Feather River Express Private Varnish Train, Emeryville to Portola CA

August 20, 2010
Photos By Richard Elgenson

At Portola, we had a welcoming committee of people along the museum and further down the line at Union Pacific's office.

   

   

   

We arrived at around 5:25 PM.  I detrained and watched the meeting over by the FRX and Bing the switcher.  As the meeting started, the standing UP train began moving westward.

   

The train made a few movements back and forth.  A smiling car attendent stayed aboard the FRX.

   

Bing roared to life and headed into the museum in front of the train.

   

The FRX was shoved past me once it got onto museum tracks.

   

After this, it was off the the Pullman Inn to check in and then stroll back to the museum to attend the dining car dinner on Silver Plate.  Many people cycled through the car to enjoy Mexican food while I was there.   I found Bing with a cut of FRX cars moving them on the museum grounds.  To fit the FRX into the museum, some of their cars had to be pulled out and parked outside north of the UP main tracks through Portola. Portola was alive with people walking all over Commercial Street, which was closed for a weekend full of festivities.  Portola Railroad Days have been held annually for the last 28 years.  You can attend next year's Feather River Express and Portola Railroad Days, running August 19-21, 2011.


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