Santa Fe 3751 Leaving Los Angeles ~ Vintage 4-8-4 Steam Locomotive!

ATSF 3751 visited Los Angeles Union Station’s train fest 2025 this past weekend, making its third appearance at the station in as many years. I stuck around on Sunday night to see the 98 year old steam locomotive get underway back to its storage location.

I made a video of the 3751 I was pretty happy with in 2022, but there’s always just something special about a steam engine. Diesels are cool to watch, but steam engines really tug at one’s soul. Without fail whenever one steams up next to me and the engineer blows the whistle, I get chills sent down my spine. So seeing one really is and always will be a neat experience.

Also on display at the festival was a 2 car (Plus F125) set of Metrolink equipment, Amtrak’s Operation Lifesaver Painted P42, two private passenger coaches (Coupled to the P42 out of frame), two SBRHS owned tool cars that travel with the 3751, and a BNSF ES44AC locomotive painted in BNSF’s 25th Anniversary Scheme. BNSF’s 30th anniversary was celebrated this past Monday (9/22/25), so it was a bit neat seeing this locomotive here. There is yet to be any word if BNSF plans to specially paint some locomotives for this anniversary or not.

The end of the video features some clips shot at last years 3751 event, including a Metrolink AV line train arriving, and Amtrak’s Southwest Chief departing with P40DC number 824 second out. 824 and all the P40s on the Amtrak roster have since been retired, and can no longer be found in operation on Amtrak services. 824 in particular had its final day of service on March 19th 2025. Wheras the fleet was officially retired in August of 2025 with the final 2 units being removed from service.

Hope you enjoyed!