VENTURA : Steam Train Leaves Some Unimpressed

For some Ventura residents, the historic steam engine that clipped through the city Monday on its way from Los Angeles fell short of their expectations.

More than 50 children and adults walked, bicycled or drove to the track at Channel Drive and Lemon Grove for a glimpse of 77-year-old steam locomotive 2472.

The shiny black steam engine, pulling a fuel car, two diesel engines and 13 passenger cars, had been expected to chug through Ventura about 12:45 p.m.

But it didn’t pass through until about 3:15 because of a late start from Los Angeles.

The train, chartered by an Orinda-based environmental group, was carrying about 200 high school students from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., on a trip designed to raise environmental awareness.

One of the Ventura residents who went to the tracks at noon was Carolyn Berg, 31, who brought along her 2-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.

She said she wanted her children to have the “once-in-a-lifetime experience” of seeing a running steam locomotive.

“Kids are fascinated by trains,” she said. Berg whiled away the three hours talking to other adults at the tracks. “I’ve made a lot of friends out here today,” she said.

Meanwhile, her son and daughter joined other children playing along the track or racing up and down the steep dirt embankment nearby.

The train finally passed through--going about 50 m.p.h.

But after the caboose had passed, the high school students on the train’s rear platform had waved and the steam whistle had blown, Berg said the sight hadn’t met her expectations.

“I was a little disappointed,” she said. “I guess it went too fast.”

Ventura resident Jim Birchfield, 65, who worked as a fireman on a steam locomotive in 1950, had also waited hours to see the train.

After it passed, he remarked that the steam engine let off only wisps of steam, not like the billowing steam locomotives he’d seen in the past.

Birchfield said he suspected that the steam engine wasn’t pulling the train, but that the two diesel engines behind it were pushing it.

A spokesman for Southern Pacific Transportation Co., owner of the tracks in Ventura and also the original owner of the 2472 locomotive, said the steam locomotive was pulling the train.

Spokesman Jack Martin said the relatively small amount of steam is a sign the steam engine is running efficiently.

“I guess they expected something out of an old Western movie. I’m sorry they were disappointed,” he said.

Southern Pacific ran the locomotive from 1915 to 1956 on the Overland Limited route from Sparks, Nev., to Ogden, Utah.

The Golden Gate Railroad Museum in Redwood City, Calif., restored the train and now owns it.