I love Amfleet coaches as that is what I rode in San Diegan Service for years. Other than the 60-seat Business Class cars, they were all replaced when the San Diegans were assigned Horizon Fleet coaches. The Amfleet rode smooth and seats were comfortable, while the Horizon cars were boxy and noisy. I rode a Horizon Car in MBTA service in Boston with 2/3 seating and thought this was all that they would be good for. The seats did not recline very far and I never cared much for them. During trips back east, I would always reconnect with them on the Northeast Corridor. Over time the San Diegans would get California Cars, which did not recline any better than the Horizon coaches they replaced. At least I still had the Amfleet Business Class cars in those Horizon consists.
My San Diegans then became Pacific Surfliners when those cars were delivered. When there were suffficient Surfliner coaches, those Amfleet Business Class cars all went back east. Two sets of the Horizon coaches were left, one protecting the Pacific Surfliner pool and the other as Amtrak West Excursion Train. Each Del Mar Race season and Thanksgiving season, the Horizons were used to expand the Pacific Surfliner sets, but that only lasteed until 2006 when the Excursion Set was sent back to the Midwest for the new Illinois trains such as the Carl Sandburg, Lincoln Service and Saluki. Amtrak sent west some Amfleet coaches for Pacific Northwest and Pacific Surfliner service. I would now once again have the opportunity to ride Amfleet coaches where I first started riding them.
I drove to the Santa Ana station for Pacific Surfliner 573 to Fullerton then planned to take Metrolink to Riverside and back before returning to Santa Ana on Metrolink. I parked in the north parking lot and investgiated the final final phase of station construction.
The new gate at the north end but the motor for it and its southern mate had not yet arrived to be installed.
The south gate was being worked on. I went inside the station to check the status of Pacific Surfliner 573 and inside the Amtrak office was the Christmas Train layout that our fantastic head agent Gary has put up for many years, but it was not ready to be on display yet.
I learned that Pacific Surfliner 573 was running eight minutes late out of San Juan Capistrano so went out into the courtyard and climbed the stairs before using the bridge over the tracks then down the stairs to the east platform. As I waited, I heard a horn from the north.
Metrolink 811 arrived from Riverside on its way to San Juan Capistrano. A few minutes later I heard a horn from the south and around the corner came my train.
Pacific Surfliner 573
The train arrived and I looked to see which door the assistant conductor would open.
The look down the side of my old friends. After all the passengers had detrained, I boarded the car and found a seat. The consist of this train was F59PHI 454, Amfleet Capstone (rebuilt) coaches 82506, 82620 and 82500, Horizon coach 54562, café/business 58107 and Business Class 57000, baggage 1241 and F59PHI 457. We departed and proceeded north.
Interior of Amfleet Capstone 72 seat coach 82620, nee Amtrak 84-seat coach 21263 built by Budd Company in 1977.
The assistant conductor then took my reserved coach ticket used on the Pacific Surfliner during the Thanksgiving season. No unreserved or Rail-to-Rail tickets being Metrolink monthly passes were allowed.
The small bathroom in car 82620.
The larger bathroom that can be used by the handicapped. I relaxed as the train made its way to Anaheim and onto Fullerton, enjoyed the ride which brought back a lot of good memories. All too soon we were making the turn onto the BNSF and into Fullerton, where I detrained.
Pacific Surfliner 573 at Fullerton.
Once Train 573 had done its station work, it departed for Los Angeles and I went up and over the bridge to buy my ticket and wait for my Metrolink train to Riverside.
Pacific Surfliner 774 arrived standing room only. How could this have happened? Los Angeles had let people with unreserved tickets or needing to buy tickets to board the all-reserved train. The train crew could not even get through the train because of all the people aboard and it delayed them ten minutes, which delayed my Metrolink train a few minutes as I could see it coming slowly down the tracks. Pacific Surfliner 774 finally departed.
Metrolink 704
We had to wait for a clear signal before we could depart and I just sat back and relaxed as the train proceeded east through Placentia, Atwood and Yorba Linda before entering Santa Ana Canyon. We stopped at West Corona, North Main Corona and La Sierra before arriving at Downtown Riverside, where I detrained to buy a Metrolink ticket back to Santa Ana.
Metrolink 705
I was the only passenger in the top of the cab car so it was a quiet trip back to Fullerton, where arrived on time and I went up and over the bridge to wait for Metrolink 684. However, that train never arrived. The Metrolink signs started flashing telling us that "The Metrolink 600 Train expected at this time is running 15-30 minutes late." Thirty minutes later, it stopped and we had a green signal. I knew that if 684 arrived, it would not be going to Irvine. Time kept on ticking and soon it became apparent that 684 would never arrive. Why did the message boards not tell people the train had been annulled? Soon a headlight appeared down the tracks and we would learn what had happened.
Metrolink 602The train arrived and the conductor explained that 684 had never received new track warrants and that the BNSF dispatcher would not issue new ones over the radio; he just had that train annulled. But it was not just one train, it became two. Metrolink 684 goes to Irvine then turns as Metrolink 804 to Riverside. We were two trains combined into one, just as Metrolink 806 to Riverside would be 45 minutes after 804 should have departed; not the best way to start Thanksgiving weekend. We ran to Anaheim and Orange, where those poor passengers would wait for 45 extra minutes before boarding to go home, and then Santa Ana, where I detrained, ending another interesting rail adventure.
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