The postponement of Winterail until (perhaps) April, May, or June has prompted some to suggest the event would qualify to be re-named Spring Switch. Actually, that same name was mentioned 30 years ago, when Winterail 1990 got bumped from its February date in Stockton to April 7 in Modesto. I don't know whether Railfan & Railroad editor Jim Boyd coined the phrase first, or someone else, but Boyd was the first person I know of to make a published reference to the delayed event as "Spring Switch."

In the years since then, Winterail has often seemed more like Spring Switch anyway, being held in Stockton or Corvallis during March, when the nearby landscapes of Franklin Canyon, Altamont Pass, the Willamette Valley, the Oregon Coast Range, and the west end of the Columbia Gorge are either turning green or fully there. Needless to say, scheduling Winterail during the true winter season could pose travel and attendance challenges, even if winter in Corvallis itself means a higher likelihood of rain more than snow. And promoting a later event called Spring Switch, even among reasonably knowledgeable railfans, might get somewhat lost in translation.