Santa Fe #3751 Excursion Canceled

March 5, 2011 Release

After studying a number of options and their impacts to host railroads, SBRHS crews, costs and the realities of operational planning, SBRHS and Train Festival planners have sadly determined that any type of movement of 3751 from Los Angeles to Rock Island for Train Festival 2011 is not going to be feasible.

Train Festival organizers and SBRHS look forward to working together to participate in future events. We wish to thank the BNSF Railway for considering different options. We are disappointed that a feasible route and schedule could not be obtained but understanding in the outcome.

December 21, 2010 release

Train Festival 2011 organizers, California Zephyr Railcar Charters and the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society regrets to announce the operation on Santa Fe steam locomotive #3751 to Rock Island, Il in July of 2011 has been suspended.

When planning of Train Festival 2011 began several months ago, we shared our proposal of steam locomotives and their proposed movements with high-ranking officials at BNSF Railway.  Provided that they were to be Amtrak trains, we were told that BNSF would ‘likely’ approve our requests, including that of the ATSF 3751, from Los Angeles to Rock Island and return.

In the intervening time, circumstances have changed, and BNSF is now projecting greatly increased traffic volumes this summer on their Transcon corridor.  This is great news for the railroad as traffic on the BNSF Railway continues to increase as the economy picks ups. Our trips would use the Transcon between Albuquerque and Los Angeles.

Steam specials are highly consumptive of management time, and of course attract hundreds, sometimes thousands, of railfans, which in turn requires significant efforts on the part of the railroad’s police.   The 3751 trip would have had us on the property for 18 days, during the time when traffic volumes would be at or near their peak.

For this reason, BNSF has reconsidered their position, and respectfully declined our proposed move of ATSF 3751 via the Transcon corridor to Train Festival 2011.

Other options are being explored to bring the #3751 East. In the meantime several excursions are being worked on and proposed for Train Festival 2011. They will be announced on the website www.trainfestival2011.com when they have received final approval.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, no one is more disappointed than the organizers and the several months that have been invested in planning. We would like to thank the BNSF Railway and Amtrak for the hundreds of hours working on this routing.

Anyone that had purchased a ticket with the intention to ride behind the #3751 may get a FULL refund, hassle free. Just send your request to tickets@trainfestival2011.com and a refund will be given. Please provide the name the order was under in your request.