I honestly can't believe that these shots are 13 years ago. The old cliche', "I remember it like yesterday," hits home here, as I remember most of this day very clearly. I was working at NBC and we were shooting a TV movie in Fillmore called THE LAKE.

Orginally, we had intended to include the railroad in the shoot, but a last minute budget reduction forced us to cut the fee we would have had to pay the FWRY. This broke my heart, but frankly, there really was no reason for the train to be in the movie. It had just been added temporarily because we happened to be filming where it was.

The FWRY ran a special out in the morning we were there (I think to Santa Paula). It was full to brim with school children.

Later, after the escursion had returned, the railroad starting switching cars with the Alco. This was pretty neat to watch, as most of the cars were museum pieces themselves.

Had it been today, I would have a dozen shots at least of the switching, but back in those days, most trains only got a single frame of film.

First image is of the Alco RS32 on the west end of the excursion train, and under the semaphore signals. I have seen this unit under power in a very long time, but I don't know if it is OOS or I just haven't been lucky enough to see it running.

[www.railpictures.net]

Second image is of the F7 on the east end of the excursion train. This unit still runs all the time.

[www.railpictures.net]

Third images is of the RS32 switching the old freight cars. I have honestly always wondered if this particular move was being made in order to get us (the NBC folk) to say, "Damn it... we need the train... let's pay their fee."

[www.railpictures.net]

Thanks for looking, and corrections are welcome (especially if you were working the FWRY that day).

Charles Freericks