When last we saw our subject, it was leaving Anaheim for the trip north to the Feather River.

Last weekend, aboard the Feather River Express (a 12 car train of vintage passenger railroad cars), the destination was Portola. Home of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.

Thanks to the generosity of the Walt Disney Company, what had once been a recreation of the famed California Zephyr at Disney’s California Adventure, will someday be the centerpiece of an interpretive display offering museum guests the chance to lean about the history of that famed train.

And it didn’t hurt a bit that Portola is home to the nation’s largest collection of CZ equipment - including passenger cars and locomotives. For example, locomotive 805-A found it’s way from California to Louisiana before coming to the WPRM for a restoration to operational condition.

The Museum collection also includes a dining car, a Vista Dome buffet-dormitory and two Vista Dome coaches. And the special train that visited Portola also had two Vista Dome coaches, a sleeping car and a Vista Dome lounge-observation car in it’s consist. For Zephyr fans, this was a rare treat!

For more about the Museum’s Zephyr Project and how you can help make it happen, click here. To learn more about the California Zephyr train, visit the virtual museum here.

As to the trip by rail to Portola? A fine time was had aboard the sleeper lounge “Two Rivers”.

Sunday brunch - Frittata with fruit salad

The Feather River Express crossing the Spanish Creek bridge at Keddie.

Photos by J. Chris Allan

And just because folks have asked, the next trip? Reno in January or February of 2012. Be sure to check in now and then at Private Car Service for details as they develop!