The Rail Travel Meetup Group no longer has a schedule of regular gatherings.
When there is a gathering it will be posted here and an email sent to all members. Unless someone wishes to step up and revive this group, it likely won't have any more gatherings. As you can see in the Memorials To Rail Travel Group Members section below, many of our core members have passed away including long-time Co-Organizer, Chris Guenzler.
In one form or another, this group had been getting together every month for about 30 years. Starting around 1996 it was originally called The San Diegan Club and would meet at various stations up and down the Amtrak San Diegan line, now called the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. At its peak, some of our Meetups would have almost 100 members attending, especially at our annual Christmas Parties.
Over the last few years, attendees at our monthly gatherings had dwindled down to zero sometimes. Many people have moved out of the area, some are unable to drive, and some have passed on. Thus, the regular monthly meetings as of January 2025 have been discontinued. The prior decades of the Rail Travel Group have been a great rail travel learning experience and have brought many rail travel enthusiasts together to share our adventures.
CLICK HERE if you would like to join the Rail Travel Meetup Group and be on our mailing list for any updates.
The Rail Travel Meetup Group was not a passenger rail advocacy group nor a nuts & bolts railfan group. We were just a bunch of people that liked to get together and discuss our rail travel experiences in a relaxed atmosphere over some food and drinks. Anyone who had questions about travel on Amtrak, VIA Rail Canada, or on most other excursion and tourist railways, would bring their questions to the Meetup and someone would likely have answers to those questions.
There was never any application forms or dues. It was a "no pressure" Meetup without speakers or any set agenda. We'd just be talking about wherever the conversations took us, though we did try our best to keep the topic on rail travel.
Meetup Event Photos by Cathy & Mary Stanfill:
Dec 22, 2008 Christmas Party /
Nov 24, 2008 Meetup
[Temporary Note: There used to be 9 reports with photos by Chris Guenzler of prior Rail Travel Meetup Group train outings posted here. But Chris renamed those web pages which broke the links to them. When I have time, I'll locate the new names of those web pages and repost them here. In the meantime, you can search for those reports and photos at TrainWeb.org/chris
After the October 24, 2005, Meetup, we all went to the Fullerton Santa Fe Depot to greet Amtrak President David Gunn as he arrived in the Amtrak corporate car on the tail of the eastbound Amtrak Southwest Chief. People at the event included: Ken Ruben, Chris Parker, Harold Penensen, Dan Dalke, William Puhl, Mary Pearl Puhl, Stephen Grande, Ray Burns, Margaret Monroe, Daniel Monroe, Pat Moran, L.R. Smithline, Chris Guenzler, Winston W. Walker, Art Tomlin, and Ross Moore, Jr.
Chris Guenzler:
April 07, 2008 - Chris Reaches 1,000,000 Amtrak Rail Travel Miles
April 27, 2007 - Chris Reaches 1,000,000 Rail Travel Miles Overall
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Visit Our Meetup.com Website. Just a bunch of people that like to get together and discuss our rail travel experiences in a relaxed atmosphere over some food and drinks at the Santa Fe Express Cafe, right on the platform of the Fullerton Amtrak / Metrolink Station. Meet your fellow rail travel enthusiasts... Read More>> |
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1949 - 2009: Richard Hamilton. Richard was founder of the Let's Talk Trains internet radio show in 2002 and founder of The San Diegan Club in the 1990's, the precursor group to this Rail Travel Meetup Group. Richard had a wonderful passion for the railroading hobby which he shared with others as a volunteer at the Poway-Midland Railroad and as a member of both the San Diego Electric Railway Association and the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. Read More>> |
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Oct 7, 1942 - Jul 22, 2014: Ray Burns. Ray was one of the three original founders of TrainWeb in 1996 and of TrainParty.com. Ray was an avid rail traveler with many of his photos and reports posted at TrainWeb, including Amtrak, the American Orient Express, the Rocky Mountaineer, the entire Canada Via Rail system, and even on the AAPRCO train. Ray Burns served multiple tours of duty as a Marine in Viet Nam in the 1960's... Read More>> |
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1943 - Mar 12, 2015: Ken Ruben. Ken was a long time railfan and a member of many rail and transit organizations. He was very involved promoting rail and other transit at civic meetings. Ken was one of the earliest members of our Rail Travel Meetup Group and attended just about every monthly gathering and rail outing religiously... Read More>> |
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Mar 26, 2015: Winston Walker. Read More>> |
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2020: Arnold James (AJ). Read More>> |
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Oct 15, 1956 - Jun 26, 2021: Chris Parker. Larry Boerio: "Chris was a man with a heart as big as the ocean. He never hesitated to help anyone in need even when he was in need. Nothing speaks higher of a man and his values than..." Read More>> Slide Show>> |
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Dec 13, 1951 - Dec 3, 2024: Don Roe. Don Roe was an avid rail traveler and active member of the Rail Travel Meetup Group. As a minister, he married Chris & Elizabeth Guenzler, both significant members of our travel group... Read More>> |
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Mar 21, 1948 - Sep 4, 2025: Carole Walker. Carole Jean Kannegiesser Walker better known as Carole Walker, surrounded by family and friends, embarked to her final destination on September 4th, 2025. Carole was born on March 21st, 1948, Morris, Minnesota but spent most of her childhood in Ogden, Utah. She later moved to Cypress, California and began working at... Read More>> |
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Dec 31, 1957 - Jul 3, 2026: Chris Guenzler. Chris rode trains in all 50 states and travelled on every Amtrak route at least twice, as well as all the trains of Canada's VIA Rail and every intercity route in Canada. In Mexico, he rode the Copper Canyon five-and-a-half times and other special locations... Read More>> |
