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The plans had been made for months! Trainweb.com arranged a major event to go along with my breaking the Million Mile Rail Mark on trains that I have ridden on. I would be given a send off party at Knowlwoods in Fullerton before boarding the Southwest Chief for La Plata. I planned the big event for MP 425.5 of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe {BNSF} Marceline Subdivision which is in the middle of the Missouri River Bridge just east of Sibley, Missouri. There are more festivities planned when the Southwest Chief arrives in La Plata. I would show my Million Miles of Riding Trains slide show the night I got to La Plata and be on the Internet Radio Show Lets Talk Trains live from La Plata the next day. Returning home I would reboard the Southwest Chief heading east to Galesburg then catch the California Zephyr to Sacramento before heading south on the San Joaquin. When I returned home from that Strasburg and Indiana Trip I would have to fine tune my rail mileage to be at the right number to leave Santa Ana to hit the MP 425.5 at the Missouri River Bridge right on target.
Can I really make it work? 4/21/07I came up with one plan after another to make it work. In each case I would be off by 1.5 or 1.7 or 2.1 or 3.7 etc... I finally came up with a plan to be only .9 tenths of a mile off. That shouldn't be too much of a problem to find a section of track only .9 close to home without driving too far. It dawned on me that the Irvine Park Railroad was a .9 of a mile rail line so on a Saturday morning I drove out to Irvine Park for a train ride.
I bought my ticket and walked out for a few quick pictures of this train that would be so helpful in my Millionth Rail Mile Quest!
The engine that would pull my train. I took a seat in the rear car sitting backwards. Before we left They asked to take some pictures of me on their train. I guess this was the start of my few minutes of fame. So after that was done we took a train ride.
A ride on the Irvine Park Railroad was really a lot of fun and gave me a chance to see a park I use to go to when I was a kid. Once done I thanked the crew before returning home. I called Lets Talk Trains and gave Richard an update on Rail Mileage and my fine tuning of rail miles. I next checked my Metrolink Employee Timetable for the mileage to San Clemente. With my Surfline closed down for work on the double tracking project between Santa Ana and Orange my rail riding options were limited to Metrolink Weekend Service.
I boarded Metrolink 656 and checked with the conductor. The mileage in their Timetable is of the San Clemente Pier not their San Clemente North Beach Station and the conductor wouldn't make a special stop their to help me out. I made a roundtrip to San Juan Capistrano for the needed 44.0 rail miles but now would need an additional 15.2 rail miles to reach my target. On the way home I had a quick thought, "What is the rail mileage from Orange to Fullerton? Believe it or not the mileage is 7.6 one way so a roundtrip would get me the 15.2 miles I would need.
So the next day Sunday April 22nd I drove to Orange to ride up and back to Fullerton to get the rail mileage I needed even getting to see a pair of BNSF freights while I waited there. That left me 133.2 rail miles to do to hit the magic predeparture mark. That is easy as that is the roundtrip mileage from Santa Ana to Solana Beach and return.
After work on Monday April 23rd I got to the Santa Ana Amtrak Station in time to take the Pacific Surfliner 578 to Solana Beach for the 66.6 rail miles.
Once in Solana Beach it was only 66.6 rail miles needed back to Santa Ana and after I upgraded to Pacific Business Class I returned to Santa Ana on Pacific Surfliner 785. When I stepped off that train at Santa Ana my goal was completed. I would leave Santa Ana for La Plata with all the rail miles needed to hit my mark at MP 425.5 on the Missouri River Bridge on Friday morning. I love it when a plan comes together.
The Millionth Rail Mile Trip Departure Day 4/25/07I woke up at 4:30 AM, went out front to pick up the newspapers and once in my kitchen found the article in the Orange County Register by Tom Berg on the bottom of the front page. I sat down and read it as I fixed my breakfast. I updated the web site before I drove around to try to find some extra copies but none were to be found at such an early hour. I drove to work stopping off at a 7-11 picking up 5 extra copies of the Register. Two copies to be laminated for future use and started my day at work. The childern in the classrooms I worked in were really excited about my Millionth Mile Rail Trip and breaking that milestone. In Third Period Mrs.Cano came over to Mrs. Mehl's room saying she needed me. As I walked into her room the kids gave me a standing ovation. I walked back into Mrs. Mehl's class and got a standing wave ovation. At First Lunch Mrs. Andrini brought in a chocolate cake for a 1,000,000 rail mile send off party. I was sky high! We saved the other half of that fantastic cake for Mrs. Andrini's 5th Period Math Class as those kids have come a long way and really have improved their math skills. As they enjoyed the cake I read the Register article to them before fielding their questions. Sometimes I think kids would make the best reporters as they ask right to the point questions. After a testing meeting, I said goodbye to Mrs. Devine"s History Class and then Mr. Holte's Science Class before driving home to finish packing. At 4 PM my mother drover me down to the front of the Santa Ana Amtrak station. I bought a Metrolink Ticket for Fullerton before Marti, my fantastic night time Amtrak agent, drove me and my luggage over to Track 1 in the cart. After two other Metrolink trains came and left Santa Ana, I now waited to start the first short part of this very important rail trip!
Metrolink 609 4/25/07 Let the trip commence!
Metrolink 609 pulled into Santa Ana and I boarded the cab car for the trip to Fullerton. I met my Amtrak Conductor Buck Cleveland who would be working the Los Angeles to Kingman portion of the Southwest Chief. It was a quick trip with stops in Orange and Anaheim. I detrained at Fullerton and no one met me so I walked over to Knowlwoods Restaurant.
Our normal Train Travel Meetup Meeting was changed to this date. I arrived and Steve gave me a blue trip shirt and five white Million Rail Mile shirts that my friend Tom Anderson designed. I talked to everyone before I ordered a Hot Dog and a Chocolate Malt. My mother finally got to meet all my friends. Carol gave me a bottle of Coca Cola.
C.M. This picture from our Nevada Northern Winter Photo Freight Trip was a gift from Carl to me for my One Millionth Rail Mile. That trip was one that I had the most fun on!
C.M. I autographed a few T shirts at the party and I must say writing on women's shirts with them wearing them was the most fun of all.
C.M. The back of the shirt. Tom Anderson designed the shirts, the Million Rail Mile Hockey Jersey and a Million Rail Mile Sweat Shirt and did a fantastic job with all of them.
C.M. Charles Varnes of the Pacific Railroad Society came to wish me well on my Million Rail Mile Trip.
C.M. My mother Nancy in Black with Mrs. Walker.
My mother, Carol Walker and me.
Bob Manning of Palm Springs with Steve Grande and Richard Elgenson.
C.M. Tom Anderson, myself and Winston Walker.
Anton Lazaaro
C.M. Anton along with his dream girl.
C.M. Tony Escarcega of Mexicali, a reader of my web site, decided to make this historic trip with me.
Andy Smith.
Dan, Pat and Mr. Seawright.
C.M. Chris Parker and I.
C.M. Barbara Zepinko, the wife of Steve Grande.
C.M. Richard Hamilton of Lets Talk Trains fame and me. My old and dear friend Jeff Hartmann made the event and a good time was had by all. At 6:45 PM my luggage and I were driven over to the Antrak Station.
Waiting for the train to come is Ross and Mr. Seawright. I had gone up onto the bridge to check out photo angles. I came back down and while I was visiting with members of our group I spotted Maureen Angle coming my way. Maureen is the all time best Science Teacher that I have ever worked with. It was her classroom experiment that lead me to getting sober. She always knew that I would reach one million rail miles ridden and in just a few minutes I would be leaving on that trip. I suggested that we go up onto the bridge to watch my train pull into Fullerton. A few minutes passed before we saw a headlight coming.
Special thank you to C.M. Carl Morrison for the use of his excellent pictures.