I last left you in La Plata where I spent my New Years into the first week of January in some very sub 0 temperatures. It had been a great year in my life for most things except for remaining unemployed . Most importantly everyone in the Guenzler family is doing well except for my Brother Bruce who has been battling cancer for the last 2.5 years but died peacefully on the morning of December 23, 2010. He will be missed very much by myself. I pray that God keep the rest of us all going strong in 2011 . Myself has had many job interviews but so far no luck.
Rock Bands I saw this year have been Asia, Queensryche and Brain Salad {Leonard's ELP Tribute Band} Thanks to Maureen at Jefferson I saw plenty of Anaheim Duck Games last season plus the LA Kings. I still love my ice hockey.
I still belong to the Orange County Railroad Historical Society and do many shows of my trips for them. I belong to the National Railroad Historical Society and always attend their convention in Scranton. I am a member of the Train Travel Group in Fullerton that meets the 4th Monday night of the month and sometimes we take trips together. I have good friends in each of these groups and I feel very lucky to be a member of in each one of these groups.
I started the year of 2010 at the Depot Inn & Suites on New Year's Day. The weather turned much colder than normal with minus 8's every morning for the rest of my stay. Nathan, Bob, Elizabeth did the coldest ever Lets Talk Train show from the Silver Rails Gallery. I was glad to leave La Plata for the warmth of Southern California on January 5, 2010. I stayed home doing mostly local riding through the rest of January before starting my next trip on February 3rd. I took the Coast Starlight to Portland and then rode the entire new TriMet Green Line. The next morning I rode the new TriMet's Westside Connection Trip and then took the Talgo to Seattle. There I met Bob and Elizabeth who drove me out to the Snoqualmie Casino where we enjoyed a Buffet Dinner. Bob and Elizabeth then headed back to Seattle to see South Pacific at the 5th Avenue Theater. I stayed at the Casino and saw the Queensryche Cabaret Show which was excellent. Bob and Elizabeth picked me up and we drove to their house in Lynwood for the night. The next morning we went to the Heritage Park in Lynnwood and saw the Seattle Everett Mt. Vernon Bellingham Railway Car 55 on display there. Next we took the Seattle Streetcar known locally as the Slut before riding the entire Seattle Light Rail. The next morning Elizabeth and I rode the Talgo to Vancouver while Bob drove and met us at the VIA Station in Vancouver. We rode the new Canada Line and the demonstration Olympic Line and the whole Skytrain. The next morning we went to the Southern Railroad of British Columbia Shops and visited Robert Bank. That same day we took the Royal Hudson Trip to White Rock my first trip behind this great engine then the bus back to Vancouver. We drove back to Lynwood for that night and then next day I took the Coast Starlight and Surfliner home. March bought the usual trip to Stockton where at the Friday Night Railfan and Railroading Pizza Party & Slide Show I showed my Winter La Plata Trip and Saturday we did Winterail 2010. Sunday we did the Niles Canyon Railway Winterail Steam Special which was excellent. I coverd some of the Last Runs of some Metrolink Trains before I returned to La Plata to see the Silver Rails Gallery in La Plata which you can buy some of my photographs if you ever want to. Back home I finally wrote a story on the Angel's Flight "The World's Shortest Railroad" and then spent a day at San Clemente Beach taking pictures of trains. One of my pictures of a Metrolink Train was used by Channel 4 in Los Angeles as their weather picture of the day. In April I went back to La Plata and used the hotel van going to Sedalia, then saw the MOPac Heritage Unit on display in Osawatomie, KS. The next morning I went to the Great Plains Transportation Museum and afterwards I rode a trip out of Winfield, KS on the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad. The next morning I chased the UP 844 back towards Kansas City getting many great pictures of that fine engine. I drove back to La Plata and after a couple more days there I headed home. In May I got to chase of the Santa Fe 3751 with Bob, Elizabeth and Chris Parker on Saturday then took them on the Sprinter and on Sunday got to ride in the Nenana behind the Santa Fe 3751 San Diego to Los Angeles. The next Saturday I rode behind the Santa Fe 3751 to San Bernardino then took Metrolink back to Los Angeles.
Later in May I headed east to do the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum "Connect the Dots Rare Mileage Trips". I took the Southwest Chief to Chicago with Randy Jackson boarding in Albuquerque. It is always weird passing through La Plata instead of getting off there. We took the Lake Shore Limited to Albany then got a rental car. We stopped by the Strucca Viaduct, something I had always wanted to see on the way to Scranton for that night. The next morning we stopped by the Tunkhannock Viaduct on the way to the town of Tunkhannock where we boarded the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern 425 Trip to Jim Thorpe through the Lehigh Gorge. After that trip we drove to Danbury for that night. The next morning we took Metro North into Grand Central Station and I went back to Danbury to see the Danbury Railroad Museum I stopped by the Bull's Covered Bridge on the way to picking Randy up at the Wassaic Metro North Station . We saw the New Haven Railroad Station in Kent and visited the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association/ Sloane-Stanley Museum. We stopped at Kent Falls, saw the New Haven Station in West Cornwall, the West Cornwall Covered Bridge, the Housatonic Railroad in Canaan, the New Haven Station in Canaan, the Sheffield Cover Bridge and New Haven Station in Stockbridge. We stopped by the Berkshire Scenic Railroad and the former New York Central Station at Adams on the way to Lake George, NY for the night. The next day we did the first rare mileage trip on the North Hudson Railroad . From here we drove to Milford for the night. The next morning we did the Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad to the end of track in Cooperstown. After that trip we did the trackage down to Cooperstown Jct on a motorcar and trailer which was a lot of fun. The afternoon turned rainy as we drove to Arcade for the night. The next day we did plenty. We rode the Arcade & Attica Rare Mileage Trip we drove west stopping in Gowanda to see the New York & Lake Erie Railroad. Next we saw the Alco-Brooks Display Dunkirk, NY then visited the Lake Shore Railroad Museum East End, PA. After that we went by the Conneaut Railroad Museum in Conneaut, Ohio and then went to the Greenville Railroad Park in Greenville, PA and was given an excellent tour of the former Bessemer & Lake Erie Facilities. The next two nights we stayed at the Caboose Motel in Titusville, PA. The next trip was the Oil Creek & Titusville Rare Mileage Trip and then a restful night in a former B&O Caboose. The next morning we stopped by the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Shops then did the Kiski Junction Rare Mileage Trip. Randy and I then drove into Pittsburgh to do the Duquesne Incline, rode most of the Light Rail and then went to a Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Game. The next two day's were aboard a B&O RDC covering all of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad. After that Randy dropped me off at Greensburg to start my trip home to be with my brother Bruce for a night in Sacramento. The next morning I took a San Joaquin Train/Bus to LA and a Metrolink home. With that trip done I was home until I left on my 2010 NRHS Convention Trip.
I planned the NRHS 2010 Convention Trip for two people but Chris Parker couldn't do it so I did a solo trip. I did the Southwest Chief to Chicago and the Lakeshore Limited to New York City then PATH to the Jane Hotel where I would spend my next two nights in New York City. The next morning I took the Long Island Railroad out to Greenport and back, then took PATH to Hoboken to ride the NJT Boonton Line and then finished riding all of PATH. The next morning I taxied to Penn Station then took PATH back to Hoboken and rode NJT Spring Valley out and back. I took Amtrak to Wilmington and got the rental car then drove to Philadelphia where I stayed the night and I saw part of a Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Game. The next day at 11:00 AM I rode the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad, at 1:00 PM I rode the Black River Western Railroad and at 3:30 PM rode the Delaware River Steam Train behind the Delaware River Railroad 2-8-2 142 Walter G. Rich a Chinese built steam locomotive. From there I drove to Bethel where I checked into the Comfort Inn for my two night stay there. The next morning I visited Williams Grove to see the only active Pennsylvania Railroad Steam engine and then Harris Tower in Harrisburg. I rode the Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad, visited the Reading Museum in Hamburg and rode the Wanaker Kempton & Southern. The next morning I toured the Pioneer Coal Mine and Steam Train then drove to Scranton and visited Steamtown. The next day the 2010 NRHS Convention began in Scranton with the NRHS Susquehanna Limited to Sudbury. The next morning we did the NRHS Roots of American Railroad Trip from Homesdale to Lackawaxen and back in Scranton took the trolley for the NRHS Take me out to the Ballgame. The following morning we took the NRHS Pocono Express to the Delaware River Water Gap. On the NRHS Meeting Day I did the Anthracite Heritage Museum , the Electric City Trolley and the Scantron Iron Furnaces. The final NRHS 2010 Convention Trip was the NRHS Lehigh Rambler which took me to Jim Thorpe and then Port Clinton. From there I was bussed back to Scranton and drove to Winchester, Virginia for the night. The next morning I drove to Romney, WV and boarded the train though "The Trough" to Petersburg, WV for Train Festival 2010. I rode the hourly trip behind the New Hope 17 and got a ride on Flagg Coal 75. We went back north through "The Trough" before I drove to Lexington, Virginia for that night. The next morning I finally visited the Virginia Transportation Museum and got the complete Roanoke Tour. Next I drove to Clifton Forge to the C&O Historical Society Museum there and stayed at Summerville, WV for that night. The next day I went to Cass, WV and took the train to Bald Knob. I then drove back to Mechanicsburg, PA the night. The next day I rode the Strasburg Railroad again before I returned the Rental Car back at the Wilmington Amtrak Station. To get home it was the Acela Regional 125 to Washington, DC, the Capitol Limited to Chicago and the first Southwest Chief to go through the flash flood area that had shut the line down for over three weeks.
Back home I wrote the Metrolink Dispatching Delaying Surfliner 567 story that did a lot of good. That was before I flew to Tulsa then drove to Fort Smith to visit Fort Smith Trolley Museum. The next day we did the Arkansas & Missouri Rare Mileage Trip Springdale to Fort Smith and the following day did the Arkansas & Missouri Rare Mileage Trip Springdale north. In late September I went to Kansas City and got to railfan from the Freight House Bridge and go the KC Rail Experience before taking the train to St Louis. On October 1st I rode the Texas Eagle Detour Trip over the old CE&I. I made the Southwest Chief to La Plata but three minutes. I used the hotel van and chased the UP 3985 from Waverly east to Booneville. After a few days in La Plata I boarded the Southwest Chief. The next day nearing Albuquerque we learned that Tornados in Belmont, AZ had closed down the line and passengers would be bussed from Winslow to LA. A quick thinking Conductor Nancy Wolfe got me a room on the next day train so I stayed a night in Albuquerque with Randy and Marie. After a New Mexico Railrunner Trip to Belen and back I got an all rail ride home. I next went back to La Plata in November and rented the worst rental car I ever had. Got a ticket in Brookfield, Iowa on the way to Des Moines for the Chinese Rocket to Council Bluffs using the Iowa Interstate QJ Steam Engine 7081. Once in Council Bluffs I visited the Railswest Museum in Council Bluffs. The next cold, wet and windy morning I went across the Missouri River to first visit Kennifick Park and then finally did the Durham Museum in Omaha. I went back to Council Bluffs to see the UP 844 and QJ 7081 on display in Golden Spike Park before visiting the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa. That night this part of the country received their first snow fall of the year and the next morning I shot QJ 7081 in the snow before boarding the Chinese Rocket to Des Moines. I shot train stations on the way back to La Plata and took the Southwest Chief Home. Next I flew to Albuquerque and went with Randy and Marie through Abo Canyon and a few trains and stations on the way to Lubbock. Here we did three days of rare mileage trips on the West Texas and Lubbock Railroad. Day 1 we did the Levelland Line and later that afternoon rode the Moose from Levelland to Whiteface. The Moose is a Ford Van that has railroad wheels and can take us on exempt track like the line to Whiteface. The next day we did the Seagraves Line out and back. The next morning I rode from Dimmet to the BNSF property line west of Plainview on the former FW&D line of the West Texas & Lubbock. Randy rode back to Dimmet before we headed to Hobbs, NM for the night. The Moose is moved by trailer from place to place. The final Moose Trip was on the Texas-New Mexico Railroad which we rode south from MP 100.6 to Monahans, Texas. Kathie picked us up and took us back to the car at MP 100.6. We drove back to Albuquerque via Roswell with alien faces painted on the street lights. I flew home the next day before Thanksgiving. December bought out the new Metrolink Rotem Cars on display and I saw them at LAUPT, Downtown Riverside and Santa Ana. So it has been 59 new rails and other things in 2010 as of 12/10/2010.
The year started with 5462 Days of Sobriety on January 1, 2010 and ended with 5827 Days of Sobriety on December 31, 2010, my 53rd Birthday. The Rail Miles was 1,203,537.5 on January 1, 2010 and ended with 1,280,306.1 December 31, 2010.
May each of you have the best holiday season and may next year be one of the best in your life. Take care of each and everyone of you, be safe and until next year, goodbye!
Chris Day 5810
