During a train ride that Tom Anderson and I took to Santa Barbara on Sunday April 27th, 2008 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of my one millionth rail mile, I had an idea. Since Amtrak's Great Dome would be used on Pacific Surfliner Trains 763, 784 and 595 the next day, and we had our Train Travel Meetup Group gathering that evening, why not take Metrolink south to Oceanside and ride the Dome home?
I called Steve Grande who thought this was a good idea and sent an invitation e-mail to our group. The Dome and Amfleet cars were in Pacific Surfliner service because a set of Pacific Surfliner cars were being used for the Coachella Music Express train on Thursday and Monday of that period. With the tracks closed because of bridge replacement at San Luis Rey River, that low-level train set with the Great Dome sat in San Diego that whole weekend.
I worked an unusual day at McFadden Intermediate with no power to the portables due to thieves and just some other weird things happening. I drove straight to the Santa Ana station and took Pacific Surfliner 579 to Los Angeles where I switched to Metrolink 705 for the trip back to Fullerton, riding there with Ken Ruben. Several members, including Pat Moran, Carole Walker, Jim Nowell and Cathy Stanfill, attended Meetup Group gathering at the Slidebar Café but did not take the train ride. I enjoyed a tri-tip dinner.
The meeting beginning to break up.
Pat Moran and Carole Walker.
Chris Parker and Jim Nowell.
Steve Grande chatted with Cathy Stanfill. We all said our goodbyes to those who were not going to ride the Great Dome and made our way to the station across the parking lot. When I reached the two north Metrolink ticket machines, I found both out of order so, along with Larry Boerio, crossed the pedestrian bridge to Track 2 and guess what I found there?
The south Metrolink ticket machine was also out of service. I called them on the station telephone to report that the problem and was told "Enjoy a free ride on us tonight!" I told the rest of our group the good news before walking to the west end of the south platform to wait for our train to Oceanside. The eastbound signal was yellow at first then it switched to green before I spotted the approaching train.
Metrolink 608
The train stopped and I told Conductor Richard that all the ticketing machines in Fullerton were out of order then we chose seats on the upper level of the cab car.
Robin Bowers and Arnold James, better known as AJ.
Steve Grande and Larry Boerio.
Chris Parker and Ken Ruben.
Tom Anderson and Jonathan Ortiz.
Jack Searight. We proceeded south, stopping in Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente {North Beach} before the run to Oceanside. As we neared there, I walked to the rear door to see the completed new bridge as we crossed the San Luis Rey River. We arrived at Oceanside a few minutes early on a beautiful evening.
Metrolink 608 was now ready to head to the Stuart Mesa yard for the night. Jonathan and I walked to the Sprinter station for a few pictures before the last train departed for Escondido.
Views from a walk around the Sprinter before it departed. We returned to the Amtrak station where everyone was buying their Amtrak tickets for their trip back to Fullerton; I already had an Oceanside-to-Santa Ana ticket.
A group picture under the old Pointless Arrow Amtrak symbol on the station. Our northbound train departed San Diego late due to last minute switching moves, but arrived only about five minutes late.
Pacific Surfliner 595Amtrak Great Dome 10031 "Ocean View", ex. Amtrak 10031 19999, exx. Auto Train 9300:2 "Ocean View" 1985, exxx. Amtrak 9361 "Ocean View", exxxx. Burlington Northern 1391 "Ocean View" 1970, nee Great Northern 1391 "Ocean View", built by Budd in 1955.
Pacific Surfliner 595 arrived in Oceanside and after the passengers detrained, our group boarded the Great Dome, the last dome car on the Amtrak system, and settled in to the far end for the ride north.
Steve enjoying the Great Dome.
Jack, Tom and Jonathan were all smiles.
Larry, Chris and Ken.
Jonathon and AJ.
We departed and on approach to the San Luis Rey River bridge, our engineer cut off his headlight. At Eastbrook, we found a long BNSF freight waiting for us to pass with DPU's on the rear. Our assistant conductor turned off the dome lights for better viewing then near San Onofre, we walked back to the café car through three Amfleet cars as Larry remarked that this was his first time in a dome car and he really liked the view and ride quality. I always enjoy any trip in a dome car.
We passed Pacific Surfliner 592 at CP Serra and ran to San Juan Capistrano then on to Irvine, or so we thought. Just north of CP Avery, we stopped next to BNSF 5462 South. Pacific Surfliner 592 had came out of Serra but had engine problems so was stopped, blocking the mainline. Our train would reverse and pull Pacific Surfliner 592 back into Serra siding. Once our engineer changed ends and we received a green signal, we proceeded back south towards the dead train, slowing and stopping just south of the Capistrano station, after learning that Pacific Surfliner 592 managed to reverse into Serra and would wait for Pacific Surfliner 796 to hook up to it for the rest of the trip to San Diego.
Once our engineer switched ends again, we took off, passing back through Capistrano and by that auto train at CP Avery for the last time. We were now running forty-five minutes late as we made our way to Irvine then Santa Ana.
Pacific Surfliner 595 arrived at Santa Ana and I detrained, wondering when I might have another chance to ride the Great Dome.
Our friendly assistant conductor.
The Great Dome.
Pacific Surfliner 595 departed and with it, the Great Dome.
Good night Amfleet cars.
The train was now bound for Anaheim, Fullerton and Los Angeles before going into the Los Angeles coach yard for storage.
Looking down the track into the station from the Santa Ana Boulevard crossing. I walked into the station and showed Marti the picture of my Millionth Amtrak Mile in La Plata before driving home, a tired but very satisfied train rider.
