Winston Walker, a member of our Orange County Railway Historical Society, started riding trains and together we have already done most of the Metrolink lines and Los Angeles Metro's Gold line. He asked me to join him as we explored the Metro's Blue and Green lines of Los Angeles, choosing Thursday, April 15th of April 2004 (Tax Day), since I was on my Spring Break. Here is our adventure.
I started by riding Pacific Surfliner 562 from Santa Ana to San Juan Capistrano to ensure we would have two seats together on the northbound train to Los Angeles. I was greeted by Conductor Roy and enjoyed my early morning trip, using the layover time there to buy a ticket for a future trip and waited for a late-running Pacific Surfliner 763. The ever-friendly conductor Marisol greeted me and I chose a seat in the coach/café car, riding back to Santa Ana and stepped off so Winston could see the car in which we were riding. He joined me and I shared a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that I had bought on Train 562 since this train does not get their doughnuts until Los Angeles. I did this because this train had had no none when we went to Santa Barbara this past Monday.
We passed Pacific Surfliner 564 at Orange as we made our way to Fullerton and from there to Los Angeles, it was a slow ride as we must have been following something but I never found out what. We arrived eighteen minutes late and I knew in my heart that unless we made all of our connections perfectly, the 1:15 PM train to Riverside would be impossible. As I always say though, "Every trip is an adventure!"
We stopped at the restroom before venturing into the Red Line station and as usual, the ticketing machines would not take cash, but since I had dollar coins from our Tuesday Metrolink trip, I bought two day passes at $3.00 apiece, a real bargain. We went downstairs to a waiting Red Line subway train to Wilshire/Western which we boarded for our short trip to 7th and Metro. Once there, we transferred to the Blue Line train for our journey to Long Beach, which arrived about twelve minutes after we arrived.
Once that train arrived, all the commuters detrained then we boarded and chose a pair of seats on the right. The operator was changed out and once our new operator was settled in, we started to Long Beach down a long tunnel to daylight. Upon exiting the tunnel, the Staples Center and Los Angeles Convention Center were passed before we arrived at the Pico station, then we ran a few blocks before ducking under Interstate 10 (Santa Monica Freeway) to Washington Boulevard, where we turned left onto a route down the middle of the street. In the median of Washington Boulevard was Grand and San Pedro stations. Along here to the north was the Olympic Auditorium, which was once the home of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, that roller derby team I watched as a child.
Graffiti increased on the buildings as we made our way east to where we left Washington Boulevard and turned right into Washington station. From this point to Long Beach, we would be on the former Pacific Electric route to Long Beach. We picked up speed as we ran to our next station at Vernon and along here the former Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) Wilmington Line joined our route from the east; this line is now the route to the harbour for trains that do not use the Alameda Corridor. As we approached Slauson station, the line climbed the grade over the former Santa Fe Harbour Line (BNSF). On this elevated structure, the Wilmington Line went under our route to run down to Long Beach Harbour on the west side as we made our way to Florence station.
As we proceeded through Watts, we climbed another grade that took us over Firestone Boulevard before Firestone station then back on the ground, we continued to 103rd Street/Kenneth Hahn. Our next stop was under the Century Freeway at Wilmington/Imperial/Rosa Parks, where astairway, elevator or escalator can take you easily to the Green Line. There was a Union Pacific stack train blocking all the crossings near this station. Back up to speed, we ran to Compton station and we neared our next station at Artesia, another Union Pacific stack train was stopped, but had broken itself at the crossing so that passengers could exit to the bus stop. A crossing further south had a police officer not looking too happy with that stack train.
We climbed a grade that took us over Alameda Boulevard and the now-ground level Alameda Corridor to Del Amo station, after which we stayed elevated over the Long Beach Freeway, crossed the Union Pacific Harbour Line and went by the shops below with the Pacific Electric painted trolley sticking its nose out of the shops before we crossed the Los Angeles River. We went under the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) to Wardlow station, followed shortly thereafter by Willow station. Our train next turned south onto Long Beach Boulevard with stops in the middle of the median at Pacific Coast Highway and 5th Street, then crossed the return loop through downtown Long Beach and 1st Street. We made our right hand turn onto 1st Street then went a few blocks to the Transit Mall, where we stopped for a five minutes break.
Once on the move again, we turned right onto Pacific Avenue to Park station then turned right again onto 8th Street, which took us back to Long Beach Boulevard. We retraced our route back to Imperial station and the stack train at Artesia was now gone and the one at Wilmington was now broken into four sections. At Imperial, we detrolleyed and climbed up the stairs to the Green Line.
Once we were on the Green Line platform, our plan was to take the first trolley that arrived. We noticed a work crew on the south track with a red flag closing that track and I saw a trolley approaching from the west but it stopped. From the east came a trolley, but it had "test" in its destination board so it went flying by. The trolley from the west then crossed over to the north track and entered the station, which is located in the middle of the Century Freeway. We boarded and soon the trolley took off but at a reduced speed, making our way to the Long Beach Boulevard station and after our station work, we crossed back to the south track and on to Lakewood station. We continued east to the end of the line after we crossed the San Gabriel River and Interstate 605 then stopped at the Interstate 605/Interstate 105 Norwalk station, where there is a free shuttle to the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink station.
We switched to the first car for our trip west to Marine/Redondo and switching drivers, we returned down the middle of Interstate 105 to Rosa Parks station where we continued to Avalon, then stopped at Harbour Freeway station located high above the bus lane over Interstate 110. If you remember the film "Speed" with the bus flying through the air, that now-completed bridge is located here on the northeast side of the interchange. Our next stop was Crenshaw station and on the south side, the former Pacific Electric (now Union Pacific) line to Torrance was visible. Hawthorne Station was next, located north of their local airport, following by travelling through the bridges of the Interstate 105/Interstate 405 interchange to Aviation station, where I once connected to Los Angeles International Airport via the free Green Line shuttle.
We travelled over the former Santa Fe Harbour line on its way to Wilmington then our route left Interstate 105, curved to the south on an elevated structure to Mariposa/Nash station and continued above ground to my favourite Green Line station at El Segundo/Nash, with the giant hand holding a giant piece of steel in the shape of a paper airplane. We crossed over Pacific Electric's Redondo Beach Line and was rejoined by the Santa Fe Harbour line. The railroad has a huge bridge over Rosecrans Avenue before we arrived at Douglas/Rosecrans station then briefly returned to the ground so the tracks can have access to the Green Line shops before we climbed to our last stop at Marine/Redondo. All the stations on the Los Angeles Metro lines have their own unique artwork, so a journey is always interesting.
After a few minutes, we returned east to Rosa Parks and the Blue line then waited a few minutes for a Blue Line train to take us back to the Red Line. I pointed out the Watts Tower to Winston and the former Watts Pacific Electric station then made good time, but our connection to the Red Line at 7th/Metro really stopped us from making the Riverside train. However, that was a good thing since I was now getting hungry, so a visit to Philippe's was in order. We returned to Union Station and took the Gold Line one stop to Chinatown, where we walked to my favourite Los Angeles restaurant.
Filled and satisfied, we returned to LAUPT via Olvera Street and I showed Winston the Bullfighting in Los Angeles plaque before we returned to the station and used the new Metrolink ticket machines. I must say the old machines were easier to use. We purchased our off-peak ticket towards home, but my ticket was to Irvine so I could reach my 796,000th rail mile on my return to Santa Ana from there. The whole day had been a lot of fun.
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