Between 1987 and 1989, the railroad significantly upgraded their former-SP trackage. "It had to be completely redone," Schuyler says. "Southern Pacific, in their interest in abandoning the line, would not do anything to it, unless it absolutely needed fixing."

The Napa Valley Wine Train's gourmet luncheon and dinner trains began service on September 16, 1989. Since then, the railroad, which says it has hauled over one million passengers, has repeatedly and significantly upgraded their rolling stock and right of way, creating a 21st century railroad using refurbished equipment that dates back to 1915.

A Canadian Locomotive in California Wine Country

Of course, for many railfans, the four Alcos owned by the Napa Valley Wine Train and numbered 71 to 74, are the road's chief attraction. According to Jerry A. Pinkepank's Second Diesel Spotters Guide, Alco produced 36 of the 1800-horsepower FPA-4s, from October 1958 until May 1959, the last in a line that began in January 1946 with the 1500 horsepower FA-1. The four axle locomotives bear an obvious resemble to their big brothers, the legendary six axle PA-1s. But because the FPA-4s ran into the 1980s with Canada's Via Rail, they are that much better preserved. (The chief spotting difference between the FPA-4 and its predecessor FAs is the additional radiator grille below the shutters at the rear of the engine.)

Schuyler, who has operated everything from cab-forward steam locomotives to Krauss-Maffei's Munich-built diesel hydraulic locomotives on the Espee ("They didn't last very long on the Southern Pacific," he says. "They didn't have the weight--it was like holding the cat by the tail when you got any weight on them at all."), says that the FPA-4s were in good shape when the Wine Train acquired them. And they run "Real good, real good. For the type of running we do, they handle very well."

Unfortunately, if not surprisingly, not everyone in Napa appreciates the handsome smoking of the typical Alco free-running turbocharger. So the Wine Train recently has begun a project of converting their FPA-4s to burn natural gas. Currently, two of the Alcos have been switched over. Schuyler says that FPA-4 #70 "burns partially on diesel fuel, but its main thing is natural gas. The #73, which they just completely converted, has got a new engine in that's completely gas."

Schuyler typically spends half the week as engineer, splitting his duties with Kevin Kennedy, a Wine Train conductor, whom Schuyler has taught to also operate the train. Schuyler hasn't run the #73 yet, but he says that other than a little lack of power in the first couple of notches, there's nothing noticeably different in how #70 compares to its diesel cousins. Just a lot less smoke--and, while he didn't say it, maybe just a smidge less character.