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A Sad Trip To Winterail 2013 Part 3

We left Hillcrest Tree Farm and went west to Sanger and found our next train station.

The Southern Pacific Sanger station built in 1916, which was moved to this site in town and is the Sanger Depot museum.

The station sign at Sanger.

An interior view of the museum. We then heard a train horn and were off for a chase, finding it at Fairbanks Avenue.

The San Joaquin Valley train at Fairbanks Avenue in Sanger.

I walked down a trail to take pictures of the units, the first being San Joaquin Valley Railroad GP83-3 3822, ex. Puget Sound and Pacific 3822, exx. Central Oregon and Pacific 3822, exxx. Central Oregon and Pacific 5042, exxxx. CSX 2042, exxxxx. Baltimore and Ohio 2042; nee Baltimore and Ohio GP38 3842 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1967. Then the train moved so I ran back to the grade crossing.

The train leaving Sanger heading west.

San Joaquin Valley Railroad GP38 3870, ex. Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway 3870, exx. Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway 344, exxx. Cascade and Columbia River 344, exxxx. Conrail Leasing 344, exxxxx. Pittsburgh and Lake Erie 2050, exxxxxx. Conrail 7818, nee Penn Central 7818 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1969.

San Joaquin Valley Railroad GP38-2 3029, ex. Omnitrax 3029, nee Denver and Rio Grande Western GP35 3029 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1964.

The train heading west. We went off in chase and reached the Leonard Avenue grade crossing.

Our train at the Leonard Avenue grade crossing.

Our train heading west towards Fresno. We drove to our next stop in Lone Star, checked in and gave a donation for their school and were called "Depot Spotters" then went outside for all the pictures we wanted.

Santa Fe caboose 999362 built by the railroad in 1929 as Santa Fe 1796, on display.

The Santa Fe Lone Star station built in 1913.

Santa Fe telephone booth.

Other displayd hrtr.

A San Luis Obispo fire truck. From here we drove to Clovis for our last station of the day.

The Southern Pacific Tarpey station in old Clovis built in 1892.

The station sign.

Three more views.

The bay windows.

The history of the station which reads: "Built in 1892 as one of the three depots along the line of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, this structure was originally located on the Tarpey Ranch just southeast of what is now the intersection of Ashlan and Clovis Avenues. In the span of its exisence, it has served as a freight and passenger depot, the La Paloma Winery office, a post office, a polling place and as the office of Billings and Fine, real estate agents for the Tarpey Village development. It is the last remnant of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, a 26 mile route from Fresno to present day Friant built in 1891 and sold to Southern Pacific Railroad in 1893. The combination of the railroad and the 42 mile flume from Shaver Lake, built by the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company and completed in 1894, provided the imputus for the founding of the City of Clovis."

This station now is the Clovis Tourist Information and Visitor Center. From here we went to Madera for lunch and then followed the old Santa Fe north, making our next stop in Le Grand.

The Santa Fe Le Grand station built in 1896. We left the town then saw a headlight coming so pulled off the road.

San Joaquin Train 714 just west of Le Grand. We made it only to Planada and saw another train coming our way.

BNSF 7008 East at Planada. From here we went into Merced and spotted another headlight coming our way.

BNSF 5004 East at Merced. We started driving again but took a picture out of the front windshield.

Blooming trees in Merced. We continued north on J7, heading to Empire.

We caught BNSF 5273 East at Hughson.

We stopped at the grain elevator north of Denair for Railpower Technologies RP20BD 5405 built from Norfolk Southern B36-7 3604 in 2007. From there we drove to Modesto and a stop at the Modesto and Empire Traction shop.

Modesto and Empire Traction RP20BD 2001, ex. Railpower Technologies GG20B 2401, built from Illinois Central Gulf GP9 9322 in 2008.

Modesto and Empire Traction RP20BD 2006 built by R.J. Corman in 2011.

Modesto and Empire Traction RP20BD 2005 built by R.J. Corman in 2011, returning to the shops.

From here we made it back to California Highway 99 and headed straight to Stockton. We came to a Caltrans sign that read "Phone in one hand, ticket in the other". I held up my cell phone and said "Where is my ticket?" A few more miles north on this highway, the same message on another sign and I did the same thing, but this time it rang. It was my mother calling to tell me that my sister Laura had died. We talked for a few minutes after I had told Chris, Bob and Elizabeth what had happened. Nearing Stockton, traffic stopped so we took surface streets the rest of the way to the Scottish Rite Temple, parked the car and headed in.

For once we arrived on time and I enjoyed a Coca-Cola as we waited for the doors to open to the theater. At 6:00 PM we entered and the shows began. Drew Jacksich started off the evening with "Southern Pacific in Central and Southern California". Next, Paul Jansson gave us a "Quarter Century of Beaumont Hill". That was followed by Elrond Lawrence showing "Southern California in the 1980's and 1990's". Mike Pechner showed "Northwestern Pacific to the Eureka Southern" followed by Efstathios I. Pappas showing "Santa Cruz Portland Cement #2".

Steve Crise gave us "Railfans and their Cameras", Steve Barry presented "Across the River visiting Eastern Pennsylvania", Rob Leachman showed "Milwaukee Road in the Bitteroots" then I showed my "A Year of Trains in the Life of Chris Guenzler 2012" and dedicated it to his sister Laura who had died earlier today. The final program was by Ken Stanfield called "Ecuador 2008". It was a great night of photography and we all went to the Red Roof Inn, checked in and called it a night.

3/9/2013 We met at the rental car then went to Perko's for an excellent breakfast and stopped by Stockton Crossing for a few minutes before we headed to Winterail.

We went inside the swap meet where I bought a new Chessie System DVD that was not ready but would be shipped to me later in the week. I also bought some public railroad timetables from the Pennsylvania Railroad, Wabash Railroad, Norfolk and Western Railway and Canadian National Railway, and some slides plus a Western Pacific T-shirt. I then started the line to get into the theatre and called Let's Talk Trains to give my weekly report. The doors opened at 11:00 AM and I saved us four excellent seats then went outside for a Tri-Tip sandwich and talked with many of my friends.

At noon, the pre-show announcements were made by Vic and Annie Neves. At 12:10 PM the first show "The Great East Coast Alco Show" by Steve Sloan. Next was a DVD called "Hidden Wonders of the World" by Bill George. The third show was "Rails through the Big Woods" by Elwood White, followed by "DR&GW Marysvale Branch" by Keith Ardinger. After that we had "The Amazing Story of Santa Fe's RDC Cars" by Ed Saalig and the last afternoon show was "Hauptbahnhof- Railroads of Germany" by Bruce Blackadar. We stayed for the Three Favorites before going to Perko's for dinner where I had a very good steak.

After dinner, the four of us went down to Stockton Crossing and had one eastbound BNSF stack train then upon returning to the theatre, the winners of the Photo Contest were announced, as was the Winterail Hall of Fame winner, Shirley Burman. She was the first woman to win this award and she and Dick Steinheimer were the first husband and wife team to win that award. The first evening program was "Sierra Journeys" by Shirley Burman and Richard Steinheimer. After that, it was "Passenger Train Fan Trips" by Gordon Glattenberg, "Requiem for a Simple Land - North Dakota" by Robert Scott and the final show was "Forty Years and Counting" by Vic Neves. After another day and evening of great programs, we returned to the Red Roof Inn for the night.

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