STREETCAR MIKE'S MYSTERY TRIPS
WESTERN RAILWAY MUSEUM
AND FAIRFIELD/SUISUN CITY
on JULY 3, 2025

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Page created July 4, 2025. Last updated July 4, 2025.
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During the summer, Western Railway Museum offers Thursday rides on the interurban line. I reserved a ten o'clock spot and drove out there. We rode on East Bay Street Railways 352, a 1911 St. Louis built car that was modified while in Oakland by removing the deck roof and sheathing the wooden car body in steel. It was converted to a one person car by removing doors. Front entrance and exit.

It was an unusual ride. There were three of us passengers, a motorman, and a conductor. You get the usual cool history of the museum, the former interurban line they operate on, and the surrounding ranches. When the car got to Pantano Station, the current end for electric cars, PG&E power went out in the whole area. The 352 was stuck there. Radio communications between the crew and the staff kept us up to date, but we had to sit and wait it out. Fortunately, the museum has its own generator for such an emergency. Once it was successfully powered up and former Municipal Railway 178 was cleared of the outer yard loop at the yard limit sign, 352 was reconnected to overhead, charged up the air tank, and made its way back home. There were no more trips that afternoon. Power was turned off at the main building as I left.

I was within an hour of the next eastbound departure of Rio Vista Delta Breeze route 50, the bus connecting that city with Suisun City and Fairfield. Waited it out to get photos of the cutaway entering and leaving its loop into the Walmart parking lot stop.

Went on Cordelia Rd. to photograph the next San Jose bound Capitol Corridor train. Then I went over to Beck Ave. outside Target and waited for buses to leave the Fairfield Transportation Center to turn south heading for the Suisun City Amtrak station. Passing were FAST Connect, FAST scheduled service, SolTrans intercity, and Napa VINE.

I learned on the next segment that the advertised Delta Breeze route 52, theoretically running from Pittsburg and Antioch BART stations into Rio Vista via CA 160, did not actually operate service unless reservations were made. The Transit app did not have the route enumerated, and Google Maps did not show any marked bus stops at either station. I cut the loss by getting some quick snaps of Tri Delta Transit buses and BART DMU cars between the two stations.

My next bit on the drive home after dinner was to stop on Danville Blvd. in Alamo at dusk to get the last trip each direction of County Connection 21.

Nikon D5600 camera yielded 123 photos.