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A Double Comet Car Trip 6/15/2009

Winston Walker and I planned to ride the Comet Cars again this coming week. The Comet railcar is a class of locomotive-hauled railcars that was first designed in the late 1960's by Pullman-Standard as a modern commuter car for North American rail lines. Later, the Comet moniker was adopted by New Jersey Transit for all of its non-powered single level commuter coaches. Additional series of cars bearing the Comet name, based on the original design, have since been built by Bombardier Transportation and Alstom. The successful design was adopted by numerous commuter agencies.

These cars were the first of the Comet series, built by Pullman Standard in 1970–73 for the New Jersey Department of Transportation and used the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad's diesel-hauled commuter services. These railcars were named after the Jersey Central train Blue Comet. These were considered state-of-the-art at the time, due to their all-aluminum body shell construction as well as their use of head-end power. Their automated entrance doors, designed for use with low platforms only, earned them the nickname "Sliders". 155 cars were built, with 35 cab cars, 110 trailer coaches and 10 bar cars.

In 1987, the fleet was rebuilt by Bombardier at Barre, Vermont, with all 35 cab cars and a number of trailer cars receiving high doors, for ADA access and future compatibility with high platforms. They were given NJ Transit logos adjacent to the entrance doors at this time, as NJ Transit had taken over EL commuter service. The bar cars were converted to standard coaches.

The low door cars were retired from service in 2005. 25 of the cars were sold to Utah Transit Authority for the FrontRunner service and 20 were leased to Metrolink in 2008 to help with an acute car shortage there. In March 2011, Metrolink returned the cars to FrontRunner upon the expiration of the lease. Metrolink also leased 15 cars directly from New Jersey Transit in 2009. These cars have not been used since 2011. The Comet I cars have become popular with western commuter lines as the low door setup is compatible with the low-platform stations in use. Eight Comet I's were sold to SEPTA, but are now out of service and put into storage. Some of these have recently been used in work service.

I rode up to Los Angeles Union Station on Sunday June 14, 2009, arriving thirty-five minutes late due to Pacific Surfliner 566 hitting a BNSF hi-rail truck. I saw Chris Parker on the platform and after visiting for a few minutes, we walked down to get a picture of the Sunset Limited with a Union Pacific locomotive on the point.

Metrolink 355 arrived with a Comet Car in its consist.

Metrolink Comet Car 320. I boarded Pacific Surfliner 572, which left LAUPT on time but waited at Eastern Avenue for over an hour for Pacific Surfliner 566 to reverse to Metrolink's Commerce station to discharge all of its passengers and checked baggage then be cleared for our train to pick everything up. While we were doing this, Pacific Surfliner 774 went by and we followed it south. The train then stopped at San Clemente Pier and Old Town on the way to San Diego. I detrained from this disaster at Santa Ana at 1:21 PM {12:58 PM} then drove home and talked with Winston. He and his daughter Christy wanted to try for a Double Comet Car trip on Monday.

June 15, 2009 I had to be at work at Jefferson Elementary at 6:00 AM to set up chairs and my day was therefore complete at 12:40 PM. I went home and relaxed until 2:30 PM when I drove to the Santa Ana station and as I was\ awaiting Pacific Surfliner 578, Winston and Christy arrived and they would follow me down to Laguna Niguel on Metrolink 684.

Pacific Surfliner 578 arrived and I boarded for the quick trip to Laguna Niguel, where I waited for Metrolink 684.

Pacific Surfliner 578 departed for San Diego and I walked down to the north end of the platform.

Metrolink 684 arrived with Comet Car 310 in its consist. I met Winston and Christy and the three of us used the elevators to get to the platform on the other side. While we did this, the train went down to CP Avery where it switched tracks and returned to the station as Metrolink 804.

Comet Car 310 would be our ride to Riverside-Downtown, which we boarded and the train left at 4:00 PM.

Winston and Cristy aboard Comet Car 310. The train ran to Irvine, Tustin, Santa Ana and Orange before I would start new Comet Car mileage to Atwood.

CP Maple is where the Metrolink Olive Subdivision starts and the Surfline heads northwest to Anaheim.

The wye at Orange, on which I once had the opportunity to ride.

A few minutes later, we crossed the Santa Ana River.

Adams Steel scraps railroad cars, as well as engines, and here is what is left of a Southern Pacific SD40T-2. We then stopped at Anaheim Canyon.

An oil well at work at Atwood.

The train entered the BNSF San Bernardino Subdivision here and headed east to Santa Ana Canyon.

At the east end of Santa Ana Canyon, we crossed the Santa Ana River again, but tree growth over the years has blocked the view of the water, as well as some BNSF well cars that were parked there.

Prado Dam at the mouth of Santa Ana Canyon. The train stopped at West Corona, North Main Corona and Riverside-La Sierra before arriving at Riverside-Downtown to drop us off. I walked over to the bridge for a picture.

Metrolink 804 departed for San Bernardino, after which we bought our tickets for our trip back to Santa Ana via Fullerton.

Metrolink 404 arrived to become Metrolink 707.

We boarded Comet Car 319 for the trip to Fullerton.

Winston took a picture of me looking at the new pocket-sized Metrolink timetable before we departed Riverside on time.

The Arlington Cemetery.

The back of Saddleback Mountain that does not look like a saddle.

The former Santa Fe station in Corona built in 1937.

The Santa Ana River at the Green River Golf Course.

There were no golfers today.

The Santa Ana River.

This is the last full orange grove which a train passes in Orange County.

Is this really Orange or House County?

We detrained from Metrolink 707 at Fullerton then walked over to Track 2 to wait for Metrolink 608.

A westbound BNSF freight train came through while we were waiting.

Metrolink 608 arrived and picked us up. There was an incident south of San Juan Capistrano blocking the track and I learned via Amtrak's automated agent, Julie, that Pacific Surfliner 785 had hit someone. This did not affect us at all and we arrived back at Santa Ana on time. Winston and Christy followed me to Absolute Auto in Garden Grove so I could drop off my car for servicing and they gave me a ride home.

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