With no Trainweb booth to work again this year at Fullerton Railroad Days, I had the freedom to ride and make a short visit to this event. I decided to do my normal weekend riding but would not go to Los Angeles, instead stop in Fullerton which would be more than enough time to take pictures. Robin Bowers would join me at Santa Ana on my first northbound trip of the morning. So after breakfast, I drove down to Santa Ana and got my Saturday weekend pass then waited for Pacific Surfliner 562 to arrive to take me to Oceanside.
Pacific Surfliner 562 picked me up in Santa Ana and we headed to Oceanside. The train stopped at Irvine followed by San Juan Capistano then we went by Pacific Surfliner 763 at Serra on the way to Oceanside.
My favorite American Flag!
The San Clemente Pier on a stormy morning. We made it to CP Eastbrook where the train dispatcher stopped us at 7:51AM to wait for Pacific Surfliner 565 which went by us at 8:07 AM. We pulled into Oceanside at 8:12 AM and I ran off the train through the tunnel and up the stairs.
I paused for this picture of Metrolink 661 with Conductor Henry waiting at the door. I ran on aboard into the last car then two other passengers boarded and we left on time at 8:15 AM. The train met Pacific Surfliner 564 at CP Capistrano then Robin Bowers boarded at Santa Ana and we rode the rest of the way to Fullerton, where we both detrained. Robin and I walked through the misting rain and went up on the pedestrian bridge.
Metrolink 660 departed Fullerton on this wet morning. This is only the second time that rain has occurred at Fullerton Railroad Days, the other time was in 2003 when I was at the sunny Illinois Railway Museum and Richard Hamilton was doing Let's Talk Trains while it was raining in Fullerton.
Fullerton Railroad Days History
The Fullerton depot's new parking lot and the installation of two sidings by the city provided the perfect site for what would be Fullerton Railway Plaza Association's (FRPA) inaugural Railroad Days weekend event in May 1999. It was a spectacular success, attracting 15,000 adults and children over the two days.
The annual event grew yearly to a record 40,000-plus visitors at its 10th anniversary in May 2008. The response verified FRPA's initial belief that a permanent, rail-related attraction at the depot would be well received by the public.
Meanwhile, in 2005, the City of Fullerton began preliminary planning to redevelop the area near the depot, and FRPA was encouraged by city fathers to present plans for a permanent destination attraction to be considered for inclusion in the project. FRPA hired attractions consultant Barry Howard - design concepts creator of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento - to put the organization's dreams onto paper. His vision of an active, educational, learning-can-be-fun approach to the facility marked a new perspective to the static display concept of the past.
From Mr. Howard’s conceptual design study, FRPA developed a prospectus and a business plan for its newly named Southern California Railroad Experience and presented them to the city to be included in the Transportation Center’s planning process. Unfortunately, in December 2008 the proposal was not accepted by the city and FRPA was left to consider other options.
FRPA immediately refocused its efforts on a more regional basis. New vision, mission and goals were adopted; the organization name was changed to Southern California Railway Plaza Association, Inc. and the association began to search for alternative ideas for holding our events and creating a railcar display venue.
We decided that the best choice for the Railroad Days location should have access to the main line at the Fullerton Train Station lot. After several years of research and consideration, SCRPA has acquired six vintage railcars that are on permanent display and open for tours as the Fullerton Train Museum, at the east end of Fullerton train station.
Overview of Fullerton Railroad Days. We heard a westbound train horn coming our way.
BNSF 4997 West came through. We took the elevator down to the Track 4 platform.
Santa Fe 4-8-4 3751 at Fullerton Railroad Days.
Pacific Parlor Car 39972 "Napa Valley", originally Santa Fe 577, built by Budd in 1956.
Coast Starlight Business Class Car 34512 built in 1995 as a 74-seat coach and numbered 34112. It wasonverted to a family coach in 1996 and renumbered 34512. Sometime in 2008-2009, the lower level of the car was equipped with video arcade games. Amtrak has since returned these cars to regular coaches, having replaced the arcade on the lower level with the normal 12 coach seats found in normal Superliner coaches, still retaining the number 34515.
Amtrak Heritage Unit P40 822 in the Phase III Heritage paint scheme. It was built by General Electric in 1993.
Fullerton Railroad Day scenes.
Next came BNSF 6507 East. Now we went over to the grounds, found the bathrooms then started looking around.
Amtrak Thruway Bus 47994.
Disneyland Railroad 4-4-0 1 "Cyrus K. Holliday" built in 1955 by Disney Studios/Dixon Boiler.
Santa Fe 4-8-4 3751 at Fullerton Railroad Days built by Baldwin in 1927.
San Pete Valley Railway Speeder 01.
San Pete Valley Railway Speeder 02.
The Santa Fe 3751 tent.
Photo T-Shirts area.
California High Speed Rail tent.
Rail Giants Train Museum tent.
CJ's Best Bricks tent.
Daylight Sales Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry tent.
LA Rail tent.
Rail Threads tent.
Somethin' Different Lanterns tent.
Orange Empire Railway Museum.
Amtrak national tent.
Amtrak Coast Starlight tent.
Fullerton American Legion Post 142 tent.
Imagination Depot.
RC Fly Buy tent.
Solar City tent.
LuLaRoe - Lori Shiohama tent.
FHS Football Boosters tent.
Niles Gift Depot.
Irvine Park Railroad tent.
Norm's Train World tent.
Usborne Books tent.
Muckenthaler (Trains, Planes & Automobiles) tent.
Fullerton Fire Department tent.
Fullerton Police Department tent.
Operation Lifesaver tent.
Fullerton Railroad Days Welcoming Tables.
Buddy Young Layout.
Metrolink booth.
Fullerton Police car.
Fullerton Police SWAT Unit. Now let's looks at the Garden Railroads.
The Garden Railroads at Fullerton Railroad Day 2017. Now let us look at the model railroad tent.
Pacific Coast Modular Club, HO gauge layout.
Toy Train Operating Society - Southwestern Division, O-gauge layout.
ZoCal Z-Scale layout.
Southern California 'S' Gaugers, S-gauge layout.
Del Oro Model Trains layout.
Toy Train Collectors Association Western Divison layout.
Orange County LEGO Users Club, HO gauge layout.
CSC On30 Modular Group, On30 gauge layout.
John Bowman, O-gauge layout.
Orange County 'N'gineers, N-gauge layout.
Orange County Modular Railroaders, HO-gauge layout. I next went to the Amtrak car display and walked through the two passenger cars they had here then went back up on the pedestrain bridge to watch some real trains.
Fullerton Railroad Days scene.
Pacific Surfliner 567 stopped before heading to Los Angeles.
BNSF 7860 West with a baretable train. I went to wait for Metrolink 662 at my usual spot on Track 3.
BNSF 6893 West with BNSF 90, which was built as a 10-6 sleeper but went through a total revamp when it became a Track Geometry car. After that unique train went through, Metrolink 662 arrived and picked us up for Oceanside. Today we went to CP Serra and waited for both Metrolink 663 and Pacific Surfliner 573. From there it was straight to Oceanside where Robin went to Burger King to get us lunch while I stayed about to watch our stuff. While here, both Pacific Surfliners 777 and 572 arrived and departed. Now aboard Metrolink 665, we had the straight shot trip back to Santa Ana and we detrained two very happy railfans, and I had passed my 1,489,000th rail mile just short of Oceanside on my second trip south today.
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