I had organized a trip to Shingle Springs, California, to ride the El Dorado & Western Railroad on October 30, 2016 with Chris Parker accompanying me. However I received an e-mail from them to call on Saturday morning, the day before, because there was a 100% chance of rain scheduled for that Sunday. Since we had to leave Saturday morning, I called and was told that they would not run and were looking at a Saturday two weeks later. I checked their website a week later then called and the re-scheduled excursion would occur on November 12, 2016 and was told to just bring our letter for the cancelled trip. I called Chris and he would meet me at the Denny's parking lot across from LAUPT the Friday morning beforehand at 5:45 AM.
The Drive 11/11/2016I woke up at 4:00 AM and was on the road by 4:45 AM up Interstate 5 to US 101 and pulled into the Denny's lot by 5:20 AM. Chris arrived at 5:45 AM and after we loaded the car, drove straight north to Tulare where we stopped at a UPS Store so Chris could get his employees' checks to them by noon tomorrow. From here it was straight to Kingsburg and our first official stop of the morning.
The newly-restored Southern Pacific Kingsburg station built in 1888.
Union Pacific 3606 West came through Kingsburg and by the station. We drove to Parallel Avenue in Fresno for a pair of Amtrak trains.
Amtrak San Joaquin Train 701 bound for Fresno and later Oakland.
Amtrak San Joaquin Train 702 was on its way to Hanford and later Bakersfield. We returned to California Highway 99 and went though Madera before I had to pull off for a minute.
Union Pacific 7869 north of Notarb siding. From here we took Road 22 over to the BNSF mainline.
San Joaquin Train 710 for Bakersfield at White Rock Road.
BNSF 5216 East at Ipsen Road. We continued into Merced and stopped at the station to pick up a new San Joaquin timetable then crossed the tracks and saw a train approaching.
BNSF 8255 East at Merced. We had lunch at Carl's Junior before driving north on highway J7, crossing the Merced River and the tracks at El Capitan Way.
San Joaquin Train 712 for Bakersfield at El Capitan Way. Back on J7, we saw a headlight coming so stopped and crossed the tracks.
BNSF 6630 East at the Highline Canal. We continued north to Denair where I filled the car with petrol.
BNSF 7395 West DPU's on the Tuolumne River bridge just outside Empire.
BNSF 7395 West at Empire. We drove to Escalon where we found our last train of the day.
BNSF 5345 West at West Escalon. We made our way to Californiaa 99 then went east on Grantline Road to Bradshaw Road, turned onto US 50 to Zinfandel Road and the Red Roof Inn where we stayed the night. We ate at the Hooters next door then watched television the rest of that evening.
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