After all the other trips I had taken this summer, I was just sitting around waiting for Santa Ana Unified School District to call me for a job. With no call as of Wednesday, August 26, 2009, I decided I needed a quick weekend getaway. I had not ridden the Sunset Limited since January 3, 2007 and there was talk of changing the schedule back to the original 10:30 PM departure if the train became the through seven-day-a-week Texas Eagle. Therefore, I thought I should document the daylight running from Los Angeles before it became a thing of the past.
I packed on this Friday morning before driving to the station, walked over to Track 1 and waited on a bench. A Metrolink train came first.
The Santa Ana station built in 1985.
Pacific Surfliner 573 8/28/2009
Pacific Surfliner 573 arrived with the low-level trainset and yes, it included Amtrak's former Great Northern Great Dome. I put my luggage in the rack of the Amfleet car I boarded and proceeded to the Great Dome for my trip to Los Angeles Union Station.
Leaving Santa Ana.
The big curve at Orange where the Olive Subidivision takes off from the San Diego Subdivision.
The author in the Great Dome during our station stop in Anaheim.
Curving onto the BNSF mainline.
The train pulling into Fullerton, after which it stopped in Norwalk to remove an unruly passenger before continuing to Los Angeles.
The La Canada/Flintridge fire started burning today and was out of control before we arrived on Track 12 at LAUPT. I walked down the platform as I knew my train to El Paso would arrive on Track 11.
Sunset Limited 2 8/28/2009
The Sunset Limited reversed onto Track 11 with P42DCs 70 and 24, baggage 1212, transition 39011, sleeper 32115, diner 38056, lounge 33022, coaches 31016, 34090 and 34035, sleeper 32054 with private cars Union Pacific 140 "Sanford" PPCX 800495 Union Pacific 150 "Sunset" PPCX 800486. I boarded the 32054 and took Room 8 for our on-time departure as I started to watch Jackie Chan in "New Police Story".
We crossed the Los Angeles River with the fire in view and would leave Los Angeles via San Gabriel.
Passing Lincoln Park with Eastlake in the middle.
Passing a hill on the way to Alhambra.
A small yard before we reached Alhambra.
That fire was seen once again.
The Sunset Limited entered and travelled through the Alhambra Trench en route to San Gabriel.
Exiting the trench at San Gabriel.
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was founded by the Spanish Empire on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary", September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish missions in California. San Gabriel Arcángel was named after the Archangel Gabriel and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles".
Crossing the San Gabriel River.
The Metrolink line to San Bernardino took off at CP Bassett.
Near New Siding, Union Pacific was constructing a small yard with sound walls.
El Monte Civic Center.
The view towards California State Polytechnic University Pomona.
The former Southern Pacific Pomona station built in 1940, whose platform the Sunset Limited uses as its stop.
A few miles east we stopped at Ontario.
The San Gabriel Mountains.
The Jurupa Hills.
There were a couple miles of stored Union Pacific motive power at West Colton.
The West Colton yard tower.
The crest yard.
The Trim Tower at West Colton.
Union Pacific 826 East in the departure yard.
Engines at the West Colton Diesel Services Building.
Slover Mountain continues to shrink each time I pass it because the cement company uses it for making concrete.
The BNSF crossing at Colton.
The former Southern Pacific station at Colton built in 1927.
Cajon Creek.
The Santa Ana River.
A grain elevator east of Interstate 215. Now the Sunset Limited would climb San Timoteo Canyon.
Our passage through San Timoteo Canyon. There are now two new housing developmemts near the Beaumont end of the canyon.
The San Bernardino Mountains.
One of the housing developments.
Mount San Gorgonio, the highest peak in Southern California and the Transverse Ranges at 11,503 feet. Spanish missionaries in the area during the early 17th century named the peak after Saint Gorgonius.
Mount San Jacinto, named for one of the first Black Friars, Saint Hyacinth (Spanish: San Jacinto), who is a popular patron in Latin America. The range extends for approximately 30 miles from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to the Santa Rosa Mountains. The San Jacinto Mountains are the northernmost of the Peninsular Ranges, which run 930 miles from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. The highest peak in the range is San Jacinto Peak (10,834 feet) and the range is also a Great Basin Divide landform for the Salton Watershed to the east.
Windmills.
The Sunset Limited dropped down into the Low Desert.
The Whitewater River before we reached Palm Springs fifteen minutes early and had a fresh air break out in the 109 degree desert air.
The Sunset Limited at Palm Springs. I walked back through the train to my room as there was a strong hot breeze blowing in my face after I took this picture.
The view looking towards San Jacinto before we departed on time for Yuma.
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