After working my job in the morning at Heninger Elementary School in Santa Ana, I went home and had lunch, checked the Internet before driving to the Santa Ana train parking in the northeast lot. I walked over to Track 1 and waited for my train to Los Angeles to meet Chris Parker and Bob Gordon at Union Station. First came the late running Metrolink train to San Juan Capistrano.
Metrolink train 811 came and went through Santa Ana.
Pacific Surfliner 573 came into Santa Ana and I boarded a car with the old style Surfliner seats. I read Trains Magazine on the way to LAUPT. Once there, I walked up the east exit and waited for Chris Parker to drive up. After ten minutes Chris showed up as did Bob and at 1:53 PM we left LAUPT. We headed up the US 101 to CA 2 through the tunnels to Interstate 5 which we took north over the Grapevine to north of Bakersfield where we took 7th Standard road west to Santa Fe Way and we headed towards Shafter. We had a headlight coming up the rails from behind us so we pulled over and set up for our first train of the trip.
Amtrak San Joaquin 717 heading to the Bay Area south of Shafter. We continued north but at Wasco we saw another train coming and just made it to the grade crossing.
BNSF 5490 East just south of Wasco. From here we went into Wasco to visit an old friend from years gone by.
Savage GP-7 8611. From here we continued north until we saw a train sitting in a siding ahead of us. We parked at Blankenship Ave and waited.
The tree still had its blossoms after the rain storm we had last weekend.
BNSF 6988 West at Blankenship Ave north of Wasco.
BNSF 779 East at Blankenship Ave. From here we drove north to Allensworth.
View of Allensworth.
BNSF 5415 East at Allensworth. We headed north towards Corcoran.
Interesting clouds to the east as we left Allensworth.
Sunset after we left Corcoran and we headed to Tulare.
The Sunset on the way to Tulare. We made our way back to CA 99 and headed into Tulare. We checked into the Red Roof Inn and went to the Apple Annie's Restaurant and I had a steak tonight for dinner. I worked on the story before I called it a night.
3/7/2014 I met at the car at 6:30 AM and headed north, first stop of the day in Fresno.
The Fresno Sign on Fulton Street in Fresno.
The Wig Wag at Fulton Street.
The BNSF and San Joaquin Railroad crossing in Fresno. From here we headed up CA 99 to Shaw Ave for breakfast and them Madera for an ATM for me. From here we headed out to the BNSF mainline for a set of pictures I had always wanted to get.
The BNSF bridge across Dutchman Creek.
BNSF 4705 East at Dutchman Creek.
Amtrak 702 at Dutchman Creek.
BNSF 4631 East with BNSF 4631, 930 and CP Rail 8562 at Planada.
Midtrain helpers were BNSF 8281, Citirail 1327 and BNSF 727. From here we went to Turlock.
UP 8823 at Turlock.
Railfans Chasing Trains in Turlock.
The Tidewater Southern Station in Turlock. From here we headed to Modesto.
The Al Gilbert unit in Ceres. From here we headed to the M&ET Shops in Modesto.
M&ET Shops in Modesto.
M&ET 2005.
M&ET 1510 at the shops. From here we headed to the Central California Traction shop in Stockton.
Views inside the Central California Traction shop in Stockton with Brookville BL21CG 2101 and GP-18 1790.
CCT Brookville BL21CG 2101 came down B Street in Stockton to reach the BNSF interchange.
CCT returned down B Street with 14 cars from the BNSF.
Stockton Terminal and Eastern MP15DC 777 on Roosevelt Street in Stockton.
The CCT train crossing Waterloo Lane. We took Cherokee Road east to Cherryland Road and then made a right on Leonardini Road and set up.
The CCT at the Leonardini Road grade crossing. We headed back to CA 99 going north to Eight Mile Road. We took the East Service Road to East Live Oak Road.
The CCT at East Live Oak Road. We turned onto Furry Road and took it to the end and made a left across the tracks on East Hogan Road.
We next caught the CCT at East Hogan Road. From here we went to Lodi as I had a station to photograph.
The Lodi Arch with the Golden Bear on top.
The former Southern Pacific Lodi Station. From here we drove back down to Waterloo Lane and I had KFC for a late lunch. Next we went to the Red Roof Inn and checked in. We met Bob Riskie out front and I then worked on the story until it was time to leave for the Friday Night Pizza Party. Bob Riskie rode with us and we arrived there early for once.
