IRFCNA Convention - San Francisco 2013

The venue- Hotel Embassy Suites, Santa Clara is all set for the attendees (Karan Desai)

Souvenirs for the attendees- a custom design IRFCNA cap and picture postcard with convention schedule (Karan)

Our resident steam expert- Harsh Vardhan came all the way from Canada for the convention (Karan)

Attendees settle in for the start of the indoor session on Day 1 (Karan)

Sri Ram and Saqib Karori listen to the presentation, Saqib's son Kumayl is busy playing, while Bharat Vohra seems to have dozed off! (Karan)

IRFCA old-timer Pushkar Apte, Jainand Narayanan and Neelabh Arora engrossed in discussion (Karan)

Sri Ram and Saqib share a rail-related joke. Kumayl is not impressed. (Karan)

Bharat Vohra introduces himself and talks about his recent rail adventures (Karan)

First-time attending member Raghu introduces himself. Anurag looks on. (Karan)

Pushkar Apte talks about his rail adventures in Switzerland, including missing a train at a small station midway through the journey (Karan)

There was a roundtable discussion about impact of railways and the environment. Anurag Bist makes his point, panel moderator Pushkar Apte listens attentively (Karan)

Refueling time! The gang out for lunch. Left to right- Pushkar Apte, Neelabh Arora, Anurag Bist, Sri Ram, Jishnu Mukerji, Bharat Vohra and Harsh Vardhan (Karan)

Convention attendees posing for a group photograph, at the end of the indoor session. (Bharat Vohra)

After the indoor session, the group went out for railfanning. We are first met by a rare double-headed Amtrak Capitol Corridor train pulling into Oakland station (Karan)

Sri Ram and Harsh Vardhan engrossed in discussions, waiting for the next train at Oakland (Karan)

Bharat Vohra seems to be enjoying himself as we all wait for the next train to arrive in Oakland (Karan)

A Capitol Corridor train, running cab-forward with locomotive at the back, enters Jack London Square in Oakland for street running. Here, trains share the road with vehicles (Karan)

From Oakland, we head to San Francisco to check out the famous historic Cable Cars (Karan)

We got to ride in an empty Cable Car heading to the carshed. This is my "footplate" view standing at the very front, as we cross another Cable Car on Powell Street

Harsh and Sriram are all smiles, having secured the best seats on the Cable Car ride. (Bharat Vohra)

Day 2 of convention begins with a trip to Roaring Camps Railroad to ride a steam loco hauled excursion train. Seen here are L-R: Harsh Vardhan, Jainand Narayanan, Raghu, Saqib Karori with Kumayl, Mr. BMS Bisht (ex-GM, NFR), Pushkar Apte, Sri Ram, Bharat V

The Shay steam locomotive is ready for the morning run (Karan)

The engineer oils the loco before it can head out for its journey (Karan)

The group awaiting departure from the depot at Felton. (Bharat Vohra)

The open wagon train is ready for departure. Reminds of "Chaiyya Chaiyya" anyone? (Karan)

The steam loco huffs its way over a very old wooden trestle through Redwood forest (Karan)

The route climbing up a mountain has a reversing station (switchback) en route to gain altitude. Here the train can be seen negotiating the switchback (Karan)