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The 1,100,000.0 Rail Mile Trip 9/7/2008

I was working on my 1,100,000th rail mile and as that neared, I thought a trip to Santa Barbara on Saturday and then a round trip on Sunday would do it. On Saturday, I boarded Pacific Surfliner 763 and once we left Los Angeles on time, the dispatcher routed us the wrong way and we reversed up beyond the switch then proceeded forward. Just short of Main Street in Los Angeles along the Los Angeles River, it was announced that we would return to LAUPT because of a problem with F59PHI 453, the same locomotivee that died on Pacific Surfliner 763 on Thursday morning and had to be pushed by Pacific Surfliner 565 to LAUPT the train was annulled there.

Knowing it would take a while to solve the problem, I opted out of taking Pacific Surfliner 768 back to Santa Ana and developed a new plan to attempt to get the needed mileage. I rode Metrolink 655 to Fullerton then Pacific Surfliner 572 to San Diego, visiting Sam Goody's at Horton Plaza before taking Pacific Surfliner 583 home. There I checked the mileage and a round trip to San Diego would be one mile short of what I needed. Would I trust the San Diego Trolley for one mile or start the trip in Anaheim? I decided on Anaheim and set the alarm for an early Sunday morning rise. By the way, my new job was progressing better than expected at Jefferson Elementary School and I must say no two days will ever be the same.

It was a very overcast dark morning as I drove to the Santa Ana station, parked and purchased my Metrolink ticket for the trip to Anaheim and waited out by Track 2, the track nearest to the station for my train. This was because of the construction at the Orange station to install the pedestrian tunnel under Track 1 there. The train picked me up and we went to Orange where from the cab car, I was able to have a good look at the construction. A few minutes later, I detrained at Anaheim and walked underneath to Track 2, finding a large group of San Diego Charger fans on the platform.

The train arrived and I chose a seat in the café/coach then set up my laptop and started watching Disc 1 of Queensryche's "Mindcrime at the Moore".

I said it was a dark foggy morning in Southern California. That DVD kept me occupied as the train made its way down towards San Diego as Charger fans boarded at every stop along the line. Just south of Del Mar, Larry Boerio found me and I was surprised to see him. After CP Cumbres, I went downstairs to use the bathroom and who came out but Chris Parker. The two of them had been on the train since Los Angeles and were going to spend a day in San Diego. We lost all the Charger fans at Old Town before we arrived at San Diego and I said goodbye to Larry and Chris before I went into the station and accessed the Internet while waiting to board the train that would get me that mileage I needed.

I boarded that train and watched Disc 2 of Queensryche's "Mindcrime at the Moore". We left on time, met Pacific Surfliner 566 at CP Cumbres and a special Coaster Charger train at CP Crosby. At Oceanside, we took the siding and met Pacific Surfliner 768 after our station stop. The run along the beach was still cloudy but the sun came out by the time we reached San Juan Capistrano. Before Irvine, we met Pacific Surfliner 572 and afterward, as we went under the Santa Ana Freeway, Interstate 5, at MP 183.2, I reached my 1,100,000.0 rail mile. With that completed, the train ran the rest of the way to Santa Ana, where I detrained a very happy rail passenger.

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