Southern California Coastal Railfanning 2012: Emma Wood State Beach

I had a total of 3 days to railfan in Southern California and Emma Wood State Beach would be a place I would visit each of the 3 days I was here. In fact, I would start railfanning everyday here after breakfast! Included here are photos taken on all 3 days I visited here. This beach is located just west of Ventura, CA off US Highway 101 and the Pacific Coast Highway parallels the beach as well. There is a lookout point where you can park your car for free which I utilized for 2 of the 3 days I visited here and I parked my car at the beach one day as well for $10.00 to get photos in a different area of it. Included here are photos taken at this beautiful beach over the 3 days I was here, Enjoy...

Looking towards Santa Barbara, the railroad parallels US Highway 101. This photo was taken from the Pacific Coast Highway bridge.

Looking towards Los Angeles, Emma Wood State Beach's camper parking spots are next to the access road for the beach.

This seems like a good park if you're a railfan! Park your camper next to the beach and head up to this lookout point to go railfanning!
To add minimal historical significance to this photo, the black Ford Fusion in the far right of this photo was my rental car while here!

Yes, trains run though here, just not that many! Here we have Train #14 - The Coast Starlight heading to points north with
P42DC #158 and 40th Anniversary painted P42DC #184 for power! This photo was taken on October 22nd.

On October 23rd, northbound Pacific Surfliner Train #763 passed by.

I'm totally amazed by that beautiful blue sky atop that deep blue ocean water!

Those mountains in the distance in the middle of the ocean are the Channel Islands National Park.

On October 24th, Pacific Surfliner Train #763 flies past Emma Wood State Beach with F59PHI #462 pulling the train northward.
Amazing that prickly pears, which are supposed to be a form of a cactus seem to grow freely next to the ocean!!!

Another view of Train #763. Hope you enjoyed Emma Wood State Beach!!!

As I said before, I would start all 3 days here. From this beautiful beach, I would drive to Fullerton as there was a railfan MeetUp group that would be meeting on Monday, October 22nd. This group is headed by Steve Grande, my web host at TrainWeb. Let's take a drive out to Fullerton to see some trains at one of the best railfanning spots in Southern California!!!