The above picture was taken on Sunday January 16th after I rode the set the day before to and from Solana Beach. This was Pacific Surfliner 577 taken at Batavia Avenue in Orange on a very clear day with Orange County's largest mountain, Saddleback, standing guard over my home county. The second locomotive was Amtrak Cascades F59PHI 467 which was unable to return home to Seattle due to weather-related problems north of Los Angeles. I posted this picture on Trainorders.com and received an e-mail from someone who asked if I ever just went down to San Diego and took pictures of the San Diego Trolley while waiting between trains. The funny thing was I had just taken pictures around the San Diego Santa Fe station so here is a brief story of the ride down and back and those photographs.
I boarded Pacific Surfliner 574 on a beautiful January afternoon and sat in a Superliner coach. Conductor Jeff took my ticket and I relaxed for the trip south and I listened to some music while reading magazines. All too soon, we arrived at Irvine and soon departed en route to San Juan Capristrano. The hillsides below the homes were all green because of the excess amount of rainfall that we received in California this year and because of that, all the creeks were still running which I always enjoy seeing. The car emptied at San Juan as the train made its way to the shoreline paralleling the Pacific Ocean.
We made the turn at Capo Beach and Santa Catalina Island could be seen offshore. It was a gorgeous day for a train ride and the beach-running is one of my favourite events about riding this line as you never know what you will see. Just south of San Clemente Pier was the latest mudslide that was contained by building a new retaining wall. It was a great day for watching surfers and others play on the beach. With all the rain, San Mateo Creek was opened to the sea, where a sand bar usual blocks the tidal flow.
We curved around the point and here is the crossing of San Onofre Creek, another stream that is normally blocked from reaching the ocean by a sand bar. The train then climbed up onto the bluff and raced at 90 miles an hour after passing the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Passing the lengthened San Onofre siding, we next sped across Camp Pendleton, home of the largest United States Marine base on the West Coast. There was a BNSF freight picking up at the Stuart Mesa yard where the Coaster has their shops and storage yards then we crossed a swollen Santa Margarita River before passing Westbrook and Eastbrook control points prior to crossing the San Luis Rey River with the view of Oceanside Harbour. We arrived at Oceanside on the mainline, meeting Pacific Surfliner 579 on the siding.
The train then sped off and twelve minutes later, stopped in the trench at Solana Beach then continued to Crosby, meeting a Coaster train that passed on the siding. The Surfliner ran along the edge of the bluff above the shore of the Pacific Ocean through Del Mar then turned inland, ducking under the Coast Highway and across the Los Penesquito Wetlands. We raced through the Sorrento Valley and started up the steep Miramar Grade but had a slow order from the December 16th, 2004 derailment of one car in a 36-car freight train bound for San Diego that tore up over 1.8 miles of track, five cars then derailed and destroyed the switch at CP Cumbres. Broken concrete ties littered the right- of-way as we slowly climbed Miramar Hill.
Once passed Cumbres, the train accelerated and descended down Rose Canyon then slowed for the curves below Elvira before Mission Bay came into view. We continued to our crossing of the San Diego River and passed through Old Town then just before we arrived into San Diego, we stopped to wait for Pacific Surfliner 583 to depart then entered the station a few minutes early.
San DiegoOne major change for 2005 is that all Pacific Surfliners are to have the engines pulling to San Diego, which saves wyeing the trains in the morning during the Metrolink rush at Los Angeles Union Station.
I walked to the Broadway grade crossing and moments later, an Orange Line trolley for La Mesa arrived.
Minutes later, a Coaster train bound Oceanside came from the Trolley Yard and into the station.
An Orange Line trolley on its way to the Convention Center.
Two Orange Line trolleys passed along the BNSF line.
A Blue Line trolley went by the Fe depot bound for San Ysidro and the border crossing into Mexico.
Another Blue Line trolley, this one going to Mission San Diego.
An Orange Line trolley at America Plaza.
The beautiful Mission-style Santa Fe depot built in 1915. I then went inside the station before waiting to board my train home to Santa Ana.
Pacific Surfliner 785Conductor Rodney took my ticket as the train departed and we returned north, meeting a late-running Pacific Surfliner 578 at Sorrento Valley. We picked up more passengers at Solana Beach and Oceanside before proceeding north across Camp Pendleton and slowed on the double track near CP Songs to let Metrolink 604 fly by.
On the move again, I enjoyed a fantastic sunset along the Pacific shoreline as we passed through San Clemente.
We made our way towards San Juan Capistrano, crossing San Juan Creek with a great-looking sky. Running into twilight, we stopped at San Juan, passed Pacific Surfliner 582 at Avery and ran to Irvine, then passed two more Metrolink trains as we made our way to Santa Ana, where I detrained after another 184.6 rail miles and drove home for a relaxing evening.
RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE |