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Final Winterail Trip to Stockton Part 2 Dell Osso Farm Train



by Chris Guenzler

We pulled up to a gate and I called Yvonne Sampson, the Marketing Director of Dell Osso Farm, who drove out to meet us and we followed her, parked the cars then started talking about Dell Osso Farm.

Brief History

Dell Osso Farm was founded in the 1920's by three brothers from Italy who started farming asparagus. Rudy Dell'Osso, the son of one of the original brothers, took over the farm in the 1950's and diversified into growing tomatoes, beans and alfalfa. In the mid 1970's, Ron Dell'Osso, Rudy's son, joined the business and added pumpkins, melons and sweet corn to the crop rotation. In 1997, Ron and his wife Susan, started the first Corn Maze and the Hallowe'en event has grown into a Haunted House, Pumpkin Blaster and much more. The Dell'Osso Family Farm October event has grown into one of the most popular Hallow'een season destinations in the nation, with close to 125,000 people visiting the site each October. The event still remains a family operation, with the entire Dell'Osso family participating. We hope your family will enjoy our farm as much as we do.

Our look around the Dell Osso Farm

The first thing was to take some pictures of the train we would be riding later.





Dell Osso Farms 1863 CP Huntington Engine Number 48.





Dell Osso Farms 1863.





Two views of the train. Yvonne asked if we wanted a tour of the farm, to which we replied "Yes" so all hopped into her car.











All these buildings came from San Andres, California.





The Dell Osso Farm has several old corn silos on the property. Next she drove us up to the top of the snow slide giving us a great view of the whole Dell Osso Farm.







What a great view it truly is! From here we drove back to the train where we met Engineer Bobbie.





Yvonne shot a group picture of us before we boarded the Dell Osso Farm train.

Our Trip on the Train.



I took the rear seat on this trip.





Chris and Robin waiting for the trip to start.





The train departed the station.





Yvonne waves goodbye to all of us.





We leave the station behind.





The train crossed a road leading to the inside of the mile-long loop of tracks.





About to enter the wooden tunnel on this railroad.





Nearing the tunnel





The Zip Lines at Dell Osso Farm can be seen in this view.





Entering the tunnel.





Exiting the tunnel.





The tunnel is left behind.





Those corn silos again.





The Southern Pacific San Joaquin lift bridge can be seen from the train.







The train took the northeast curve.





Starting down the back straight-a-way.





Normally when the train runs, corn has been planted and has grown, blocking this view of the Zip Line towers.





Heading towards the San Andres buildings.





The view looking back from where we had been.





This signal on the former Southern Pacific mainline are on tracks I once rode on behind Southern Pacific 2472 from Oakland to Lathrop back in 1993 for the Tracy Dry Bean Festival.





Chris Parker was really enjoying his trip aboard the Dell Osso Farm train.





The train ran by the San Andres buildings.









The train took the northwest curve.





Running along the west side of the property.





We leave the San Andres buildings behind.





This view would not be possible when the corn has grown.





Taking the southwest curve.





The station has come into view.





The Haunted Castle on the Dell Osso Farm.





Young trees along our route.





The view back at the southwest curve.





We returned to the station ending our trip on the Dell Osso Farm Train.

The Photo Train

When we got back I asked if we could do another trip and stop for a couple of photo runbys. Engineer Bobbie and Yvonne agreed and we headed off again stopping short of the tunnel. I moved quickly to the other end of it and give a thumbs-up to move the train through the tunnel.









The Tunnel photo runby. We headed to my final photo runby location.













The Back Straight-A-Way runby. We thanked Bobbie and Yvonne for such an excellent visit to the Dell Osso Farm then followed her back off the property and headed to our next stop very close by.



Click here for the third part of this story