Friday, December 26, 2003. I get off to an early start, and arrive to my first destination, Oakdale, by about 11am. Not much going on in town. The wig-wag on the spur going to the AL Gilbert feed mill looks in good shape, and while I am waiting I check out the hobby store just across the street. The owner does not even know what a wig-wag is, let alone the train schedule. How can you have a hobby shop with a wig-wag in full view out the front window, and not know what a wig-wag is? I walk back to my truck, and see a very promising site: a feed mill employee opening the gates across the tracks. I ask him if the train is showing up, and he says he does not know, they have several cars released for the UP, and the UP comes whenever they feel like it. If they do show up, it is usually by 2pm. So I hang out till 2pm, and just about then, the UP rolls into town, and soon picks up some cars. Thanks to the Oakdale Feed Store for letting me get this angle off their loading dock. So far I am off to a good start. Off to LA now.

Saturday, December 27, 2003. I have long wanted to see an ex-Pacific Electric Pole mounted wig-wag in action. And I knew if I did not see one this trip, I probably never would. So getting the Hawthorn wig-wag in action was a priority for me. I find the wig-wag, and then start following the line back towards LA. Not much of interest other than the wig-wag, and I did not see the train, so I found a nice little spot out of the way to wait for the train and waited for a couple hours. They finally showed up, and when they did, there were not wasting any time. I followed the pre-scouted route back to the wig-wag, and was having a hard time getting ahead of the train, as the traffic on the roads was much busier now, and I was hitting all the lights red. Pretending to have California plates, I managed to make it to the crossing with a few seconds to spare. I feel SO Californian all the sudden…

Monday, December 29, 2003. The day started out sunny, but the haze and clouds moved in. I saw the Riverside local crew park their cars in Colton and then carpool to their train. They did not show up running down the street till late. So much for going to Anaheim in the afternoon. The M street wig-wag was ex-PE poled mounted wig-wag #2 for me. Unfortunately the light did not appear to work on this one, but at least it had its original bell.

It was nearly dark by the time they cut their train off just south of the street, and rolled by the O street wig-wag on the return trip.

The 3^rd street wig-wag in Riverside is no longer there. There has been recent track work at this crossing (siding removed, track realigned), and it appears that a new base has been installed for some type of crossing device. It is curious that only one side of the crossing has this base. Is it possible that the wig-wag is going to be re-installed? However the base is on the opposite side of the road from where the wig-wag use to stand. It should be noted that this is an active crossing again, as there was a gondola for the scrap dealer at the end of the line.

After getting the O street wig-wag I had a few minutes of daylight left. So why not check out the Redlands wig-wag one more time. And much to my surprise it was swinging! I quickly threw my rig to the side of the road, and got the shot. Imagine, after waiting all fricking day on Sunday, I got them by pure fluke on Monday. Another minute later and I would have missed them!

Tuesday December 30, 2003. I get up early to get some SJVR action. While the wig-wag at Van Ness is happily swinging away, I can not find a SJVR train anywhere. Finally, the local switcher comes down south from the northern Yard. They switch stuff set out by the UP under a rainbow, and switch around town, including going by the Van Ness wig-wag. The crew says that their train runs between Exeter and Fresno at night, leaving Exeter at 6pm, and that they are just switching around town. They also say a train will go to Lindsey (SP line) that night at 10pm.

So I go down to Goshen Jct., and get the train headed towards Huron. There was a sign at Brown street saying the crossing will be temporarily closed on Jan 7. I wonder if the wig-wag is coming out? If so, this may be the last shot of it in action.

Next is Lemoore. But much to my dismay, the wig-wag did not operate. It may never operate again, as the plan is to upgrade all the wig-wag crossings, now that train speeds are higher (30mph) on the line.

By the time they return though Hanford, it is dark, but luckily for me, I have a Sony PD150 DVCAM that has HAD CCDs for great low light recording. (Also available on the consumer version VX2000.) Here is Philips street.

Wednesday December 31, 2003. The SJVR usually operates the Clovis Branch on Monday and Wednesday, and sure enough, that is where they went on New Years Eve. I get them going by Cherry, and then quickly take down my tri-pod and camera, and do a little more California style driving to get to the third wig-wag on the line only a few blocks away at "O" Street, and set up the tripod and camcorder again in the nick of time.

After that they go by another old packing house on the BNSF main. The old industrial section of Fresno is really neat, lots of old packing houses, warehouses and cold storage everywhere. I would rather see rundown industry over stale gentrification any day.

The also do a little bit of street running down Floradora Street although the rails are not embedded in the pavement.

On the return trip, I get them going by the Fulton wig-wag with a very cool and still in service cold storage building serving as a backdrop.

Thursday January 1, 2004. Happy New Year. I figure about the only thing running this day is Amtrak, so the Coast Line wig-wag is the big attraction of the day. I wanted to get the morning Amtrak going by the last remaining wig-wag at Casmalia, but could not find it in time. The wig-wag is located just north (or for the SP fan, timetable West) of Casmalia.

Here the Coast Starlight goes by the last Coast Line wig-wag in a blur of motion.

Friday January 2, 2004. The tourist brochure lied! Sunny California??? The deluge of rain and wind forced me to get the Vernon wig-wag with the camera and tripod set up from inside of the pickup canopy.

I do not think I have ever seen a wig-wag protecting a crossing right in the middle of a railyard before. Here the local switches out on the second track, with the wig-wag swinging way on the other side of the yard. The banner light was a touch manic-depressive on this one.

Near the yard, I got this bonus shot of the local going down 46^th street to switch out some industries. I did not have time for them to return, as at 11:00 I had to head towards Gardena to get the afternoon UP Torrance Job.

UP's Torrance Job was right on time, and not being familiar with the operations, I did not want to risk missing the wig-wags on the spur by setting up for them on the neat street-running in downtown Gardena. Here is the wig-wag on Hobart, as they back up to the Lumber Yard. Notice the interesting banner outline job on this one. A few blocks down the spur was the wig-wag on Denker. This made ex-PE Pole mounted wig-wag #4 for me. To my knowledge, these are the only 4 remaining such wig-wags in service. Then I made a quick dash for Anaheim. I found the wig-wag on Santa Ana Street by 4:30, and waited till 7pm, but no train showed up. This was the only active wig-wag in Southern California I was not able to get action footage of. Oh well, as they say, you can't get them all.

The last wig-wag of the trip was in Vista. Here the train is going by just before midnight. That made wig-wag action shot #4 for Friday and the trip total to 16.