The Santa Fe 3751 was invited to San Bernardino for the rededication of the San Bernardino Station. The schedule was posted on the http://wwww.sbrhs.org web site. I contacted Bill who was up to going out on Saturday and Jeff would join me on Sunday. Bill and I thought about taking pictures of it going down the middle of Interstate 10 but I thought about the morning light which would straight down the tracks. El Monte was then chosen as the location for the Saturday picture. On Saturday June 12th Bill picked me up and we drove to El Monte.
We arrived at El Monte with double greens on both the Metrolink line west and a green on the Union Pacific Sunset Line going east. A UP train was sitting in the siding. We tried two grade crossings before settling on a cul-de-sac. A UP Foreman asked us what we were doing, told him of the Santa Fe 3751 coming and he told me he had seen the Union Pacific 3985 in Pine Bluff a couple weeks ago. A back hole operator then pulled up asking what we were doing there and once he found out he was glad we were out to witness this event.
First train was Metrolink 381 heading to Los Angeles on time due in there at 8:15 AM five minutes before the Santa Fe 3751 departure time of 8:20 AM.
Next a Union Pacific 4203 East train with all the engines running elephant style passed through El Monte. Now it would only be time before Santa Fe 3751 would arrive. More people showed up along the tracks including one idiot wearing a blue 88 jersey and friend who were wandering out on the mainline. When the train approached the 88 shirt guy and friend who ran out across the two Metrolink tracks onto the UP mainline to get a picture. The friend then ran right in front of the Santa Fe 3751.
The Santa Fe 3751 steamed through El Monte. What a beautiful sight she was. Bill and I returned to Santa Ana via Los Nietos and Anaheim.
On Sunday, I met Jeff and our first stop of the day was at Heritage Park in Santa Fe Springs to see the railroad exhibit.
The star of the collection is the Santa Fe 2-8-0 870 rescued from Madrid New Mexico. Ex-AT&SF 2-8-0 870, originally St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific 101 was acquired by the City of Santa Fe Springs from the Old Coal Mine Museum in Madrid, New Mexico. Below are scenes from around the exhibit including a replica of the Santa Fe Springs Station and Hand Car/Tool Shed.
The exhibit is open from 12-4 PM except on Mondays. From there we made our way to Industry and to a location to photograph the westbound Santa Fe 3751. Other than one railfan who drove there to check out the location we were only visited by a security guard who kept his distance.
On the scanner we heard an over nine hour late Sunset Limited approaching from the east so we relocated over to the Sunset Route for a quick picture. We returned to the spot and the scanner told us the Santa Fe 3751 would meet Metrolink 390 right where we were.
First the Metrolink train came.
This was followed by the Santa Fe 3751 in perfect afternoon light. Once he passed, Jeff and I stopped for some Coca-Cola before returning to Santa Ana.
