At the April Train Travel Meetup Group gathering in Fullerton, I suggested a trip to Santa Barbara to relax after Fullerton Railroad Days. We first chose the weekend of May 13th but it was soon pointed out that that was Mother's Day weekend. The next weekend was therefore chosen and word was sent through e-mails and the What's New section of Trainweb.com. Amtrak had a two-for-one companion fare deal, as well as a similar one, on their website. All we had to do was wait for the day of the trip to arrive.
I started by preparing for the day with a little Classic VH1 before driving to the Santa Ana station, where there was a southbound green signal at CP Lincoln, which meant that Pacific Surfliner 763 was dead-heading to Irvine. The rest of the line was shut down south of San Juan Capistrano because of the underpass for a bicycle path along San Juan Creek which was being constructed this weekend. Because of this, Amtrak was bussing south of Irvine.
Steady progress was being made on the new northwest wheelchair ramp, which was almost ready to be poured.
The bridge was covered as crews work on it during the week.
The west tower had its elevator control room added.
Dead-heading Pacific Surfliner 763 sped south through Santa Ana on the way to Irvine.
On the way to the parking structure roof, the future hall from the building to the bridge.
An overview of the area. Back inside the station, I found Pat Moran waiting for me and she and I walked outside, were soon joined by Chris Parker and three of us talked until the train arrived.
Pacific Surfliner 763
The train arrived with only a five-car train and I realized that this was also the weekend of the Oxnard Strawberry Festival. We boarded and found it was very crowded but managed to find seats at the front of the cab car. We departed on time and made our way to Anaheim and Fullerton, where we were joined by Steve Grande, Ray Burns, Shivam and his wife Kranti, with their beautiful thirteen-month-old daughter Khushi. Also joining us here were Dan, Jonathan Ortiz and his father. We all found seats as the train continued to Los Angeles Union Station, where Ken Ruben joined us and also managed to find a seat. At Los Angeles, about two hundred other passengers, all going to the Strawberry Festival, boarded, thereby causing the train to become standing-room only.
At Glendale, Bob Hope Airport and Van Nuys, passengers were accepted which caused the train to become even more crowded. From here to Oxnard, only "Reserved Pacific Business Class" passengers would be allowed to board, so at Chatsworth, a dozen were turned away. As we neared the Chatsworth Rocks, we saw a sight we had never seen before, saw rock climbers repelling down the face of the first largest rock. We went through the Chatsworth Tunnels and onto Simi Valley, where twenty-three passengers were refused boarding.
At Moorpark, an Altamont Commuter Express trainset was laying over for the weekend. We made our way to Camarillo where we met Pacific Surfliner 774 doing its station work on the siding platform then at Oxnard, a couple hundred passengers detrained to attend the Oxnard Strawberry Festival. We were now free to walk down the aisle and visit the bathrooms or café car and had chosen a beautiful day for a train ride to Santa Barbara. We stopped at Ventura before paralleling the coast and running to Carpinteria before an on-time arrival at Santa Barbara.
After we detrained, I took a group picture. Steve and most of the Fullerton boarders walked up to 1027 State Street and ate at the Spice Avenue Restaurant.
The rest of us walked to 628 State Street and ate at The Habit, where I enjoyed a tri-tip sandwich, fries and a chocolate shake; and the others relished their meals.
We all walked back, except Dan, who took a shuttle bus back to the station, where we waited for Train 14 to arrive. After walking around the rear of the train, I visited with several of the Starlight crew members I knew from previous travels. Once the Coast Starlight departed, we returned to the benches in the shade of the station arches and a few minutes before Pacific Surfliner 784 was expected, I went out to the platform.
Pacific Surfliner 784The train arrived and we all boarded for a nice quiet trip home, filling up again at Los Angeles. We then arrived at Santa Ana, ending another exciting Train Travel Meetup Group trip.
| RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE |
