Dear friends
I am on the Amtrak San Joaquin southbound as I write this.
Christmas morning this northbound train departed at 6 a.m. for Sacramento
Of course, those of you who have been on this run know that you get about 5 hours of this:
At Stockton, this particular train leaves ATSF tracks and transfers onto the old Western Pacific. I apologize for this picture, but we couldn't get any closer to the old WP structures than this:
At Lodi, a parking garage adjacent to the depot has a nice mural commemorating the electric lines that used to run in this part of the valley:
We finally arrived in Sacramento. The old SP depot and shops are adjacent to the railroad museum, and my hotel:
Christmas night I attended mass here. No photo can do this place justice:
The next day was museum day. Since my last visit here almost a year ago, they moved two SF steam locomotives from storage to near the museum. The photo quality of this one engine is not good. You all probably know that photographing a black object this size is a bit of a challenge:
Some other equipment:
The museum has a very nice display of toy trains upstairs. I thought the repair shop was quite nice:
They also have nice layout representing several scales with a forced perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raeoPU80FjE
My favorite part of the entire museum is this SP station. I had a home for many years with a re-creation of this display. I hope to have one again some day:
I hope you folks enjoy this. Merry Christmas!
ALAN
