At our last Train Travel Meetup Group get-together at the Rail Restaurant almost always the fourth Monday night of the month, I suggested a trip to ride the entire San Diego Trolley system. On Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, we would normally go to San Luis Obispo but Union Pacific was going to be doing track work so busses would be used.
It was a very cold morning when I arrived at the east platform at Santa Ana where the passengers were dressed as if they were Metra passengers in Chicago with scarves and long jackets, something not normally seen on a Metrolink platform. It was one morning that I could not wait to get inside the warm train.
Metrolink 602 arrived and I rode the cab car and after stopping at Orange and Anaheim, I detrained in Fullerton. I needed to call Amtrak Guest Rewards about an error they made on my last trip where I left Fort Worth on January 1st, 2007 and while my ticket read January 1st, their computer had it as departing on December 31st, 2006 and I wanted my trip credited in 2007. I explained all this to Mike, who told me I had to send a copy of my ticket receipt and I needed a pen. When I bent down to get it, my glasses broke and I was not too pleased with Guest Rewards at this point for causing this whole situation. With no glasses, would this be a case of the blind leading the blind.
I sat on a bench waiting for another member of the Group to arrive. A westbound BNSF freight came through which put a smile of my face then Metrolink 700 for Riverside came into the station. Steve Grande and Tom Anderson joined me and we waited for Pacific Surfliner 562.
Pacific Surfliner 562 arrived to pick up most of our group. Chris Parker had boarded in Los Angeles and Tom sat with me and had brought some railroad books that I enjoyed looking at on our trip south this beautiful, clear and cold morning. Winston Walker and Pat Moran joined us by boarding in Santa Ana then we met Pacific Surfliner 763 at CP Capistrano before reaching the beach.
Our train lived up to its name running along the surf of the Pacific Ocean south of San Clemente Pier. At CP Songs, we met Metrolink 850 and at Oceanside, Pacific Surfliner 565 then at Solana Beach was Coaster 633 then Pacific Surfliner 567 at Sorrento Valley. We climbed the grade over Miramar Hill and descended Rose Canyon to San Diego, arriving there a few minutes late.
Pacific Surfliner 562 at rest in San Diego. Our group walked over to the San Diego Trolley ticketing machine where we all bought day passes for our journey on their system. Members of our group today were myself, Chris Parker, Winston Walker, Steve Grande, Tom Anderson, Jonathan Ortiz and his father Harry Ortiz, Jim and Julie Nowell, Dave and Virginia Bousquet, Dencie from Anchorage, Alaska, and Pat Moran, all who rode the Pacific Surfliner. Joining us in San Diego was Ingrid Dickson who live shere.
A trolley bound for San Ysidro came through the Santa Fe Depot station first.
Next, an out-of-service trolley set came through, but this was a unique moment. Today was the first day for two-car train operation on the Green line using one car of the newest SD70 3000 type number 3006 and one car of the SD100 2000 type number 2006. This long-awaited project eliminates the use of the lifts on the 2000 type since the 3000 types have slide-out ramps under the regular doors. This first train had 2006 and 3006 running together. It had been a computer problem between the two types of cars which had finally been overcome.
After that unique train, our train to Old Town arrived and we all boarded, riding this Blue Line train north to Old Town, stopping at County Center/Little Italy, Middletown and Washington Street. We arrived at the Old Town Transit Center and walked across to the dead-heading train that would now be our Green Line train to Santee.
The trolley left Old Town on time and we made our way across the San Diego River to Morena/Linda Vista then went east on this mostly-elevated line to the Fashion Valley Transit Center, Hazard Center, Mission Valley Center, Rio Vista, Fenton Parkway, Qualcomm Stadium and Mission San Diego, where the old line ended before the Green Line was completed. We stayed elevated to Grantville, crossed Interstate 8 and ascended the 4.4 grade to the tunnel to the San Diego State University Transit Center.
We exited the tunnel to the Alvarado Medical Center Station then stopped at 70th Street before joining the Orange Line for the journey to Santee. The trolley made its way to Grossmont Transit Center, Amaya Drive, El Cajon Transit Center, Amela Avenue, Gillespie Field and then on to our last stop at Santee, where we detrained briefly.
Our train arrived at Santee and it was now time for a group picture.
The Train Travel Meetup Group. We reboarded for the one-stop trip back to Gillespie Field where we detrained to wait for an Orange Line train and enjoyed watching several airplanes take off from Gillespie Field.
An Orange Line train arrived and we boarded, stopping at Amela Avenue and the El Cajon Transit Center, where we detrained for a fifteen minute bathroom and other needs stop. We all reboarded the next Orange Line train and proceeded towards Downtown, continuing to retrace our route to the junction of the Green Line and took the left to La Mesa Boulevard. The trolley then dropped down the grade to Spring Street, Lemon Grove Depot, Massachusetts Avenue, Encanto/62nd Street and Euclid Avenue before passing through the cemetery and around the horseshoe curve. We came to Commercial Street after our 47th Street station stop and ran down the middle of that street to the stops at 32nd and 25th & Commercial Stations.
After that was the junction of the Blue Line at 12th & Imperial Transit Center then we made our way through downtown San Diego, stopping first at Park & Market and City College, where we made the tight turn where the station used to be. A new building here will have both tracks run beneath it (the southbound track already does), so this tight curve will be eliminated. Continuing on, we stopped at Fifth Avenue, Civic Center and then into the American Plaza stop. At the junction at the south end of the Santa Fe station, we veered left onto the Bayside Line, which is part of the Orange Line and stopped at Seaport Village, Convention Center, Gaslamp Quarter and finally back to 12th & Imperial.
Our group all detrained and followed me over to the Blue Line and for once, here came a Blue Line train for San Ysidro. We all boarded and first travelled though the San Diego Trolley shop complex then proceeding south to San Ysidro, we stopped at Barrio Logan, Harborside, Pacific Fleet, 8th Street, 24th Street, Bayfront/E Street, H Street, Palomar Street, Palm Avenue, Iris Avenue and then the last station at San Ysidro. The group remained onboard and now being hungry, were waiting to head north to Bayfront/E Street for lunch.
At the Bayfront/E Street Station, we detrained for lunch.
The Black Angus Steakhouse which is a frequent restaurant we use for these trips.
Our group enjoying a good lunch, after which we walked back to the Trolley station.
The group waiting for the Trolley which arrived a few minutes later. We all boarded and rode back through downtown San Diego to the Santa Fe Depot stop with five minutes to spare. All of us except, for Ingrid Dickson and Tom Anderson boarded Pacific Surfliner 785 for home. Ingrid lives in San Diego and Tom was staying for dinner and would catch a later train this evening. We departed on time and returned us all to where we boarded the train this morning. I detrained at Santa Ana, ending not only another excellent Amtrak trip, but also another wonderful Train Travel Meetup Group excursion.
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