by Chris Guenzler
Every Holiday Season Metrolink, our excellent Southern California commuter train operator, runs the "Metrolink Holiday Toy Train Express - Christmas Train" to almost all the stations on the lines they serve. A different program is presented every year and toys are collected for the Spark of Life Toy Drive. The train is scheduled and runs in the evenings unless it is raining, then those dates are rescheduled. So now enjoy the view of over 30,000 lights on the 2001 version of the Metrolink Holiday Toy Train Express at Irvine.
I rode Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 784 to Irvine to photograph this special train. However, before the Toy Express Train could arrive, Metrolink Train 606, bound for Oceanside, came into the station.
The train, which was sitting south of the station, then pulled into Irvine and everyone was on the other platform where the program was being shown, leaving me on the normal northbound platform so I could photograph it. Here we see Metrolink F59PH 861.
A Metrolink coach was nicely decorated in the holiday spirit.
The stage car displayed many Christmas lights.
The stage with the program taking place and the unique clocks on the stage supports.
The display car.
Metrolink's caboose bought up the rear of this Holiday Express Toy Train. I boarded Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 586 for a ride to Solana Beach before returning to Santa Ana on Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 591.
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