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A Look at Both Coaster and Metrolink Services 8/15/2006 to 8/17/2006

With both of these services now no longer being operated by Amtrak, I decided to sample both and chose Tuesday August 15th, 2006 by taking Pacific Surfliner 572 to San Diego, Coaster 643 to Oceanside and Metrolink 609 home to Santa Ana. However, that plan did not work since 572 arrived at Santa Ana 26 minutes late but going to the Santa Ana station did allow me to photograph the continuing progress of our new east platform.

Metrolink 851 departed as work was finishing on the bridge but it still needed to be painted and roof tiles added.

The tarpaulin had been removed and now everyone could see what the west tower looks like.

The east tower was progressing nicely.

Work was occurring to replace the former walkway with a true station platform and the middle platform will be removed once the east platform is complete.

The shelter was being tiled to match the station.

Pacific Surfliner 572 finally arrived and I rode down to Irvine, but when the train lost even more time there, I detrained and returned to Santa Ana on Pacific Surfliner 573. Onboard, I came up with a new plan of taking Pacific Surfliner 562 to San Diego, Coaster 635 to Oceanside and then Pacific Surfliner 573 back to Santa Ana. Winston Walker and I were planning take Metrolink to Lancaster on Thursday, an extension of the Antelope Valley line as the destination of this line was formerly Via Princessa.

Late in the afternoon, I decided to photograph the other rail construction project in Santa Ana so walked down to Lincoln Street as I had done so for years.

The views along Lincoln Street with welded rail that has been here for over a year.

CP Lincoln, which now has a signal bridge being installed for future double-tracking from CP Lincoln to CP La Veta in Orange. The new track bridge across Santiago Creek was put in last year.

Pacific Surfliner 582 on its way south towards San Diego.

Pacific Surfliner 583 blasted through CP Lincoln and across 17th Street, after which I returned home.

This train arrived just a few minutes late and we were off to San Diego, passing Metrolink 683 and 607 on double track en route to San Juan Capistrano. At CP Serra, we met Pacific Surfliner 563. This morning, after running along the beach through San Clemente, we did not met Metrolink 850 at CP Songs as usual, but further south at CP Los Pulgas. We then had the regular meet with Pacific Surfliner 565 at Oceanside as we took the siding there, then departed on time bound for Solana Beach.

On the way to Solana Beach, we passed the new bridge across the Agua Herronda Lagoon and arrived at the station but had to wait for Coaster 633. We continued our journey to Sorrento Valley and went through the siding around Pacific Surfliner 567 then had a straight shot into San Diego, arriving on time.

Pacific Surfliner 562 at rest. I bought my Coaster ticket then sat on a bench to wait to board the train, which had its doors closed.

As I waited, various San Diego Trolley trains kept passing the station. Pacific Surfliner 769 was boarded at 9:18 AM with our doors still closed so no Amtrak passengers would board by mistake. The Coaster crew boarded the cab car at 9:22 AM then opened the doors with no announcement being made.

This train had F40PH-3C, coaches 2206, 2201, 2402 and 2502 along with cab car 2302. I chose an upstairs table seat so I could write the story as went north to Oceanside. At 9:25 AM came the announcement "This is the northbound Coaster to Oceanside departing at 9:45 AM". It was interesting to watch the comical last-second boarding of Pacific Surfliner 769 which departed a few minutes late, as the crew was waiting for their last minute arrivals to board. At 9:42 AM, the announcement "This is the northbound train to Oceanside departing at 9:45 AM for Old Town, Sorrento Valley, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad Poinsettia, Carlsbad Village and Oceanside" was heard and three minutes later, "Doors are closing, stand clear!"

Our train departed on time and proceeded north then as we approached Old Town, the conductor announced "Now arriving Old Town, take all your belongings with you and thank you for riding the Coaster Service." We stopped at Old Town then came, "Attention Ladies and Gentlemen doors are closing!" We waited here for southbound Coaster 640. "Attention Ladies and Gentlemen, our next station stop is Sorrento Valley." At CP Tecolate, we took the siding for Pacific Surfliner 564 then returned to the mainline at CP Balboa before climbing Rose Canyon to CP Cumbres then descending the Miramar Grade.

Our conductor then walked the train, punching all the tickets as we climbed Rose Canyon then reached Sorrento Valley with all the announcements basically the same for the rest of the trip. After departing there, we ran along the bluffs at Del Mar, by the world-famous race track and on into Solana Beach. Our next stop on this very overcast morning was Encinitas. At CP Ponto, we took the siding and met Pacific Surfliner 566 before arriving at Carlsbad Poinsettia. At CP Farr, we returned to the mainline, passing the new bridge construction before reaching Carlsbad Village. We took off for Oceanside and at Escondido Junction, began to pass the new grade construction for the future Sprinter service to reach Oceanside station. We arrived at Oceanside on time at 10:45 AM.

Coaster 635 at rest.

With some time to spare, I went up to the top level of the parking structure and took this through the green tinted window by the elevator at the southwest corner.

At the top level in the middle of the structure, I zoomed in on Coaster 635 ready to turn into Coaster 644 back to San Diego. I would be returning to Santa Ana on Pacific Surfliner 573 in about forty minutes so waited inside the station until it became too noisy so moved to the platform.

I boarded and just read one of my notebooks of old trips as we made our way north, meeting Pacific Surfliner 768 at Stuart Mesa and after San Juan Capistrano, met Metrolink 851 as we were stopping at Laguna Niguel. On the way to Irvine, we met Pacific Surfliner 572 before crossing over to Track 2 to Santa Ana, where we found a broken-down Metrolink 852, which was on its way out of Santa Ana bound for Oceanside to get fixed. I went home and relaxed until my my Metrolink trip to Lancaster tomorrow.

I drove down to the station and parked in the northwest lot before buying my Metrolink tickets for the day then waited for Metrolink 807 to take me to Tustin to meet with Winston Walker. The train arrived on time and I boarded for the 4.3 mile journey then detrained and found Winston waiting for me. We walked under the tracks and up the ramp to Track 1. A unique feature of this station is that when I wait for westbound trains, they can be seen for miles in the distance as they approach.

We took upstairs seats in the second coach for our trip to LAUPT, stopping at Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim, Fullerton, Norwalk, Commerce and on into Los Angeles, arriving there early.

Whilt the private car tracks were being worked on and the other private cars were at the 8th Street coach yard, at LAUPT itself was private car Gulf, Mobile and Ohio 50, PPCX 800539 built by Pullman Company in 1927, which served as the executive business car for Rebel Route presidents and officials. It was later sold to Eureka Springs & North Arkansas as their 50 and then sold again to John Paul DeJoria in 1992. DeJoria rebuilt the car interior in Rococo style as Patrón Tequila Express 50.

Gold Line bridge construction on their East Los Angeles extension. We waited on the Track 5 platform for our train to Lancaster.

At 9:11 AM the train, consisting of F59PH 853, coaches 150, 175 and 185 with cab car 609, arrived from Lancaster and we boarded the cab car. While I was outside, our conductor made his opening announcements listing all station stops and that tickets were required by all aboard this train. He repeated that announcement two minutes before departed on time, followed by "Ladies and Gentlemen, please be aware of your personal belongings and notify the conductor of any suspicious or unattended packages aboard the train". This is a required TSA announcement that was never made once on the Coaster. As we paralleled the Los Angeles River, tickets were checked and the train passed the Gold Line shops and on to the Metrolink shops.

Sounder cars wait for their turn to be serviced.

We met Metrolink 110 with the Altamont Commuter Express leased cars on our way to Glendale.

After Glendale, the Gentlemen's Club was seen. Anyone remember the Alice Cooper "Muscle of Love" inside sleeve to the album? We stopped at Downtown Burbank then ran onto Sun Valley, went into the siding for an eastbound Union Pacific piggyback train before we reaching Sylmar/San Fernando then climbed under the freeway bridges to the San Fernando Tunnel, also known as Tunnel 25.

The light at the end of the tunnel as we entered Tunnel 25, a 6,976 foot bore.

The west portal of Tunnel 25. We met Metrolink 212 before arriving in Newhall and saw the Union Pacific Saugus local switching before turning the corner on our way east to Santa Clarita. We ran onto Via Princessa and after departing, a second security announcement was made then proceeded on the most scenic part of the line through Soledad Canyon.

The only crossing of the Santa Paula River.

Tunnel 19, 328 feet long.

Tunnel 18, 266 feet long.

Passing under Soledad Canyon Road.

The Vasquez Rocks before we passed the Wild Animal Park with no active animals seen, then the Thousand Trails RV Park as we rolled to the Vincent Grade/Acton Station. We had now reached the summit of Vincent Hill and started rolling downgrade towards Palmdale.

Descending into the Antelope Valley, part of the larger Mojave Desert. We ran down to Palmdale Junction where the Palmdale Cutoff joined our route and we switched onto Metrolink-owned tracks that run along the former Southern Pacific line into Lancaster then stopped at Palmdale station before making our final sprint to Lancaster, arriving on time. I detrained for a picture before returning aboard and doing a pair of Major League Sudoku puzzles during our layover.

We departed Lancaster and I relaxed all the way back for a nice quiet trip until we reached Via Princessa. A young man boarded on talking loudly in his cell phone then swearing at least ten different times. A few minutes later at CP Saugas, we met Metrolink 207 then at Newhall, another man speaking to his mother on a cell phone was using language I would never use with my mother. After Glendale, we met Metrolink 109 along the Los Angeles River and arrived at Union station early.

Winston and I walked over to Phillipe's for lunch and since I am a fast walker, I had to adjust my walk to match his. Lunch was fantastic and we returned to the station to wait to board our last train of the day.

On Track 7, Metrolink 310, made up of one of the leased Sounder trainsets from Seattle, came in for a run to San Bernardino.

After that train departed, the doors to Metrolink 684 were opened and we chose a table in the rear section of the cab car. We departed on time, stopping at Commerce, Norwalk, Fullerton, Anaheim and Orange before stopping at Santa Ana, where I detrained and Winston stayed on until Tustin, where he ended his trip. I went home to write this story, thus ending another great day of riding Metrolink.

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