For once we arrived here early and I took my program into Evan Werkema to copy onto his computer. I enjoyed a Coca-Cola as everyone else ate pizza and we entered the theater at 6:00 PM. Paul Jansson showed "Union Pacific Yuma Sub" as a slide show then Bruce Blackadar showed "Northern Nevada East of Reno". Greg Molloy was next with a short presentation about 2014 NRHS Convention in Springdale, Arkansas. That was followed by Steve Barry with his "Alaska NRHS Convention Highlights". Mike Pechner was next with "NWP Steam Engine Memories", followed by Elrond Lawrence showing NRHS Railcamp and his Searchlight Signal programs, Drew Jacksich took his longest trip ever and covered a lot of different steam and diesel operations. Matthew Vurek showed a video of the White Pass and Yukon, Steve Crise showed the Union Pacific 4014 move from Pomona Fairgrounds and the evening ended with me showing "A Year of Trains in the Life of Chris Guenzler 2013". We wrapped up the evening at 9:35 PM and returned to the Red Roof Inn for the night.
3/8/2014 Chris Parker, Bob Gordon and I met at the car at 7:00 AM and went to the dirt lot across from the ACE station in Stockton and parked.
The Southern Pacific station built in 1930.
Amtrak's San Joaquin 702 came in to the ACE station and loaded in the street before he departed.
Union Pacific 4029 South came through just after Amtrak 702 cleared. We went to Perko's for breakfast where I had French Toast and sausage and then drove over to Winterail.
Winterail 2014 3/8/2014Our e-tickets allowed us entry into the theater early once we arrived and we saved our seats before going to the swap meet. I bought the Charlie Smiley DVD "The Hard Coal Roads What Went Wrong" and a Frisco Southwestern Division employee timetable before calling Let'ss Talk Trains and then had a Coca-Cola in the car. We then went into the theater and at 11:00 AM, the pre-show announcements were given then at 11:15, the first show was "Nevada in 3D" by Howard Goldbaum & Wendall Huffman. The second half of this show we had to wear 3D glasses to see the images and we all returned them afterwards. At 12:05 PM was a short film of "So You Want To Be A Model Railroader" from 1955 which made everyone laugh most of the way through it.
During the lunch break we ran over to KFC for me and McDonald's for Chris Parker. The shows started again at 1:00 PM with a two-part program by Steve Carter called "Night Tracks" and "From Black to White". At 1:40 PM we had a program by Evan Werkema called "Oakland Terminal: A History and Appreciation" which was a good history lesson. At 2:45 PM, Ted Smith-Peterson gave us two programs entitled "Nocturnal Ascension of Donner Pass" and "Auroral Winter on the Alaska Railroad". That was followed by Shorts: "Forty Years Gone - A Tribute to the Milwaukee Road" by Ed Lynch and "Rail Dances II" by B. Doug Jensen, after which it was time the "Three Favorites" then the dinner break.
The three of us went to the Sizzler on Hammer Lane and I enjoyed a good steak in a rather quick fashion. We were joined for this meal by Bill Davidson. After dinner we went down to Stockton Crossing where the building on the northwest side had been removed for a future connecting track in that area so the BNSF trains from Richmond would be able to turn onto the old Southern Pacific and then Western Pacific routings north.
Amtrak San Joaquin train 715 crossed the Union Pacific at Stockton.
The ice cream truck stopped by and made a little unexpected profit here today.
Amtrak San Joaquin 703 left the rails of the Union Pacific for those of the BNSF.
Next a Union Pacific light engine move with UP 717 playing the part. We went over to the main Amtrak station when we saw we had a green eastbound signal.
The Stockton Santa Fe station built in 1900.
BNSF 5427 East came through, after which we returned to Winterail.
At 7:00 PM the photo contest winners were announced, Special Awards were presented and Dale Sanders was the winner of the Winterail Hall of Fame Award. The first of the evening programs was a short one by Steve Crise called "Rails". At 7:45 PM Dale Sanders presented "Dale and Kenny's Excellent Adventures", followed at 8:30 PM by Tom Taylor's "Negative Memories 1966-1973". At 9:10 PM, the final program, by Bob Zenk called "SP 9010: The Last Krauss-Maffei". With that one complete, we could call it the end of the 36 Winterail programs and returned to the Red Roof Inn for the night.
3/9/2014 We arose at 6:15 AM and met Bob Gordon and Bob Riskie at the car. We drove Bob Riskie over to the ACE station to drop him off and the three of us headed down to Escalon, where just east of there, we found our first train of the day.
BNSF 130 East at Escalon. From here we headed to Riverbank setting up at the bridge over the BNSF mainline.
BNSF 8029 West at Riverbank. Now we waited for train 702 with Bob Riskie aboard to pass beneath us.
Amtrak San Joaquin 702 came through Riverbank. From here we headed south to the Tuolumne River bridge and set up for pictures.
Amtrak low-level San Joaquin 711 came into Empire as it crossed the Tuolumne River bridge. We followed the tracks to Merced where we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast with me having hot cakes and sausage then filled the car with petrol and drove back over to the BNSF mainline.
Before we got to our road, Amtrak San Joaquin 701 for Sacramento came running in front of us. From here we headed to the other wooden bridge at Deadman Creek which I had never photographed a train on.
Amtrak San Joaquin 712 for Bakersfield came through first.
BNSF 7117 West as a light engine move crossed the Deadman Creek trestle. It was then back to CA 99 where we found a southbound Union Pacific train at Irragosa.
Union Pacific 8084 South in the siding at Irrigosa.
Union Pacific 8614 North here.
Union Pacific 8084 South leaving the siding.
Railfan Chasing Trains as it crossed the San Joaquin River. We drove into Fresno and found freight cars on the San Joaquin Valley Railroad bridge so exited the freeway and found a San Joaquin Valley Railroad train switching and drove into the Belmont Memorial Cemetery to get pictures.
San Joaquin Valley Railroad BL20-2 2122, ex. Central Oregon and Pacific 2122, exx. Mackenzie Northern Railway 2122, exxx. Locomotive Leasing Partners 2122, exxxx. Burlington Northern GP9 1713, nee Northern Pacific 213 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1955).
The San Joaquin Valley Railroad train from behind the Belmont Memorial Cemetery. We headed back to CA 99 to Selma and took CA 43 back south to the BNSF mainline south of Corcoran.
BNSF 7083 West just south of Allensworth.
Amtrak San Joaquin 716 further south of Allensworth. From here we went to Shafter in search of one last set of pictures south of Shafter on CA 43.
Pacific Electric trolley 466 is part of the Red Wagon Cafe. It was placed here in 1943 and started out as a bar before the current owners turned it into a cafe. The funny thing is I had been by here on many trips and never noticed it until today. From here we drove straight to LA Union Station where I said goodbye to Chris Parker and Bob. Ken Ruben met us to get the stuff we picked up for him at Winterail and I then boarded Pacific Surfliner 784 home to Santa Ana. I started working on the story for today and completed half of it before arriving in Santa Ana. I drove home, ending yet another excellent Winterail adventure.
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