Ten Seconds of Ecstasy: Steam and Now Pictures

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Seven and a half hours of waiting, though, for the ten seconds.

Not a lot of excursion activity, steam-wise, makes it to San Diego, but today’s visit by former SF 3751 was a delight, even if for me allowing only a brief look. Apparently the last steamer in town was the Freedom Train in 1976.

The departure from LAX was reportedly delayed by close to an hour, so the SD arrival was close to 1:15 instead of 11:30. (Missed the arrival by going to lunch and not leaving restaurant on time.)

Guessed (wrongly) that engine would be turned on BNSF balloon track in National City and spent some time waiting for it to come down that way. Then figured they would be turning at the Washington St. wye so waited just north of Santa Fe Station for better part of two hours, until someone showed up with a scanner and reported that they had gone north to Miramar to turn the power. Eventually dropped friends off and went to Old Town transit center to wait.

Shortly after five, steam came back south in tow by Amtrak engine (easier to make move that way, at least faster). Finally, at about quarter after six, train came north through Old Town station at a pretty good clip. Ten seconds, zoom, gone, but oh, what a sight!

First, coming under the I-5 lanes south of Old Town Station.

Getting closer with plenty of steam and bell ringing vigorously.

Finally, the last shot before it blew by at speed. (In a hurry to get home?)

Apparently, though, a lot of word of mouth or net (I don’t recall seeing anything in the

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Fascinating account! Did the Amtrak engine pull the stream train backwards to Miramar and return in like manner?

On the Miramar Hill two-track section, did AT&SF steamer 3751 meet steamer 2929 by any chance? 2929 was a San Diego regular in steam days … Oh yah. We are in the diesel era now. Forget I asked that question! Ha, ha.

(Hey, Chuck. “AT&SF 3751 in San Diego – Ten Seconds of Ecstasy” may be a more eye catching topic title. But, that is just my opinion.)

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It was just two and a half hours of waiting for me. I trotted down about 10am to a nice watching spot overlooking the line dropping down to the San Elijo lagoon, figured it would be going by about 10:45am. Due to a combination of starting an hour late and the photo runby in Carlsbad, the train finally showed up at 12:29pm. Got three good pictures, though the lighting for the first would have been better if the train was on time (oh well).

Got an email tonight from a friend who lives about 100 feet from where I was watching this morning (they have a nice view of the main line across the lagoon from their dining room saying that she saw the train on the return trip and was thrilled to hear the whistle blow.

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You came up with an excellent renamed topic title way better than I had suggested.

It is unbelievable that I didn’t hear about steamer AT&SF 3751 going to San Diego. Hopefully, someone will have digital pictures they can post here.

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…Nice clear photographs. That 3751 by chance…isn’t the engine that was on display in Kingman, Az for decades…?

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Quentin, they are not the same engine. They’re both Northern type, but different models, and the one in Kingman, last I saw two years ago, is still there. Surprising just how large they are.

-Crandell

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Crandell:

Way back in '69 and '70 and some of '71 when we spent time in that area testing, one day I visited that engine in Kingman and at that time you could actually get up into the cab. I sat in the engineer’s seat and thought for a moment of how a person could stay calm in something like this clanging and banging down grade with a massive load pushing from behind…Steam hisssing and the fire roaring…Just an environment that took some moxie to get with it and do the job…I’d say it took a pretty good man.

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The Kingman, AZ 4-8-4 on display is AT&SF 3759.

AT&SF 3751 was on display in Viaduct Park in San Bernardino, CA until 1986. I personally saw the move out of the park, and how Santa Fe had laid track right on Third Street to get the steamer back unto Santa Fe rails again. Wow! That was 22 years ago.

All the hard work back then made the present steam trip to San Diego possible.

To Chuck … Thanks for the photos. They add life to a topic like this.

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…Thanks for the number info…I knew that number sounded close to the one in the Kingman park. I do have some photos from way back then {that show the number}, but didn’t try to dig them out.

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Its a shame that 3751 never gets out of Ca. tho I can see why…Great pics and a handsome loco…Thanks for sharing

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Just got back to the laptop here. Thanks for the comments.

As most would know, I think, San Diego is not a hotbed of trainwatching opportunities unless you are into Surfliner or Coaster action, or midnight moves of auto racks. That’s not entirely true, but close.

The excursion got into Santa Fe Station about a quarter after one, and shortly thereafter, the Northern and the Amtrak uncoupled and headed north, with the Amtrak in the lead. Why they did not use the Washington St. wye is still a mystery to me, except that it may have had to do with MCRD dealing with the end of the Rock’n’Roll marathon race. Nonetheless, they had to go to the next wye, which is just south of Miramar Road, a fur piece up the line. We waited at the Cedar Street crossing for about two hours, I think, and then eventually got to Old Town Station, where the Amtrak showed up southbound pulling the Northern.

As I noted in the original post, the northbound train was moving pretty good at Old Town. My guess, based on the steam pulse rate (about 10-12 per second), is they were doing close to 40 mph coming through the station. What was surprising to me (having never seen ‘real’ steam in action in my way too many years) was how relatively quiet the engine was coming through. The other surprise was just how cool the engine’s whistle sounded. That was, as the youngsters used to say, awesome.

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For those looking for pictures, there’s a thread in the steam and preservation section where I posted mine. I waited two hours in the morning at Batquitos lagoon and then just waited in encinitas that night. Then I caught a fading glimpse of her at LAs Pulges in Pendelton. They had a late start out of LA.

The fact that they were going to be turning at Miramar was fairly well advertised in advance. As was the water stop and photo runby at Pointsettia station carlsbad.