We all walked back to the boarding location in Santa Paula and set up for a picture of our train.
The train returned to Santa Paula to pick us all up. I returned to the open air car while John and Skip choose the coach to stay out of the wind. The train departed and headed back east to the Loose Caboose for a thirty-minute stop. The engineer came through the open air car and saw me, asked if I wanted a cab ride and I said "Yes!" He was going to get some food and would pick me up on his return to the engine. I enjoyed a lady and her son who was making his first train trip. I gave her my card and we talked for several minutes. All too soon, the engineer came by and we walked through the crew car and out onto the engine and he unlocked the cab to let me in. We talked about his job at Disney and I learned that we had a mutual friend in Matt Melzer. Soon the horn was blown for a five minute warning. I told him of my future plans which he was impressed with. Soon we heard over the radio "highball" and we slowly started moving. He told me to take all the pictures I wanted, so I did just that.
We left the Loose Caboose and started the trip back to Fillmore.
We ran out along the CA Highway 124.
The train ran across Willard Road.
The train ran through the orange groves.
Our engineer running the train.
At times we ran next to the orange groves.
Next we crossed Hobson Road.
Looking at the back of the train.
Through the orange grove not around them.
Looking down the end of a road.
Crossing Fleischer Redmand Road at Milepost 418.
Through the orange groves we go.
Timber Canyon Road.
The South Mountains.
Rolling through the orange groves.
Passing Milepost 419.
Crossing Largo Lane and Oleary Creek.
Coming to the crossing of CA Highway 124.
Heading east from the crossing.
Taking a curve on this railroad.
Climbing Bellio Hill.
The summit of Bellio Hill.
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Descending Bellio Hill.
Passing Milepost 421.
The train ran by the Keith signpost.
The train takes a curve through the orange groves.
The train ran by the Sespe signpost.
The train crossed 7th Street.
Palm trees and orange groves show that this is California.
Rolling east down a long straight-a-way.
Rolling by the SD Milk Dairy.
Crossing Grand Ave.
Approaching Sespe Creek.
Crossing the Sespe Creek truss bridge built in 1902.
Crossing the low level bridge across Sespe Creek.
Sespe Creek.
The train ran through the flooding wall at Fillmore.
We made our way through Fillmore.
The train took the final curve into Fillmore downtown.
City Hall came into view so I knew we were almost back.
The train returned us all to Fillmore.
It was good to be back.
We rolled by the gift shop on the former Santa Fe caboose and baggage car.
Then went by more of the cars on public display here.
We went by a semaphore signal.
Plus rolled by the Southern Pacific Fillmore station.
A look at the Fillmore railyard.
Then went by the turntable to our final stop of the trip. I thanked my engineer for a fantastic cab ride and he took a picture with me before I climbed out of the locomotive cab and found Skip in the gift shop. John picked us up and we headed to home. We went via CA Highway 124 to Interstate 5 to the Pomona Freeway then the Long Beach Freeway to the Riverside Freeway back to the Fullerton Hotel . This routing saved us over an hour from the nightmare traffic on Interstate 5 south of Los Angeles. I thanked John and Skip, who thanked me for coming along with them today on the first NRHS Discovery Visit for the 2020 Convention Fillmore & Western trip. I then had an easy drive home to Santa Ana ending a great trip.
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