Planning for the joint National Railway Historical Society and Railway & Locomotive Historical Society 1999 national convention started in 1994 when it was agreed to hold the first-ever combined event between the two organizations. A joint convention was agreed upon since there was a lot of cross membership between the two organizations and both groups brought significant skills and contacts that would contribute to the event. The main attraction was to be the celebration of the California Sesquicentennial, and the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) agreed to schedule its third Railfair during the same time frame as the convention. Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Amtrak were contacted to solicit their participation in the event with the operation of excursion trains. UP approved the use of 4-8-4 No. 844 and later added Challenger 3985 for excursion train service.

The Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn was selected as the convention headquarters hotel because it was the only big hotel with facilities that could accommodate such a large gathering. The hotel, located in downtown Sacramento, was convenient to historic Old Town Sacramento, the California State Railroad Museum and the Amtrak depot. Through the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, blocks of hotel rooms were reserved at the nearby Vagabond Inn and onboard the Delta King, plus rooms at the Governor's Inn, Hawthorn Suites, La Quinta Inn and Best Western Sandman located in the Richards Blvd. area, for which bus shuttles were provided.

Monday, June 22

The first Convention activity was the "Mount Shasta Scenic" excursion which saw charter buses depart Sacramento hotels at 3:00 p.m. for the three-hour ride up the Sacramento Valley to Redding, Calif. Arriving at Redding, passengers were deposited at three local hotels. (Photos shows Mt. Shasta Scenic RR 2-6-2 No. 25 on June 22 fantrip at Signal Butte).

Tuesday, June 23

Tuesday morning found "Mount Shasta Scenic" riders boarding buses at 7: 00 a.m. in Redding for the 60-mile ride to McCloud. At 9:00 a.m. the excursion train departed McCloud for the five-mile run to the switchback at Signal Butte. Unfortunately, because of unexpected problems with the rebuilding of McCloud Railway 2-8-2 No. 18, the excursion had only one steam engine, 2-6-2 No. 25. The train consisted of No. 25, one open-air car, four diners, a double-deck open-air car on the rear and McCloud SD38 No. 36 shoving. One photo stop was held east of the switchback.

Arriving at Signal Butte, the train was posed for photographers and made a photo runby with scenic, snow-capped Mount Shasta in the background. The train then returned down the four-percent grade to McCloud. At McCloud No. 25 was placed on a freight train consisting of three 50-foot McCloud Railway boxcars and caboose No. 102, making several switching moves in the McCloud yard for photographers. Again, Mount Shasta provided a fitting background.

From McCloud the excursion train with SD38 No. 36 and the steam-powered freight train headed east 18 miles to Bartle. While enroute, lunch was served in the four dining cars. At Bartle, photographers detrained to photograph the freight being wyed and taking water. The excursion train was also turned on the wye and, following the photo session, both the excursion train and the freight returned to McCloud.

On arrival, McCloud passengers boarded charter buses for the return four-hour ride back to Sacramento. Box lunches were placed on the buses prior to departure and served to passengers enroute. The only problem to develop during the trip was two cases of air conditioning problems on the buses, while one of the buses developed battery problems and once started could not be shut down. The trip was an early sell-out and from comments heard, passengers enjoyed the trip immensely.

While one group was riding the "Mount Shasta Scenic" excursion, another group was on board the "Franklin Canyon Special". This "rare-mileage" train consisted of six Amtrak Horizon coaches, two Caltrain cars, a dinette car and dome-lounge Mountain View on the rear. Power for the train was two Amtrak F40PH units, one on each end of the train.

The scheduled 8:30 a.m. departure from the Amtrak Sacramento depot was delayed slightly. Once underway, the trip proceeded down the Union Pacific mainline to Stockton. At Stockton the special encountered a major delay in getting through the former location of "Stockton Tower" and onto the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line to Richmond. Unfortunately the train encountered more delays enroute to Richmond. Between a maintenance-of-way work window on BNSF's Stockton Subdivision between Stockton and Richmond, a heavy volume of high-priority freight traffic and Amtrak San Joaquin passenger trains on the line, the special arrived in Richmond approximately four hours late, causing the planned photo stops to be canceled. A box lunch was provided enroute. With a late departure from Richmond, the "Franklin Canyon Special" retraced its route over BNSF rails to Stockton and UP back to Sacramento, arriving shortly before 8:00 p.m., about three hours late.

While the trip was not a sell-out, those on board enjoyed the scenery and the opportunity to travel over the tracks between Port Chicago and Richmond, which had not seen a public passenger train in almost three decades.

Wednesday, June 23

What was billed as a high-speed run up the Sacramento Valley to Tehama got off to a slow start when the 8:45 a.m. departure time for the "City of Tehama" came and went. Union Pacific's massive 4-8-4 No. 844 was to haul the 18-car train on a fast ride, but a UP pilot crew had not been called for the train, which in turn caused a major delay. A UP yard engine brought the passenger equipment to the Sacramento depot and a little later the 844 was backed down and coupled onto the train with actual departure at 9:45 a.m. Our route was over the former Southern Pacific line to Roseville and the East Valley line to Tehama. (Photo shows UP 4-8-4 No. 844 at Roseville, CA pulling convention special "City of Tehema" on June 23).

Arriving at Roseville, the train was held waiting for the UP pilot crew. At long last the crew arrived and the excursion train departed at 11:40 a.m., almost three hours late. Arriving at Tehama, the special was turned on the wye, which now connects with the California Northern Railroad's Tehama-Davis line which was once SP's West Valley line. Once the train was turned, it was spotted adjacent to the main while the steam crew serviced No. 844. Because of the location, passengers were unable to detrain.

Once servicing was completed, the convention train departed Tehama at 5:00 p.m. for a fast run down UP's East Valley Line to Roseville. Because of the lateness of the train and the amount of freight traffic on the line, only the one photo runby was held. Arrival back in Sacramento was at 9:10 p.m., well off the 5:00 p.m. expected arrival time.

The "City of Tehama" was a sell-out and those on board enjoyed the trip even through the delays caused most planned photo stops to be canceled.

While the Tehama special was spending the day traveling between Sacramento and Tehama, another group of excursionists boarded buses in Sacramento at 8:45 a.m. for a ride to the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction, operated by the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association. Arriving at Dozier about 10:00 a.m., excursionists boarded a train of heavyweight cars pulled by one of the museum's vintage diesels for the 6.5-mile run south to the museum at Rio Vista Junction. The train arrived at the museum at about 10:45 a.m., as visitors were greeted by Key System shop switcher 1215 with a sign welcoming everyone. Some of the more colorful cars, such as ex-Central California Traction express motor 7, Salt Lake & Utah observation car 751, Cedar Rapids & Iowa City lightweight interurban 111 and Key System streetcar 352 were parked on the north shop lead. Key System line car 1201 and Oregon Electric observation car Champoeg also were parked on the north shop lead. The south shop lead had Visalia Electric GE 44-tonner 502 and a short train of freight cars on display. Other pieces of rolling stock viewed at the museum included Western Pacific F7 diesel unit 917, Sacramento Northern GP7 No. 712 and Western Pacific 4-6-0 No. 94.

At 11:00 a.m. electric operations began and between that time and 4:20 p.m., 31 trains departed the museum grounds for the short ride to Gum Grove with trains operating on the hour and half hour. Short turn trains to Diablo Vista ran between the Gum Grove trains. Key System Bay Bridge unit 182, Peninsular Railway interurban 52, Crandic 111, Petaluma & Santa Rosa 63, Central California Traction 7 and Salt Lake & Utah 751 made the runs to Gum Grove, giving visitors a nice variety of equipment. Starting about 3:00 p.m. buses started returning to Sacramento, with the last arriving shortly after 5:00 p.m. Wednesday proved to be a very busy day for convention attendees as an informal reception, hosted by the officers of both the NRHS and R&LHS was held from 7:00 p.m. to approximately 9:00 p.m. in the Mark Twain Salon of the riverboat Delta King.

Convention event 7 was the night photo shoot, at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction. This event was conducted by noted Rail Photographer Mike Del Vecchio and featured several pieces of equipment at a variety of locations including Crandic 111 at Chabot Road, Sacramento Northern Birney 62 at Laflin Station, CCT 7 and SL&U observation car 751 posed next to heavyweight observation car Western Pacific 653. Visalia Electric diesel locomotive 502 with train was posed south of the shop, and all Key System equipment - shop switcher 1215, streetcar 271, line car 1201 and streetcar 352 - were spotted on the four adjacent tracks. (Photo shows {left to right} all three 4-8-4 locomotives that attended RAILFAIR 99 - SP 4449, UP 844, and Santa Fe 3751 at night photo shoot on June 24).

Thursday, June 24

The only convention event for Thursday was "The West Coast" excursion train from Sacramento to Oakland and return. This was an Amtrak train using the same equipment as Tuesday's "Franklin Canyon Special". Departure time was scheduled for 8:15 a.m. but with heavy Amtrak traffic into and out of Sacramento the equipment was delayed in arriving. Once spotted, the train was quickly loaded and departed at 9:00 a.m.

From Sacramento the excursion train operated over the ex-SP Sacramento-Roseville line for one and a half miles to "Haggin" interlocking where it backed over the new connection to the former Western Pacific Oroville-Stockton mainline. Once on the ex-WP line, the train headed south to El Pinal where it switched to the former SP route through Stockton. Passing the former location of "Stockton Tower", a famed railfan location, many excursionists observed a moment of silence for the former Santa Fe interlocking tower. Today nothing remains to mark the location of this well-known structure. The train returned to former WP rails at Lathrop for the run through Tracy, over Altamont Pass and through Niles Canyon to Oakland. At Melrose the train ran over the connection to the former SP and continued on to the Jack London Square Amtrak depot where passengers detrained.

With arrival in Oakland, passengers had the option of traveling across San Francisco Bay by ferry or under the bay on Bay Area Rapid Transit for a visit to San Francisco, or were free to visit the many tourist attractions located in Jack London Square. Because the "West Coast" excursion was running a little late, passengers missed the 12:45 p.m. San Francisco ferry but were given information on using BART to travel to San Francisco with return on the 3:45 p.m. ferry from San Francisco to Oakland.

While passengers were enjoying their layover in Oakland, the train was pulled to Amtrak's West Oakland yard for cleaning and servicing. Included in the consist was a hi-level California car which replaced a Horizon car bad-ordered before deadheading from Oakland to Sacramento. Because this car did not allow people to move between it and the other cars in the consist, it was replaced at Oakland with the repaired Horizon car.

Departing Oakland at 6:00 p.m., the "West Coast" made a special stop at Richmond where a few passengers returning from San Francisco by BART could board the train. From Richmond the train made a fast non-stop run over the ex-SP Cal-P line to Sacramento arriving at 7:39 p.m., making the ballast-scorching run in one hour and 39 minutes.

Friday, June 25

This day was a break from operating any major trips. A morning excursion, the "Last Train to Clarksburg", saw buses depart the hotels at 8:30 a.m. for the short trip to West Sacramento where excursionists boarded the Yolo Short Line for a trip from West Sacramento to Clarksburg and return. This trip covered the ex-Sacramento Northern Holland Branch, which no longer sees any regular freight service and never had any scheduled passenger service. The power for this trip was YSL GP9 No. 131, painted yellow with black trim, which pulled two stainless-steel coaches, two former flatcars converted into open-air cars and fitted with benches and a former baggage car which served as a commissary and souvenir car. Two photo runbys were held on the trip to Clarksburg. After running around the consist the train returned to West Sacramento where buses brought conventioneers back to their hotels about noon.

While some were enjoying the Yolo Short Line excursion, the R&LHS directors meeting was held from 8: 00 a.m. to about noon. The program of seminars got underway at 8:30 a.m. with "Western Pacific Railroad: The Final Years" presented by retired WP Conductor Chris Skow. This proved to be a very popular program and was well attended, lasting until about 10:00 a.m. Famed Photographer Ted Benson presented "Sierra: The Most Photographed Railroad in the World" from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. which featured the camera work of Guy Duncsomb, Al Rose and Benson. The program included black-and-white slides of the Sierra Railroad from 1937 to 1997, followed by color photography by Benson from 1967 to the present. At 11:00 a.m. Richard Steinheimer and Shirley Burman presented "Life on a Mountain: Donner Pass and a Town Called Norden," featuring highlights of 14 years of photographing railroad workers and visitors to the Sierra Nevada mountains, including the people who worked at Norden for the Southern Pacific. (Photo shows Yolo Short Line's "Last Train to Clarksburg", led by GP9 No. 131, on June 25 Convention trip).

The NRHS board meeting was held from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the 16th floor Ballroom of the Holiday Inn. At 1:30 p.m. the seminar programs continued with "Passenger Travel in the 19th Century: The Golden Era," presented by Kyle Wyatt. This was an illustrated slide tour of what it was like to travel by train during the 19th Century, from the Victorian splendor of a private car to the gritty mode of riding the rods. This seminar lasted until about 2:50 and proved very popular, with people overflowing the room. Wendell Huffinan presented "Three Lives of the Sacramento Valley Rail Road" from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. This presentation focused on California's first railroad, the SVRR, first in the context of the California Gold Rush and the anticipated Transcontinental Railroad. Between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. The NRHS membership meeting was held in the 16th floor Ballroom. Eric Jacobsen and Arthur Lloyd presented "Operation Lifesaver: Its National and California Focus" from 3:30 to 4: 00 p.m. "How to Research a Railroad Topic through the National Archives" by David Pfeiffer was the concluding seminar presented from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.

At 5:45 p.m. shuttle buses started leaving the hotels for the joint annual banquet held at the Sacramento Convention Center. A social hour with cash bar got underway at 6:00 followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m. Guest speaker was Jim Larson, recently retired Amtrak Assistant Vice President Operations, who provided an informative and entertaining account of his early years as a telegrapher in the 1940s, and how things were back then compared with today.

Saturday, June 16

The grand finale for the 1999 convention was the "Feather River Express" excursion over the former WP from Sacramento to Keddie, Calif. and return. Original plans called for the train to be powered by UP Challenger 3985 and the three restored E9 diesels. Unfortunately, UP 844 had suffered a boiler tube failure while it was on display at Railfair '99, which resulted in a minor injury to a UP employee. As a result, the fire was dropped from the 844 and the locomotive was to be towed dead back to Cheyenne. Investigation revealed a possible defect in the tubes used in the rebuilding of the 844. The same make of tubes had been used in the recent rebuilding of the 3985, and UP had no other choice but to cancel the operation of 3985 until the matter was fully investigated.

Due to other commitments, only one of the UP E9 units came to Sacramento and was on display at Railfair. With the loss of the E9s and the 3985, UP substituted UP 9326, a General Electric C40-8 freight locomotive. The 7:45 a.m. departure of the train was delayed with the train departing one hour later, when the train departed the Amtrak Sacramento station headed to "Haggin" and the connection to the former WP line. A10:45 a.m. stop was made at Oroville to load box lunches; a delay in supplying the box lunches resulted in a 11:42 a.m. departure. A photo runby was held at the Rock Creek trestle deep in the Feather River Canyon with arrival in Keddie at 3:50 p.m.

At Keddie the special was turned on the wye and departed at 4:20 p.m. A fast run was made down the canyon to a photo runby location between Kramm siding and Oroville. Arriving at Oroville at 7:15 p.m., the box dinners were loaded and departure was at 7:45 p.m. (Photo shows Feather River Express on Keddie Wye).

The train was soon up to track speed of 70 miles per hour when misfortune struck. Vandals had placed rocks on the track between West Oroville and Craig. The locomotive plowed into the rocks causing a fuel leak, resulting in a fast stop. Quick action by UP personnel managed to slow the leak but the locomotive was not able to continue to Sacramento. Fortunately, the train was backed up to Oroville Yard where two units were removed from a freight train to replace the damaged C40-8. At 9:50 p.m. the excursion train again departed Oroville for the run down the Sacramento Valley, arriving the depot at 11:40 p.m., far off the scheduled 8:30 arrival but just in time to make a connection with Amtrak's northbound Starlight.

While the "Feather River Express" was the major trip of the day, several other excursions were operated. The "San Francisco Historic Trolley Car Trip" departed Sacramento on Amtrak's Capitol at 7:45 a.m. for the run to Richmond, where excursionists transferred to BART for a ride to Embarcadero station in San Francisco. From there, the group boarded San Francisco Muni historic trolley cars for a three-hour tour of the rail system. Excursionists could choose between Muni No. 1 built in 1912, old "Iron Monster" No. 130 or a PCC for a run up Market Street and over Muni's streetcar system. Following the ride, the group toured the Geneva car house, then boarded BART to West Pittsburg where buses were waiting to return the group to Sacramento. The "Yolo Short Line Photographer's Special" saw buses being loaded in Sacramento at 8:30 a.m. for the short run to Clarksburg, where GP9 No. 131 was waiting. At West Sacramento, passengers were bused to the south end of the Woodland line where they rejoined the train and continued on to Woodland (YSL is not permitted to carry passengers on UP-owned trackage in West Sacramento). Ex-SP 0-6-0 No. 1233 powered a short freight train which ran behind the passenger special, allowing riders to photograph both trains during runbys, including one on the long wooden trestle east of Woodland. At Woodland, passengers boarded the buses for the return to their hotels, arriving back about 5: 00 p.m.

Other Events

Other attractions during the convention included the Great Pacific Railroadiana Show & Sale on Friday and Saturday, June 25-26. The event, held at the convention headquarters hotel, was free for convention registrants wearing their badges. Railfair '99 was held June 18-27 at Old Sacramento. This was the major reason Sacramento was selected to host the Convention and special arrangements were made to offer discounted ten-day, three-day and single-day passes to convention registrants. Needless to say, this event featuring large and small steam locomotives, diesels and much additional rail equipment, proved popular with everyone attending the convention. The road to Sacramento for the NRHS and R&LHS joint convention required a large number of devoted volunteers from both the Pacific Coast Chapter of R&LHS and Central Coast Chapter of NRHS to carry out its planning and execution. Heading the team were Chairman Arthur Lloyd and Vice Chairman Roy Gabriel for R&LHS and Chairman Jeff Ferrier and Vice Chairman Errol Spangler for NRHS. Under their direction and leadership, various committees were formed with specific responsibilities for handling the multitude of tasks involved in putting on a national convention.

Starting in May 1998 monthly meetings were held at the San Mateo County Transit District (Samtrans) Building in San Carlos. Hal Lewis was appointed to lead the Excursion Operations Committee. He handled the many negotiations and operating details between the Convention Committee and Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe for the operation of excursion trains and the possible use of steam power. Neil Carlson was finance manager, which required setting up a budget and the various financial reports which are an important part of any convention. In addition to budgets and financial reporting, he also handled most of the credit card transactions and bank deposits and bank statements.

In addition to his duties as co-chairman of the Convention Committee, Arthur Lloyd took on the responsibilities of getting out information on the convention. The success of his endeavors can be measured by the publicity given by both the railfan and general news media. Scott Gerken chaired the Publications Committee and undertook the project of providing the many varied publications required. This included the production of the Official Registration Booklet and the seven trip booklets used for each of the major excursions. He was ably assisted by Henry Bender who did the proofreading of material in addition to compiling and writing four of the trip booklets.

Vice Chairman Errol Spangler took on the responsibility of designing the logo and providing the "Rails to the Golden State" theme for the convention.

He also handled the job of obtaining suppliers for pins, baseball hats, T-shirts and other souvenirs sold at the convention. As anyone who has ever attended a national convention can attest, the success of a convention hinges on the operation of buses to and from various events. Tom Glover took on this responsibility. His experience in transportation resulted in a very successful bus operation by All-West Charter in Sacramento. Tom Messer took over the responsibility for arranging and setting up the many local activities, including the night photo session held at the Western Railway Museum and various seminars and business meetings held in connection with the convention.

In addition, Messer and Glover worked on the Yolo Short Line and Western Railway Museum events. The important function of handling housing and facilities was handled by George Royer. This involved negotiations between the several hotels participating in the convention and the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau (which handled hotel reservations). Roy Gabriel assumed responsibility for the negotiations and details in setting up the railroad show and sale held on Friday and Saturday in the Grand Ballroom of the Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn. Bob Harper took charge of obtaining the proper insurance for the events, including officers and directors liability insurance, plus other insurance requirements. He also handled the production of the Instructions and Training Manual for car hosts on the various excursion trips.

Deborah Canino handled the setting up and operation of the registration room at the Holiday Inn. As usual, the firsts few days of the convention were rather hectic, but she and her crew of volunteers were up to the task. The work involved long hours and consisted of distributing ticket envelopes and the welcome package to registrants plus resolving any problems that developed. Ed Graham assumed the job of national organization interface, providing liaison with the national officers of R&LHS and NRHS. He kept the officers of both organizations apprised of the planning process. Dennis Hanley was in charge of setting up the convention web page on the Internet and handled a large volume of E-mail correspondence. Mike Romiez devised the computer program which tracked and handled ticket sales. Pre-registration, which opened in June 1998, was handled by Jim Maurer. By January 31, 1999 he processed 992 registrations, maintained the computer file and mailed out confirmations.

One of the biggest jobs of a convention is the handling of ticket sales. Jennifer Dewey took over this job with Roger Simpson mailing out ticket confirmation notices. When the job became overwhelming, Jon Porter stepped in to lend help. The most popular events were the Feather River steam trip to Keddie and the McCloud Railway steam excursion. Due to the limited dome seats available on the Keddie trip, deluxe dome and dome observation seats sold out almost immediately. According to convention records, total of 1,357 people registered and 2,042 people purchased tickets.

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", Dennis Hanley for the "West Coast" to Oakland, Tom Glover on the Yolo Short Line trips, Bob Harper for the "Feather River Express" to Keddie and Jim Maurer on the San Francisco historic trolley trip.

** All Photos by Alex Mayes