Steve Grande sent me an e-mail about covering this event. I called Robin who agreed to come along as he would board Metrolink 661 that I would be on. Saturday morning arrived and after a good breakfast, I drove down to the Santa Ana station where I parked in the parking structure before buying my Saturday Metrolink weekend pass. I then waited for Pacific Surfliner 562 to arrive into Santa Ana.
Pacific Surfliner 562 arrived and I boarded the last car. The conductor scanned my ten ride ticket and I showed him my new calendar for 2018. The train stopped in Irvine before its stop in San Juan Capistrano.
My favorite American Flag.
The San Clemente Pier.
United States Marines were out on maneuvers this last week. We then met Pacific Surfliner 565 before we arrived into Oceanside and I detrained and walked over to Track 2 to board Metrolink 661.
CP Pacific at the south end of the Oceanside station leading to the Track 3 platform that many trains use during the day as the platform in front of the Oceanside station was closed for construction. My Metrolink train 661 is also is in the picture ready to take me to LAUPT this morning. I boarded a busy train and took a table on the inland side. We stopped at the San Clemente Pier, San Clemente North Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Irvine, Tustin, then had to flag McFadden Street in Santa Ana before we arrived at that station. Robin soon joined me and we stopped in Orange, Anaheim, Fullerton, Buena Park and Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs.
Along the Los Angeles River, a Union Pacific power move before we stopped to let the Coast Starlight leave LAUPT for Seattle. We then headed to LAUPT where we found Christy Walker in the front car who would join us. We detrained with me wearing my Railnews Press Pass and it was a good thing I had it with me. The person in charge said that they were closed until noon so I showed him my press pass, walked in and took all the pictures I wanted.
Metrolink F125 911 was on display along with Metrolink wrapped safety car.
Santa Fe 4-8-4 3751 was the whole reason I came here this morning. Now let us see the passenger cars on display.
Observation Car Tioga Pass, built by Canadian National Railway in 1959. Originally number 23, and later number 93, "Tioga Pass" spent most of its life in Edmonton, Alberta where it served the Vice President of the Mountain Region. In 1992 Canadian National decided to sell the car, and a local businessman in Barstow, California named Rutherford P. "Rudy" Hayes bought it sight unseen because, as he put it, "I always just wanted one." In an epic trip, the car travelled from Edmonton to Barstow in January 1993. Through fierce cold and driving blizzards, the passengers stayed warm inside. Its new owner was like a proud father, pronouncing the car was all he ever thought it would be. Unfortunately, Rudy never got the chance to travel on his new car. He died of a heart attack only months after it was delivered. The car sat, forlorn and neglected in front of the Harvey House train station in Barstow for several years. Aronco Leasing Company and Norman Orfall purchased the car in 1997 from the Hayes estate and completely overhauled it over several years.
Pacific Railroad Society Sleeper 1207 "National Forum". In 1955 and 1956, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Wabash Railroad, both of whom partnered to run the City of St. Louis, received some of the last sleepers to be built before the advent of Amtrak. In addition, these cars, named in the National series, were also the last passenger cars built with open sections.
The National cars contained 6 sections, 4 double bedrooms and 6 roomettes (6-4-6). Although similar in accommodations to the pre-war American (4-6-6) series of cars built for the UP, the Nationals had numerous improvements and modifications. The most notable changes from the Americans design were the placement and design of the four double bedrooms. In the Americans, the double bedrooms were over one of the trucks and closest to the vestibule. This meant that one of the most expensive accommodations were located in the one of the noisiest areas of a passenger car. In the Nationals, the bedrooms were moved to the quieter center of the car, away from the trucks and vestibule. In addition, unlike the American bedrooms, the toilets in the National bedrooms were enclosed.
The Nationals were assigned to the City of Portland, City of Denver, and City of St. Louis trains. Numerous changes in the passenger traffic occurred on the UP during the late 1950's and early 1960's. By June 30th, 1968, due to reduction in passenger traffic on the UP and the discontinuance of the City of St. Louis with the merger of the Wabash into the Norfolk and Western, the Nationals' service was relegated to the secondary service on the Denver to Portland Portland Rose. By December 1969, the Portland Rose was history and the Nationals were idle. During the 1970-71 ski seasons, the UP Los Angeles passenger office operated at least two ski trains to Sun Valley utilizing the idle Nationals. In addition, the Union Pacific used the Nationals in special excursion service until the advent of Amtrak in 1971.
Between 1969 and 1971, the Pacific Railroad Society leased the National Forum and other National cars for excursion service. Impressed with the cars, PRS bought two of the Nationals. In October 1971, PRS purchased the National Forum and in December 1971, purchased the National Embassy.
The National Forum has been used extensively in excursion travel. The National Forum is the only PRS car that is Amtrak compatible. In 1993, PRS members Will Walters and Marti Ann Draper completed the Amtrak work with assistance from Bill Farmer and Dave Abbott.
Southern Pacific lounge car "Overland Trail", built by Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company in 1949 as Southern Pacific 2941.
Southern Pacific coach "Amber Trail". Pullman-Standard-built "Pacific Trail" was ordered by Union Pacific in 1950 and numbered 5430 when placed into general service, meaning it would serve where needed on trains all over the system. Built as a long-distance chair car, it featured plenty of leg room. Each pair of seats had its own window, venetian blinds, reading lights and decorative curtain on the pier panel between each window; quite nice for a coach!
This class of car, in fact, all 152 sister coaches built by ACF, St. Louis Car Co. and Budd, also featured decorative artwork on the coach compartment bulkheads, large men's and women's restrooms with several washstands and rubber floor covering with inlaid designs.
Union Pacific sold 5430 and several sisters (5423, 5426, 5429, 5436 and 5445) in 1970 to Penn Central. 5430's new owner renumbered her PC 3003 and used her and her sisters to equip the famous Broadway Limited, formerly an all-Pullman sleeping car train with coaches. The advent of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, brought the wholesale discontinuance of much of the rail passenger system in the United States. Amtrak bought the best of the passenger cars from the various railroads and Penn Central 3003 became Amtrak 4403. After serving across the Amtrak system through the 1970s, the car was retired and sold at public auction in 1981. We purchased her in 1983 and have delighted in seeing her preserved for future generations to enjoy. The owner changed the name of the car from "Pacific Trail" to its current name "Amber Trail".
Amtrak Coast Starlight Business Class Car 34515 built by Bombardier in 1995 as a 74-seat coach. It was converted to a family coach in 1996 and renumbered 34512. Sometime in 2008-2009, the lower level of the car was equipped with video arcade games. Amtrak has since returned these cars to regular coaches, having replaced the arcade on the lower level with the normal 12 coach seats found in normal Superliner coaches, still retaining the number 34515.
Amtrak Cross-Country Cafe 37000, formerly Amtrak 38014, built by Pullman-Standard in 1979 and converted into its present form in 2006.
Pacific Surfliner Business Class Car 6851 "Balboa Park" built by Alstom in 2000. With that I walked back to the waiting Metrolink 662 for the trip home to Santa Ana. Christy first joined me followed by Robin and we rode back to Santa Ana while Christy went home to Irvine. This ended the coverage of a fantastic event.
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