The Road To Sacramento
The 1999 NRHS Convention
Photography by Ken Rattenne and Alex Mayes
The Convention
Excursion
Managers: Excursion trips large and small need a small army of
volunteers to plan, manage and operate successfully. Excursion Managers
included Cathy Bauer for the Mount Shasta Scenic
trip, Bob Bunch
for the Franklin Canyon Special to Richmond, Errol Spangler for
the City of Tehama to Tehama, Dennis Hanley for the West Coast
to
Oakland, Tom Glover on the Yolo Short Line, Bob Harper on the Feather River
Express to Keddie and Jim Maurer the San Francisco Historic Trolley
trip.
Car Hosts: Over 100 people were needed to staff the car and bus host positions for the various excursions. Unfortunately the list is too long to include here. However, the success in the operation of these trips is due to this group of volunteers. In addition to car hosts in each car, the staff included food carriers, bus hosts, snack and beverage sales, concession sales, front and rear train managers, baggage car hosts, photo line supervisors and safety managers. Errol Spangler was responsible for filling all these positions. Denis and Patty Murchison were managers of food service and Martin Rice was manager of cell phones and two-way radios.
The Trips:
| As with any undertaking
of this magnitude, a few problems developed. The most serious was the delay
in timely processing ticket order requests. This was caused by the large
volume of ticket orders, which taxed the limited time of the small group
of volunteers who undertook this big job. Late in the game a telephone
mailbox system was set up to attempt to handle the many inquiries being
received. A small group of volunteers worked long hours to answer questions
and resolve disputes.
The delays to several excursion trains were beyond the convention's control, particularly the Tehama and Keddie trips. The delay to the Tehama trip was caused by the railroad failing to call a pilot crew for the train. This train was further delayed by heat restrictions in effect and speed was restricted to 50 miles per hour maximum as we headed to Tehama. The Franklin Canyon excursion to Richmond was delayed by dispatching problems, resulting in a long wait to access the BNSF in Stockton, plus numerous delays enroute to Richmond. The West Coast trip to Oakland via Altamont Pass was delayed 40 minutes departing Sacramento account of the late arrival of the Amtrak-supplied equipment. This caused passengers to miss the ferry connection to San Francisco by 15 minutes. The lack of steam on the Keddie trip was a big disappointment but was unavoidable. The boiler tube failure of UP 844 while on display at Railfair in Sacramento caused Steam Manager Steve Lee to cancel the use and operation of Challenger 3985 since the locomotive used tubes from the same manufacturer and the same batch as those used on the 844. The first rule in the UP’s rule book says when in doubt, the safe course must be followed. Riders were disappointed but understood the situation and instead concentrated on enjoying the scenery. This trip was also delayed when the single diesel locomotive pulling the train hit rocks piled on the tracks by vandals just south of Oroville. This resulted in a punctured fuel tank on C-40 No. 9326. However, quick action by UP resulted in a locomotive from a freight waiting in Oroville Yard being substituted for the damaged 9326. The lack of double-headed steam on the Mount Shasta Scenic Special was another disappointment, but the shortline’s 2-6-2 No. 25 put on a worthy show with many photo run-bys in spectacular scenery. Many considered this to be one of the best trips of the convention. The convention received compliments on many of the other activities and events. The June 23 trip to the Western Railway Museum was enjoyed by all as almost every operable streetcar and interurban was rolled out for riding and photographs, and almost every mile of the museum's trackage was covered, including motor car trips over a short portion which is not yet electrified. The barbecue lunch provided at the museum was also well received. Also praised were the trips on the Yolo Short Line featuring diesel and ex-SP 0-6-0 No. 1233 on a freight train. Many photo run-bys were staged on both the trip to Clarksburg and the Woodland to West Sacramento trip. Additional compliments were received concerning the Joint Annual Banquet, which featured guest speaker Jim Larson, recently retired Vice President-Operations of Amtrak. Many people enjoyed the seating arrangements, the good food and the decorations. The selection of seminars proved to be an overwhelming success with Chris Skow's "Western Pacific Railroad: The Final Years" playing to a capacity crowd that spilled out into the hallway. Unfortunately, several of the seminar rooms were unable to accommodate all that wished to attend the seminars. Thank You We sincerely thank each of you who helped make the 1999 Convention a success -- including all of you who bought tickets. |
McCloud River 25 June 1999 (Alex Mayes Photo)
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