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Winterail and the Railfan Pizza Party

We left the Castle Air Museum and continued our trek to Stockton in the rain.

BNSF 7309 East at Ballico.

BNSF 5399 East south of Denair. From here we drove to Empire.

Amtrak San Joaquin 716 at Empire.

The new power on the Modesto & Empire Traction was RP20BD 5406 built by Railpower in 2007 from Conrail 5021. We then drove to the M&ET shops.

A view of the displaced motive power at the shops with one of the new engines at the rear.

Modesto and Empire Traction SW1500 1501, ex. Vancouver Wharves 823, nee St. Louis-Southwestern 2489 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1968.

Modesto and Empire Traction SW1500 1500, ex. Vancouver Wharves 821:2; nee St. Louis-Southestern 2491 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1968.

Modesto and Empire Traction 70 ton switcher 600 built by General Electric in 1947.

Modesto and Empire Traction RP20BD 5404 built by Railpower in 2007.

We then drove into Modesto and the rain became heavy again, then we made our way onto California Highway 99, which we took to Manteca and took the cutoff highway to Interstate 5, taking that into Stockton. With Dave's directions, we made our way to the Red Roof Inn, our home for the next two nights. We checked in and received a room on the third floor. I checked my E-mail and the Internet before we drove to the Scottish Rite Temple for the Friday festivities.

I bought my program on a memory stick and handed it to Steve Barry, editor of the magazine then chose a seat and soon the programs began. Slides were shown first, with Mike Pechner showing Early Amtrak, followed by Paul Janssen, who showed his BNSF Harbor Line program which I had seen at our last Orange County Railway Historical Society meeting. Next was a slide show about California Railroads and the word "Next" was used a lot. The digital programs then began, with Drew Jacksich showing "Southern Pacific in the 1960's and 1970's". He always brings us super pictures that he has taken through the years. A program on a Kyle snowplow and derailment followed, which was really interesting. Ken Shattuck showed a movie of Southern Pacific steam excursions, as well as a little Western Pacific steam at the end. A program about the Rio Grande Ski Train had great pictures but the music of the Beach Boys did not fit it well at all. I was next with "A Trip to the Depot Inn & Suites" which showed people not only the hotel, Exhibition of Amtrak History, The Chris Guenzler Million Mile Lookout Point and a typical morning out there, but also railfanning around La Plata. It went over very well. The last program was by Steve Barry, which illustrated what he had done over the last decade. As always, there was great variety at the Friday night show. We returned to the Red Roof Inn for the night.

We all met in the morning and drove across Stockton on California Highway 4 to California Highway 99, exiting at Waterloo to have breakfast at Perko's Cafe, then drove to Winterail 2010.

For once, we finally arrived at Winterail before the doors opened so waited in line to get in. My main stop was the Roundhouse Hobbies table, where I was looking for employee timetables for the Lehigh Valley and Reading and Lackawanna Railroads. I had to settle for passenger rail timetables instead, but those would work as they have the tenths of a mile in them. I walked around the entire vendor show, seeing a lot of old friends from throughout the years. I was third in line to get into the theater and at 10:40 AM, called Let's Talk Trains as planned and found out how the grand opening of the Silver Rails Gallery was going. I gave my rail mileage and then told about Winterail.

Chris Parker then joined me and at 11:00 AM, the theatre doors were opened and I saved us six seats. At noon, the pre-show announcements took place which was followed by a Flu Announcement about the Galloping Goose Flu. The first show was by Bill Kepner called "Wyoming Colorado Railroad" which brought back memories of a trip I made over a unique railroad that is no more. The next program was a movie by Ken Shattuck called "The Truckee Limited". Next were the "Shorts" program, started by Jim Booth who showed "Daylight Nights" about Train Festival 2009 in Owosso, Michigan, then "Mostly Hogheads" by Tom Moungovan which showed the faces of railroaders and finally, "The Last Stand", by Kevin Dorn, which looked at the Southern Pacific Sunset Route from Mecca, California to Shawmut, Arizona.

The next full program was "Colorado Rails" by Timothy Tonge and Tyler Eaton. The final afternoon program was a film by Don Olsen covering the "Sierra Railroad". We skipped the three favorites and drove to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. After a good steak dinner, we all headed over to Stockton Crossing and managed to see two Union Pacific southbound freights but as Dave was under the weather, Chris took him back to the Red Roof Inn and I rode back to Winterail with Bob and Elizabeth, giving them the proper directions to get them back there. Once underway, the photo contest winners were announced and Joe Strapac was named to the Winterail Hall of Fame. The first evening program was fantastic, called "Along Steam's Last Mainline" by Scott Lothes and Ronald Olsen. The next program was "My First Forty Years" by Dave Oroszi. Next was "Twenty Something" by Ted Smith-Peterson. The final program was "At the Intersections of Rail Transit & Urban Culture" by Chris Goepel and Kevin Sheridan. With that one done, Winterail 2010 was finished.

We headed back to the Red Roof Inn but an event was letting out in downtown Stockton and the local police did not know how to control traffic. After a little detour, we finally made it to the motel and I checked the Internet before calling it a night. We loose an hour tonight due to the time change and tomorrow is the Niles Canyon Railway's Winterail Steam Event, but that will be in the next story.

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