The Plaza Santa Fe car was inviting
with beautiful original style
furniture and woodwork. Aside from the dome, which are becoming
increasingly common on the FRX, there is an inviting
bar, and towards the front of the car is the Turquoise Room for
intimate dining. The two couples shown below right, had taken a
bus from Portola and caught the train in Sacramento. They fit in
perfectly in the center corner of the rear lounge. Plaza Santa Fe
owner Wayne Yetter runs California Rail Tours, based in Salinas, CA and
has been in the PV charter and shop business for a
long time . If you need a deal, go see
Cal, if you want your PV project done right the first time, go see
Wayne.
![](FRXeb_S_71.jpg)
Some
new characters
from the FRX to introduce. Left to right, Patrick Egan, carman
for the FRX. Marty Banks, car attendent, and Mike Mulder, part
owner
of Palm Leaf sleeper car. The LARail car Pacific Sands
sleeper car, owned and run by Doug Spinn, was run between the Plaza
Santa Fe and Palm Leaf. Sleeper cars are great on overnight trips
with a comparment with folding beds for night time which convert into
opposing charis for daytime running.
The Colonial Crafts sleeper/lounge, Silver Rapids sleeper, Silver
Lariat dome/lounge and Silver Solarium dome/lounge/observation made up
the premium section of the FRX. Below, several views aboard
Colonial
Crafts, a fabulous ex-Pennsylvania car, available for charter out of
the
Southern CA area for over 10 years and operated by owner Rod
Fishburn.
Note the large print on the far bulkhead featuring a GG1. Things
seemed to be well orchestrated aboard the Colonial Crafts. The
chief orchestraters are shown taking care of their paperwork.
Bert Hermey, one of the owners of the Silver Lariat and Silver Rapids,
and Chris Skow,
partner in Trains and Travel, promoters of the FRX.. Did I say
this trip is scheduled again for August 19-21, 2011?
John, one of the servers on the Colonial Crafts is another regular on
the premium staff.
The Silver Lariat is another of the premium cars. Server Cliff
Daniels is often seen working the Lariat charters.
Chef Jeffrey and assistant Hulon are shown in their respective halves
of the Silver Lariat galley. Stainless, stainless and more
stainless steel make up this productive galley with everything a chef
could need. The food on the premium cars is the best.
Passengers have sit down service from drinks to dessert.
The Silver Solarium, is
the
premium car bringing up the rear of the train. Her rounded end
(seen on page 1 of this report) is streamline beautiful.
She is owned by Roy Wullich III, and based in the Bay Area. Mr.
Wullich is very involved in private car affairs associations in
addition to his railcar consulting business. Below, Berne is
doing prep work in the Silver Solarium for lunch.
Chris Skow continued "The first part of my dream came true on October
30-November 1, 2009
when I became involved with Burt Hermey and the three California Zephyr
cars that he operates. We ran a three car 100 Year
Centennial Celebration Train from Oakland to Portola and return over as
much of the original Western Pacific Route as possible including Niles
Canyon, Altamont Pass and the Feather River Canyon."