunset Dinner Train parking lot and went into the new ticket office/gift shop to pick up our tickets. When I was given mine, I was most surprised to find that it included a blue piece of paper which informed me that I had won the fourth cab ride of the excursion! It was nice to finally win something and I would need to find our conductor later to set up the time. We all went outside to start our photography.
The Sierra Railroad Golden Sunset Dinner Train which would double as our excursion train.
Sierra Railroad S-12 42, built by Baldwin in 1955, would also be on our train as well as McCloud Railroad 2-8-2 18 which was still down at the shops, so I walked down there and made a few new friends.
Outside the shops, McCloud 18 was being prepared. Inside, Southern Pacific 0-6-0 1277 was still being worked on. I walked back to the train, whose consist was McCloud 2-8-2 18, Sierra S-12 42, power car, SERA 7005 "El Capitan", SERA lounge 7007, table car "Yosemite Falls", half dome, SERA 7000 "Yosemite Valley" and California Western open car 692 "Quiburi Mission", which I boarded.
Chris Parker and Tom Anderson, who were making their first steam excursion on the Sierra Railroad.
At 9:00 AM, the train departed Oakdale with McCloud 18 running tender first and passed the yard where two former Sierra S-12s had been scrapped.
Rounding a curve.
A few minutes later we ran out past the orchards then stopped for our first photo runby.
Reverse move one.
Photo runby one.
Reverse move two.
Photo runby two. We all reboarded the train to continue east.
Passing a rain-filled pond.
Rounding another curve.
A typical Sierra Railroad scene.
We went by a farm house along the line.
We saw many horses.
Trees were in their spring bloom.
Taking the curve at Dodge City Curves where we would have our next set of runbys. Unfortunately no one organized the photo lines, so for us up on the hill, we had to deal with people in our pictures.
Two members of our helpful train crew.
McCloud 18 waits to start its reverse move.
Reverse move three.
Photo runby three.
Sierra S-12 42 uncoupled from McCloud 18 to do a solo photo runby and here is the reverse move.
McCloud 18 then moved east to let Sierra 42 have plenty of room.
McCloud 18 took its opportunity to blow down while Sierra 42 prepared for its solo photo runby.
Photo runby four.
Rounding another curve after everyone reboarded. There were plenty of railfans chasing our train today.
The open car was a popular place.
Passing another orchard with beehives.
The peaks of the Sierra Nevada came into view on this curve.
At Warnersville, we were allowed off the train while McCloud 18 was being watered, then McCloud 18 reversed the train the rest of the way out to Keystone, where the engines would run around the train. Everyone detrained and I climbed onto a loading ramp for better elevation.
First, Sierra 42 ran by the train.
Next McCloud 18 ran by the train then stopped while Sierra 42 was waiting for the switch to the mainline to be thrown.
McCloud 18 at Keystone.
Sierra 42 looked great as it went back to the point of our train.
The crew then spotted McCloud 18 with Sierra 42 for pictures.
Two views of our engines.
McCloud 18 then reversed onto our train.
Our train was ready to start back to Oakdale and it was now my turn for a cab ride, but that is in the next part of the story.
