California Part One: Roseville

While most visitors to California think of San Diego, San Francisco or L-A (Los Angeles, not Lewiston-Auburn) as destinations to check out, a somewhat less traditional group from the H.A.P.T. left on August 6th for the rail meccas we've only read about to this point. Anything else along the lines of "touristy" was purely by chance or easy opportunity. We did drive around the outside of Disneyland and muddled through Reno to the Amtrak station. But, those were not planned destinations. Instead we visited Tehachapi Loop, Cajon Pass, Keddie Wye, a bit of Donner Pass and Sacramento via the California Railroad Museum. This meant staying at motels in non-tourist towns like Bakersfield, Asuza, Cajon Pass and Rocklin. Reno was the exception and Cajon Pass was a nice desert spot. It was a memorable trip despite missing the likes of Hollywood, Fisherman's Wharf and Yosemite.

Advance reconnoitering for the trip was done by the Wheelman. He works out there a lot and did all the planning. As an extra bonus, it was his frequent flying points that got us out there for free and paid for many of the motel rooms. We just shared the cost on rental cars, some motel rooms and then paid for our own meals. A $3.00 cooler filled with bottled water and motel ice followed us everywhere. I think we went through over 3 cases of water in the dry climate. Sunscreen came in real handy too. No one saw any snakes, though we were very much in their habitat.

As three of us (me, Wheelman and Videoman) left the plane and got going in a rental car (Ford Escape - real handy) we assumed we had hours to kill until the Fidder arrived from Philly. So we started with the ex-SP yards in Roseville. Here is a major hub with yards, shops and Amtrak station. Most notable is the snow fighting equipment stored here. Rotary plows (above left) and the specialty GP38's with the circular ship windows and icicle breakers (above right). We also spied an SD38 doing yard duty with a similar SD40(upper right). A pair of GP40's in predecessor colors for local work didn't hurt. Stored power was everywhere and included anything and everything from SD40-2's to Tunnel Motors and even newish Dash 9's and SD70's. The shops were quite busy and it seemed that even California Northern was getting work done here as evidenced by this recent arrival following the power into the shop area.

After waiting for a late Zephyr to arrive we moved along east a bit. First we had to see a northbound rounding the wye to Marysville (above, left) and then on to Rocklin (top) where the Donner Pass line really gets started. We followed one eastbound a while up to Auburn but then the phone rang and it was Fiddler waiting at the airport. Oops! We thought we had another hour to play. Well, we finished our chase at Auburn (left) and headed to Sac Int'l Airport. Then south following the old SP line on Rt.99. We took a break at a good pizza joint outside Stockton and bought supplies then moved along to our motel, still hours away in Bakersfield.

A big beginning to a big trip!

BC