Saturday morning found me at Santa Ana right before a late Pacific Surfliner 763 arrived in Santa Ana.
A few minutes later, the on-time Pacific Surfliner 564 arrived to pick me up.
Jeffrey Road underpass construction work in Irvine.
Pacific Surfliner 564 turning into northbound Pacific Surfliner 571 in San Diego.
A look at Las Pulgas Beach at Camp Pendleton.
Passing San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, known by railroaders as "Dolly Parton".
Soccer being played at Rancho Capistrano.
Pacific Surfliner 571 after dropping me off at Santa Ana. I ran an errand to get a new watchband before returning to the station to board Metrolink 656 bound for North Beach San Clemente and on the way to the station, I was passed by a southbound Metrolink special train.
Between games at the Rancho Capistrano Soccer Fields.
A special Metrolink train came through San Clemente North Beach as our train to Los Angeles was due to stop.
Ten minutes later, Metrolink 657 arrived at North Beach to pick me up and take me to LAUPT, where I took Metrolink 658 home to Santa Ana. I would repeat today's trips tomorrow and on Sunday, or so I thought.
March 30, 2008Trip 2 started on a wet southern California morning as I boarded Pacific Surfliner 564.
Dana Point from the gap between the homes and mobile homes.
Scenes along San Clemente Beach.
Between San Mateo Creek and the San Onofre bluffs.
Pacific Surfliner 564 turning into Pacific Surfliner 571.
Sleeping car "Pacific Sands" was in San Diego for its San Diegan weekend trip and I had an idea. If there was room on the trip back this evening, I could make the last trip {ie. Trip 1} this afternoon/evening. I wrote a note to Doug Spinn, the car's owner and left it with a passenger then waited to board Pacific Surfliner 571 for Santa Ana.
San Clemente scenes.
Pacific Surfliner 571 dropped me off at Santa Ana and now it was one more round trip to San Diego. I returned home and found a message from Doug, saying to be in San Diego at 6:20 PM. Happy to be finishing today, I worked on this story before driving back to the station at 2:25 PM to catch Pacific Surfliner 578 for Trip 1.
Pacific Surfliner 577 at Santa Ana station.
Pacific Surfliner 578 arriving to pick me up for Trip 1.
The author enjoying Pacific Business Class on this southbound trip to San Diego.
Pacific Surfliner 578 had taken me to San Diego. Only 92.3 Amtrak miles to go to be ready to leave for La Plata next Saturday night.
Sleeping car "Pacific Sands", delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad in April 1950. Part of a total of 50 Pacific Series sleeper cars delivered by the Budd Company that year, the Pullman Company and Union Pacific had high hopes for the future expansion of rail travel by re-equipping the “City” trains with sleek, modern stainless steel cars. The early fifties was the high point of the showdown between the train, automobile and airplane, and UP, Pullman and other railroads were coming out fighting!
Half of the Pacific fleet was delivered in the famous two-tone gray Overland paint scheme, the other half in Union Pacific's Armor Yellow, Gray and red Streamliner colors. By 1953, all of the cars had been repainted to yellow. "Pacific Sands" was first operated by the Pullman Company until the late 1960's, when Pullman was dissolved and operation of the cars was taken over by the Union Pacific Railroad. The car was a regular on all of the "City" trains - the City of Portland, City of Los Angeles and City of San Francisco among others, and provided classic Pullman service in its six double bedrooms and ten single roomettes until Amtrak's formation on April 1, 1971.
The Pacific car fleet was one of Amtrak's best sleeper fleets in the 1970's and 1980's, mostly due the excellent maintenance provided by its previous owner. "Pacific Sands" lived through the purple and orange interior decor of 1970's and was redecorated to its current interior in the late 1980's. During the 25 years of Amtrak service, all of the Pacific cars were scattered through out the country in various Amtrak trains, but most, including "Pacific Sands", finished their service with Amtrak on the East coast routes, including Autotrain, as the West Coast routes were re-equipped with Superliners.
"Pacific Sands" was rescued into private ownership in 1996, after 46 years of railroad service. The exterior has been beautifully restored and polished to a partial Pullman/Union Pacific paint scheme by "Pacific Sands'" first private owner. It has also been mechanically upgraded to all current Amtrak and FRA safety standards. LA Rail acquired the car in 2003, and has restored the interior of the car to its glory days of the 1950's while adding modern travel conveniences such as a shower.
I stored my bag on board then walked to Sam Goody's at Hortons Plaza to pick up a DVD then returned to the Santa Fe Station and then visited with Doug Spinn and my fellow passengers until I heard Pacific Surfliner 580 arriving.
Pacific Surfliner 580 ready to turn into Pacific Surfliner 591.
A safety stop before coupling to "Pacific Sands".
Surfliner 591 is now coupled to "Pacific Sands".
The sleeping car was ready to take me back to Santa Ana and we departed on time.
CP Friar just past Old Town.
Crossing the San Diego River.
Near CP Tecolote.
Mission Bay.
A look back as we proceeded to Rose Canyon.
Dropping down the Miramar Grade.
New friends I met enjoying the trip aboard this private car.
"Zoo TV in Sydney" by U2 on my laptop computer.
Towards the setting sun.
Along the Del Mar Bluffs.
The station stop at Solana Beach.
A pair of lagoon pictures on this final ride on the Surf Line for awhile.
"Pacific Sands" and Pacific Surfliner 591 returned me to Santa Ana and I thanked Doug for the excellent trip home from San Diego.
I stood there watching the train roll into the night.
For information on "Pacific Sands", contact Doug Spinn at Pullman Adventure at (925) 321-0023 or click the link below.
Pullman Adventure Link
I returned home then subtracted the final mileage to 0 and to 1,906.0 Fullerton to La Plata. With that done, I would not be riding any more Amtrak trains until Saturday, when I board the Southwest Chief for La Plata. Until then, I can finally have some well-deserved rest!
