Old Ties Bind Rail Fans and Fullerton Depot

It’s 9 p.m. on a Friday, and Bob Northan is doing what he does every Friday and Saturday night: waiting for a train. He’s not sure just when it will arrive or where it will go. He’ll know that, he says, by its sound.

“I like the power, the vibration, and the sound of the wheels on the steel rail,” Northan says. “I like the rush you get when the train starts approaching.”

So much so, in fact, that he’s filled 102 three-hour videotapes solely with images of passing trains, which he has cataloged and whittled down to a few dozen “best of” productions. What constitutes the “best of” passing trains? They fall into two categories: those that have lots of variety and those that don’t. “A train with box cars, tank cars, gondolas -- various types of cars -- is a good train,” he says. “The other good trains are ones that are all the same,” Northan explains.

Such is the tenor of conversation almost any time at Fullerton’s train station, a West Coast mecca to train buffs nationwide. One of the busiest stations around, it is also among the most renowned for its accessibility, comfort and diversity of traffic.

“It’s a place to hang out with friends,” says Northan, 48, a maintenance worker from Lomita. “In addition to watching the trains, we chat about everything. Waiting for a train [here] is like waiting for a train at Disneyland.”

To appreciate the place’s cultural significance, one must know something of the history of Fullerton, a city named after a railroad employee. In the late 1880s when the current city of 126,000 was no more than acres of wild mustard grass, George Fullerton was in charge of planning routes for the Santa Fe Railroad. Deciding that the rail line could help them realize their dreams, local landowners made Fullerton an offer he apparently couldn’t refuse. Bring in the railroad, they promised, and the resulting town would bear his name.

So Santa Fe built a train depot, and 17 years later -- in 1904 -- the city of Fullerton was born.

For decades, the old station, which resembled a large Victorian house, served as a center of economic life, providing the city’s major link to commerce and the world. In 1930, the railroad company demolished the original station, replacing it with the current one slightly to the east on Santa Fe Avenue in the heart of downtown.

“The railroad was essential for the citrus crops shipped out of here, and later, after the discovery of oil, it was a key player,” said Terry Galvin, operations manager for the city’s redevelopment agency, which now oversees the station.

In the early 1970s, Amtrak took over all passenger operations. Santa Fe sold the depot to a developer in the mid-1980s. And in 1989, discovering that there were plans to turn it into a parking lot, the city purchased it and began a $15.8-million renovation.

The train station was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. And today, according to Galvin, it sees as many as 100 passenger and freight trains a day, carrying about 900,000 passengers a year. “I would say the railroad is what made the city a city,” he said. “The depot is part of the downtown synergy. It’s our social and cultural center -- always has been, and continues to be.”

But trains aren’t the only lure. In what once was the baggage room, the Santa Fe Express Cafe offers sandwiches and cappuccino as well as railroad memorabilia, water pipes with flavored tobacco and live bands on weekend nights. “It’s gone over really well,” says Salma Bushala-Hamud, who leases the space from the city. “We have a morning group, an afternoon group, an evening group, and now a late-night group. When the trains go by, they clap.”

Not too far away in the depot’s former freight house, La Sierra High School holds classes in citizenship, computers and English as a second language.

Every Friday night, dozens of hobbyists calling themselves shinai fighters gather in a former loading area to duke it out with bamboo staffs.

And crammed into a small space above the Amtrak ticket booth next to the offices of the Fullerton Railway Plaza Assn. -- a nonprofit group planning a museum in the depot’s parking lot -- sits the headquarters of www.trainweb.com, one of the world’s largest rail-related websites, with more than 5 million hits every month.

Some of those viewers eventually show up in person with their cameras and radio scanners to hear railroad communications.

Anywhere from 50 to 60 rail buffs turn out to pursue their passion on almost any day, said Cordel Napier, Amtrak’s lead agent and de facto station manager. About half are regulars, and many come from out of state, he said.

“This is their meeting place,” Napier says of the people -- mostly men -- sometimes referred to derisively as “foamers” by railroad personnel, who accuse them of foaming at the mouth at the sight of a train. “We have a morning group consisting entirely of elderly retired folk who start at 6 a.m.”

The evening group generally gathers in time for the 7:37 p.m. “No. 4” from Los Angeles to Chicago. “That’s a big attraction,” Napier said. “They come out every night.”

Suddenly a light at the end of the terminal turns green, indicating an approaching train. A hush rolls over the friends. “Let’s hope it’s a good one,” says Scott Zechiel, 39, a computer programmer from Yorba Linda.

The wind is deafening as the train whooshes past. Zechiel lets out a whoop. It’s the Manifest-Watson-Barstow, he later explains -- a freight-bearer the men call “the harbor train.”

“That was a good one,” he says once the train has passed. “It had a great mix of everything -- only a couple of those go by each day. When they do, we celebrate. Those are beautiful trains; they rattle a lot.”

Already, he’s wondering what might come next. “That may be the best we get today,” Zechiel finally admits, “but there’s always hope that another may come.”