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Folsom Valley Railway 11/12/2016

After Chris Parker and I finished at the El Dorado & Western, we made our way to Folsom Park and parked across the driveway from the station then walked over and waited for the train to return.

The Folsom Valley Railway has been in existence at City Lions Park since 1970 and includes 4,020 feet of track around the Folsom Zoo. It is the only 12-inch gauge railroad remaining in the United States and is one of six mini- scale replica steam-powered railroads in public operation in California.

The Folsom Valley Railway was built in 1970 by the Sherman Brothers [first names unknown] with the blessing by Mayor Jack Kipp. From there, it was bought and operated by Mylon Thorley. Terry Gold bought the Folsom Valley Railway from Thorley in June 1990 and officially took possession of the train on January 1, 1991. In 2024, Gold handed operations over to Truson Buegel and Stephanie Bea Roy with intentions to retire the following year.

The railway operates two mini-authentic steam engines, including "Cricket" which was built in 1950 and in Berkeley’s Tilden Park for 20 years; in 1970, the engine was sold to the Sherman Brothers and brought to Folsom, where it has been running since. The second engine, 3001, was built in 1949 and ran in Sacramento’s William Land Park in 1950 for four months, but the small population there at the time couldn't support a train operation. The engine was sold to a private collector in Seattle but was eventually brought to Sacramento in 2007, where it became one of two engines operating on the Folsom Valley Railway.

It takes two hours to steam up and half an hour to power down the steam engines. As a system where steam (water) intermixes with machined metal parts, a steam engine requires elaborate daily servicing.

The steam train arrived at the station then Chris Parker bought my ticket and I sat on the last car of the train. After tickets were punched, we were ready to depart and would run south to the loop that returns it by the station to a loop track at the north end of the park. The engineer whistled off and we were on our way.

The journey from the park to the southern loop track.

The train rounded the southern loop track, after which it returned by the station area.

Passing the storage building before proceeding onto the north loop track.

Rounding the northern loop track.

Passing the outside equipment and returning to the station. I thanked our engineer and gave him my business card.

"Cricket" waited for her next trip and I set up to photograph it.

"Cricket" and train on its southbound run. It was built by Erich Thomsen and was originally coal-fired, but now runs on kerosene. When in operation on the Redwood Valley Railway, it was the Tilden, South Gate and Pacific Railway. Its name comes from Erich's wife, who said "That is as cute as a bug" when she first saw it and the character of "Jiminy Cricket" was the inspiration. Walt Disney became involved as he was planning Disneyland. This information from the October 23, 2023 episode of "The Jobcast" with Cristian Amaral on Youtube.

The northbound run. We then drove to Merced and stopped at Stockton for an early dinner to go then returned to the BNSF mainline at Escalon, but missed a BNSF freight at El Capitan Road by less than a minute. We filled the car with petrol in Denair then made it to Winton where we waited for San Joaquin 717.

San Joaquin 717 came through Winton minutes after the sun had set. We drove back to California Highway 99 to Motel Drive in Merced, where we checked into the Rodeway Inn for the night. I watched my Pittsburgh Penguins beat Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 then watched "The A-Team" and "NCIS: Los Angeles" before the 10:00 PM news, after which we called it a night.

We departed the Rodeway Inn and first went to McDonald's for breakfast then went over to the BNSF mainline to follow it south. The Tule fog was occuring and I stopped in Planada.

Mel's Old West Bar-B-Que steam engine, history unknown, something I had passed this for years but never photographed it until now. We then took Santa Fe Road south.

BNSF 5146 West at Le Grand. I saw a FRED flashing to our south so went and found a train in the siding.

BNSF 169 East at Le Grand. We continued on our way for a short while.

San Joaquin 711 on its way to Oakland. From here we went back to California Highway 99 and after Madera, returned to the Tule fog which lasted to near Fresno. We went through Fresno but on the south side of town, hit more dense fog then exited the freeway and took North Avenue to the tracks.

San Joaquin 701 at North Avenue in dense Tule fog. We returned to California Highway 99 and we came out of the Tule fog, then took it to California Highway down to the BNSF mainline just north of Corcoran, making it south to Stoll before we had to pull off the road.

San Joaquin 713 at Stoll was the last train we photographed. We went south on California 43, filling up before reaching Interstate 5, which we took to Interstate 405 and California Highway 110 to San Pedro, where I dropped off Chris Parker at a phone store where we said our goodbyes. I returned home over the Vincent Thomas Bridge then was able to see the impressive new bridge under construction. I entered the Long Beach Freeway and was stuck in a two mile traffic jam due to a major accident, but made it to the Interstate 405 then California Highway 22 back home to Santa Ana. It had been an excellent weekend of train rides.

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