This is the third year that I’ve gone to the Fullerton Railroad Days event, and this year there was something special – a 4-8-4 Baldwin Locomotive Works steam locomotive. Santa Fe #3751 arrived Thursday night (4/30) at the Fullerton Station, being led by a BNSF locomotive. This wasn’t the first time the engine has showed up at the event, but the other time was over a decade ago in 2001.
The BNSF locomotive that led #3751 to Fullerton was also on display and available for cab walkthroughs. Each year that I’ve gone to the Fullerton Railroad Days, they’ve always had a BNSF engine out allowing everyone to get up close and personal. This year the engine was not running which was nice – the first year I went the engine was running and was very loud.
Always a long line to visit the cab, BNSF #8357 is a brand new ES44C4 built by GE. Apparently it came brand new directly from the factory in Illinois just 9 days prior to our visit on May 2, 2015.
A view out the windows from the engineer’s side of the cab. In front of the engine is the back of the Santa Fe #3751’s tender.
When we were standing in line to get into the area that the event occupied, we heard a long, loud whistle. In an area where you only hear blaring horns, the whistle sounded incredible. Unfortunately, they didn’t blow the whistle the rest of the time we were there. I’ve seen many steam engines sitting on tracks at various museums, but seeing one sitting there with steam leaking out is exciting, especially on such a large locomotive.
Built in 1927, the Santa Fe #3751 is an old engine. However, it wasn’t the oldest engine at the event. Another steam locomotive was also in attendance – Disneyland Railroad’s engine #4, Ernest S. Marsh. Disneyland has brought one of their locomotives all three years that I’ve gone, and it’s been this engine for each of those years. I was hoping they would bring a different one, but it’s still nice to see any of their engines up close.
The Ernest S. Marsh was built in 1925 by Baldwin Locomotive Works (same builder as the Santa Fe #3751). While both locomotives are beautiful, Disneyland keeps its engines spotless and polished.
While the main draw for me this year was the large steam engine, there were also a lot of model layouts to look at. The lego layout this year seemed smaller than the previous years, but they had a couple of tables full of lego pieces for kids to play with. And among the layouts were a couple of z-scale layouts that were really cool. I’m still amazed at the detail in z-scale even though everything is so tiny.
Before we left, Wesley wanted to ride the kid train. As we sat in the train driving by people, Wesley decided he needed to give everyone a thumbs-up. And although he didn’t want to leave, I think he left happy. Fullerton Railroad Days 2015 (or any year) is worth checking out.
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