Train Travel Meetup Group

April 28, 2008 Photo Courtesy of Cathy Stanfill - Click on photo for a larger image.

Next Train Travel Meetup:

The next Train Travel Meetup will be held at 5pm on Monday, May 19, 2008, at the Slidebab Cafe at 122 E. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton, California 92832, directly across the parking lot from the Fullerton Amtrak / Metrolink Station. SPECIAL NOTE: Due to May 26, 2008 being Memorial Day, our usual 4th Monday of the Month Meetup has been moved up one week and will instead be held of the 3rd Monday of the Month: May 19, 2008. Please make a note of it. Click here to RSVP NOW! If you don't see our Meetup group in the outdoor patio, please check inside. The meeting after that will be on Monday, June 23, 2008, same time, same place. (The meeting is on the 4th Monday of each month, which is NOT necessarily the last Monday of each month).

NEW !!! NEW !!! NEW !!!
SUNDAY JUNE 1, 2008 3751 STEAM TRIP L.A. TO SAN DIEGO!

Click here for more info. Please purchase your tickets soon before they run out!

What is the Train Travel Meetup Group?

The Train Travel Meetup Group is not a passenger rail advocacy group nor a nuts & bolts railfan group. We are just a bunch of people that like to get together and discuss our rail travel experiences in a relaxed atmosphere over some food and drinks! If you like to travel by rail, or are interested in getting started in rail travel, then you should come to our meeting! If you have questions about travel on Amtrak, VIA Rail Canada, or on most other excursion and tourist railways, bring your questions to the meeting. Someone will probably have answers to your questions!

There are no application forms and no dues. This is a "no pressure" meeting without speakers or any set agenda. We'll just be talking about wherever the conversation takes us, though we will try our best to keep the topic on rail travel! Just show up on the 4th Monday of each month at 5pm whenever it fits your schedule. Some of us will be there at almost every meeting!

Each meeting will end around 7:00pm. You are welcome to join some of the members who plan to wander over to the Fullerton Amtrak Station after the meeting to watch the arrival and departure of the eastbound Amtrak Southwest Chief. What a great way to end the evening!

Come to the meeting by rail!

Northbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Train #583 departs San Diego at 3pm and arrives into Fullerton at 5:08pm. Southbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Train #582 departs Los Angeles at 4:05pm and arrives into Fullerton at 4:37pm. Or, you can take southbound Train #784 that departs Goleta at 1:45pm and arrives into Fullerton at 5:42pm. From Riverside, you can take westbound Metrolink Train #705 at 3:13pm to Fullerton. After the meeting, you can take southbound Metrolink Train #608 at 7:02pm or Amtrak Train #792 at 8:31pm. Northbound, you can take Metrolink Train #707 at 6:39pm or Amtrak Train #587 at 8:13pm to Los Angeles which has a bus connection to cities as far north as Goleta. You can take the eastbound Amtrak Southwest Chief that departs Fullerton at 7:20pm to get back to Riverside. So, it is possible to get to the meeting from as far north as Santa Barbara or as far south as San Diego or as far east as Riverside and return home the same evening! A great excuse for a rail outing! For exact schedules and updates, check Amtrak.com or MetrolinkTrains.com.

Fullerton has extensive OCTA bus service. There are many direct routes to the Fullerton Transportation Center or to Downtown Fullerton from many parts of Orange County and connections to the entire OCTA bus system. For more OCTA info, see: www.OCTA.net

If you would like to find out more about the Train Travel Meetup Group and some of its members, click here to go to the Train Travel Meetup Group website. Although not required in order to attend the meetings, you can "officially" join the "Train Travel Meetup Group" at the above link and will then be able to let the rest of the group know more about yourself and will be kept informed about group activities and members.

20 people attended the January 28, 2008 Train Travel Meetup making that a record number for a regular monthly Meetup. Only our special holiday parties have ever seen larger attendance. Even though the cold and threat of rain caused us to meet inside the Slidebar Cafe instead of our usual outdoor patio location, we still drew a record number. The following were in attendance: Cathy Stanfill, Carole Walker, Chris Guenzler, Winston Walker, Anton Lazzaro, Pat Moran, Robin Bowers, Jonathon Ortiz, Tom Anderson, Carl Morrison, John Searight, Sharon Frazier, Todd Frazier, Kirk Schneider, Mary Stanfill, Arnold James (AJ), Chris Parker, Nancy Jang, Ken Ruben and Steve Grande.

The October 24, 2005, Train Travel Meetup was the most successful ever! With 16 people at the event, including 4 visiting from the Bay Area, it was the largest turnout ever! After the meeting, we all went to the Fullerton Santa Fe Depot to greet Amtrak President David Gunn as he arrived in the Amtrak corporate car on the tail of the eastbound Amtrak Southwest Chief. People at the event included: Ken Ruben, Chris Parker, Harold Penensen, Dan Dalke, William Puhl, Mary Pearl Puhl, Stephen Grande, Ray Burns, Margaret Monroe, Daniel Monroe, Pat Moran, L.R. Smithline, Chris Guenzler, Winston W. Walker, Art Tomlin, and Ross Moore, Jr.

Click each of the below images for larger photos from the Oct 24, 2005 OC Train Travel Meetup.

At the November 29, 2005 Meetup, we celebrated Chris Guenzler having completed 900,000 miles of rail travel.
Click here to view photos from that celebration!

Click here for photos from Jonathon Ortiz of the May 20, 2006, outing to Santa Barbara!

Silver Rails Resort

Looking for more info about the Silver Rails Resort Conceptual Plan? Raymond York has posted details about the project as part of his La Plata rail travelogue on his RailPassengerUSA web site. Click here to view that travelogue and an overall description of the plans for the Silver Rails Resort.