Napa Valley Wine Train

Note: many of the pictures of the train are courtesy of Jack Snell: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacksnell707/

Also several of the pictures are from Railpictures.net and the credit is on the picture itself.

Not Santa Fe, but I have ridden it several times and it appealed to me, especially since Aristo Craft did make rolling stock with the proper scheme. Aristo did also make a lot of other rolling stock with this paint scheme, but never existed in reality.

The rail line was build in 1864 by San Francisco's first millionaire, Samuel Brannan, to transport visitors to his spa resort of Calistoga. 42 miles of track ran from Calistoga to Vallejo, where it connected to the San Francisco Bay Area ferry boat service. There were many changes over the years, culminating in the NVRR company in 1987, purchasing the right of way from the current owner, Southern Pacific.

The railroad owns four Alco FPA-4 locomotives built by Montreal Locomotive Works:

• NVR 70 is 100% diesel
• NVR 71
• NVR 72
• NVR 73 is 100% cng with an EMD 12-645E prime mover

The consist have varied over time, indeed, there was a large box car between the two locomotives for some time, see the picture of #71 above.

I have tried to keep this to the consist as of 2017.

The super dome car was added in 1997.

A modified box car containing a 450KW generator was added in 2013 to maintain power as locos were switched to the opposite end of the train at the end of a run. The roof of this car was lowered 2 feet to not obstruct the view from the super dome.

In 2016 two pullman cars were added that are sometimes used. They have black roofs, white window area, and deep purple/blue below the windows

The train operates a 3 hour long trip of 36 miles between Napa and St. Helena.

I have pictures of a 10 car train:

The current "typical" consist is: (From their web site)

The Napa Valley Wine Train consists of ten railcars and two engines on point:
Lounge Cars (3)
Deli Car (1)
Gourmet Express Dining Cars (2)
Silverado Car Al-Fresco Style Dining(1)
Vista Dome Dining Car (1) **
Grappa Power Car (1)
Chef de Cuisine Kitchen Car with Glass Observation Corridor (1)

Go to this page, and scroll down to the small train pictures that go the width of the page, you can click on the individual locomotive or car to see details and pictures

http://winetrain.com/train/explore-train/

Pictures of this consist and also notes on how I can get/make this

# 70, Alco FPA-4

Prototype:

Model:

Start with Aristo FA-1 loco, available in NVR decoration. I have #70 already.

# 71 Alco FPA-4

Prototype:

Model:

Start with Aristo FA-1 loco, available in NVR decoration. I have #71 already.

#1018 - Chardonnay Lounge Car

Prototype:

Arched top windows

Model:

Start with Aristo NVR Observation, available in NVR decoration, need to obtain, also not sure if it is available with proper number and name

#1017 Merlot Lounge car

individual chairs facing windows

arched top windows

# 1013 Silverado Trail, diner with arched windows (built from pullman)

#1100 Le Gourmet Express dining car

Prototype:

Square top windows

Model:

Start with Aristo NVR Diner, available in NVR decoration. I have #1100, labelled Le Gourmet Express

#1090 Le Chef de Cuisine kitchen car

no windows one side, small square ones on the corridor side

 #1015 Le Petite Gourmet dining car, arch top windows

#1085 Champagne vista dome- dining downstairs, kitchen downstairs

a.k.a. super dome

It is believed these were originally from Great Northern:

http://www.gnarchive.com/images/PrarieView.jpg

#480-R Grappa power car, lowered box / generator car

#1014 Zinfandel Lounge car,  arched windows

Has a bar in it

#1011, Cabernet Sauvignon Lounge Car

Prototype:

Arched top windows

Model:

Start with Aristo NVR Observation, available in NVR decoration. I have #1011 with Cabernet Sauvignon

Needed to build train

Some kind of smooth side box for generator