Any time of year.... I took a Friday off in July of 1986---living in Quincy at the time and wanted to go after the Almanor and the Great Western out of Lakeview. Woke to a major rainstorm at home, but went to Almanor (they ran on Fridays then). Managed a couple of REALLY dark bad weather shots and headed over to Susanville to get 395 north. The Modoc was mothballed at the time, but I got out of the truck at Madeline to get a shot of the tracks completely covered over with about 6 inches of snow. Got to Alturas/Lakeview--still raining hard and same thing--managed a couple of dark stormy shots. Saturday, they were supposed to run to Alturas and meet the SP Turn, but the SP cancelled their trip so the Great Western did too. Yeah, you'd think that July would be a good time to plan a trip.....