IRFCNA Convention - San Francisco 2013
The 4th Annual Convention of Indian Railways Fan Club in North America (IRFCNA) was held in San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA on September 14-15, 2013. Twelve railfans from across the USA and Canada attended the convention.
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)
Pushkar Apte and Jainand enjoy the steam ride, while Raghu seems to be admiring the size of giant Redwood trees above us (Karan)
Winners of the IRFCNA Quiz - Harsh and Raghu proudly display their prize
The group enjoys some more discussions as the steam loco takes a break