Phil Secor, a docent and volunteer since 1972 and a former Southern Pacific engineer, drives the 1914 restored Salt Lake and Utah Railroad parlor automotive throughout the Western Railway Museum’s “Wildflower Special” prepare runs throughout April on the Suisun City museum. (Reporter photograph/Richard Bammer)

Flowers are symbols of many issues. Love definitely. But additionally the rebirth of a panorama rising from an extended, chilly, moist winter, rekindling hopes of sun-warmed spring days.

Trains symbolize progress and fashionable life — particularly within the Nineteenth-century days of heavy industrialization, however, within the twenty first century, additionally with the rise of the high-speed rail often called “bullet trains.”

But, in our personal occasions, trains additionally counsel a journey, a brand new starting, an journey, even when the journey lasts lower than an hour. And whereas on a prepare — for adults, at the least — trains and the sound of them, whistles and the rhythmic click-clack as they move by on tracks, might summon childhood recollections and the fun of touring.

Put the 2 collectively, flowers and trains, particularly old-timey electrical ones, and you’ve got what the Western Railway Museum in Suisun City calls its Annual Scenic Limited Trains Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays by means of April 30.

The occasion, additionally referred to as the Wildflower Special, is a significant fundraiser for the nonprofit group and helps to pay for museum and rail operations for the remainder of the yr, famous Katrina Gomez, the museum’s advertising and particular occasions director.

On trains that date to the early 1900s, the one-hour journeys down the tracks main southward from the museum, at 5848 State Highway 12, provide a quick respite from fashionable life, a time to be with household and mates, to view clusters of vibrant coloration amid the rolling hills and fields of rural Solano County.

Volunteer docents are aboard the trains to tell passengers not solely in regards to the prepare automotive they’re using in but in addition, after all, what’s blooming simply past the tracks or no matter may be seen past the tracks for miles on a transparent day.

The views change by the week — whether or not it’s California poppies, the state flower; Butter and Eggs, a small, vibrant yellow flower; giant or big vetch, a purple flower; white hyacinth; caraway leaf lomatium, a small flower in yellow clusters; or red-stemmed filaree, a fragile pinkish flower; goldfields; and sheep’s sorrel. At this time of yr, with the winter rains over, vernal swimming pools additionally may be seen together with their very own guests: geese and different water birds. If you go to, remember to deliver your digital camera or smartphone.

Outfitted with first-class and common automobiles, the three-car trains depart hourly, starting at 11 a.m., with the final one leaving the museum station at 3:30 p.m.

Afterward, guests, accompanied by a educated volunteer docent, can take within the museum’s assortment of old-timey and fashionable electrical railway automobiles within the warehouse-size Rail Car Display House and Exhibit Hall. There’s a snack bar subsequent to the museum in addition to picnic grounds close by. The museum itself, which features a present store, additionally boasts a number of informative shows in regards to the historical past of railroads and electrical energy.

Gomez estimated the variety of museum guests and rail passengers reaches 300 per day throughout April.

If you purchase a separate, first-class ticket, you can be aboard the restored 1914 Salt Lake and Utah Railroad parlor statement automotive No. 751. It was initially a Salt Lake City interurban automotive, famous Phil Secor, a docent and volunteer since 1972 and a former Southern Pacific engineer dressed, on a current Sunday wildflower run, in classic conductor clothes and hat.

And the tracks? “They are the original tracks” laid down within the early a part of the twentieth century, stated the Seattle native.

As he spoke, volunteer Isais Perez of Fairfield served complimentary pink wine or sodas to passengers.

Volunteer docent Steve Graves, of Vacaville, additionally clad in classic black conductor clothes and a cap, stated the first-class automotive was made right into a parlor automotive outfitted with donated furnishings and carpeting courting to the Thirties.

As the prepare trundled city the tracks at 15 to twenty mph, previous a large wind farm and Little Honker Bay Road, Graves stated many of the wildflowers simply past the automotive home windows “were the size of fingernails.”

In the gap, the retired union grocery clerk identified Mount Tamalpais, clearly seen some 50 miles within the distance, and a posh of oil refineries in Martinez.

Riding with spouse Victoria, David Epling stated he was an engineer for the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola and was aboard the prepare “to support the museum” and his pastime of being round classic trains.

“This is our fifth or sixth time” on the Western Railway Museum, the Stockton resident stated, including that he and his spouse traveled to Suisun City particularly for the wildflower tour.

Passengers and Vacaville residents Gwyn and Dennis Colomb, each retired DMV workers, had been aboard with their granddaughter, Angelica Colomb, 2.

“We love seeing the wildflowers and the cows” grazing close by and additional into the western distance, stated Gwyn.

“You get to relax and be out in nature,” she added of the journey.

“It’s a very scene time,” stated Dennis. “You get to see things not accessible by car.”

“You slow down, life slows down” whereas aboard the classic trains, added Gwyn. “We’re not in a hurry.”

In the Rail Car constructing, volunteer docent Bob Immergluck of Rio Vista took a bunch of some 20 individuals, kids to seniors, on a tour of the historic prepare automobiles, engines and the museum’s lone diesel engine, a hulking, black behemoth that conjured imagery from David Lean’s 1945 basic movie “Brief Encounter.”

At a fridge automotive, its exterior manufactured from wooden slats and used from the Nineties to the Nineteen Sixties, Immergluck famous it took 20,000 kilos of ice to chill the inside full of California vegetables and fruit that ended up in markets throughout the nation.

Refrigerated rail automobiles, he added, accounted for, partly, the profitable growth of California agriculture within the twentieth century.

Passenger Chace Fleming, of San Francisco, accompanied by spouse Lucy Zou, son Auggie Fleming, 6, referred to as the tour “fantastic” and the prepare automotive “cozy” and accessible to his giant, 15-month-old canine, Yogi, a Newfypoo (a Newfoundland and poodle combine).

It was his son, Fleming stated, who inspired the journey to Suisun City and to experience on the classic electrical trains, partly, as a result of his son “has every model train you can think of.”

IF YOU GO, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Regular ticket costs are $20 for adults; $18 for seniors ages 65 and older; $15 for teens 2 to 14; and free to kids underneath 2. First-class tickets are $30 for adults and $28 for seniors. Patrons are inspired to purchase tickets upfront (go to wrm.org). Trains in April run each 90 minutes from the museum, at 5848 State Highway 12, in Suisun City. Year-round hours are 10:30 a.m. to five p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. For Wednesday hours, go to the museum web site or phone (707) 374-2978.