Bill Compton wanted to ride a train with me and I suggested San Diego, but he had been there too frequently, so he proposed Perris as he had never been there. I then learned he had never been on the Olive District, the line that goes from Orange to Atwood. As neither of us were working on President's Day, we chose that holiday and planned to meet at the station at 9:15 AM.
That morning, I drove to the Santa Ana station, parked and bought my Metrolink round trip ticket to Riverside as at this point in time, the journey from Riverside to Perris was free since the service was still new. I walked upstairs and across the bridge then rode the elevator down to Track 1 and a few minutes later, saw Bill and called to him to join me, then made the choices on the ticketing machine for his round trip to Riverside, which he paid. The crossing gates went down and I climbed the stairs to get a better photo angle.
Pacific Surfliner 566 arrived on its way to San Diego. A few minutes later, Metrolink 803 arrived much too fast and missed the handicapped ramp on the south end of the platform, so we had to walk fast and board the cab car then walked through it to the bicycle car, where we sat a table. We departed and made our way to Orange then started the ride on the Olive District, where Bill's new mileage started and I enjoy sharing in my friends' new mileage, Bill told me that he worked in a building with a staircase outside the back door and I found that building. The train then crossed the Santa Ana River before crossing the Riverside Freeway and stopped at the Anaheim Canyon station. Once we left there, it was only 0.8 miles to Atwood where Bill's new mileage would end since he had ridden the Barstow Flyer a few years ago over the BNSF mainline.
I then learned he had never ridden the San Bernardino Line nor the Riverside Line. We enjoyed the lake on the BNSF maintenance road in Santa Ana Canyon before we stopped at West Corona and Downtown Corona stations then made our way to La Sierra and arrived at the Downtown Riverside station where we detrained.
Metrolink 803 departed Riverside for San Bernardino. We walked to the east end of the platform then heard a train horn approaching.
BNSF 7387 West.
We walked over to Mission Boulevard and found the loading dock, part of the former Southern Pacific station.
The grade of the former Southern Pacific line.
The Santa Fe station in Riverside, built in 1927, now an art gallery.
The tracks the Union Pacific once used.
The Union Pacific station, built in 1904, now a Mexican Restaurant.
The Old Spaghetti Factory. The two of us walked back to the Metrolink station.
Metrolink 733 arrived and we waited until the doors re-opened and rode the bicycle car, sitting at tables across from each other.
Bill waiting for his first train to South Perris to depart. We departed Riverside at noon and Bill was on new mileage until we returned to the BNSF mainline. Once we reached the Perris Line Junction, he would be on new mileage all the way to South Perris. Since I had ridden this line twice already this year and it was only February, I did not take any photographs of the journey. We climbed the grade to the Hunter Park/UCR station then climbed the Box Springs grade and Bill was really impressed. Next we stopped at the Moreno Valley/March Field station and Bill enjoyed watching us pass the cars as we paralleled Interstate 215 and was able to see all the industries that BNSF served in this area. We stopped in Downtown Perris before the rest of the journey to South Perris, where we detrained.
Metrolink 734 at rest before it left for the storage yard.
Metrolink 734 turning into Metrolink 735 at the South Perris storage yard.
Pretty mountains on a beautiful day. I bought some cookies from the vending machine and awaited our departure time.
First a Metrolink truck came through, spraying weed-killer then we saw the Perris bus arrive and depart, after which the Sheriffs briefly visited. The Metrolink hyrail truck got off the tracks and Metrolink 735 left the storage tracks. We noticed that the station clocks were off by six minutes which I reported to my excellent conductor on the return trip to Riverside.
Metrolink 735 arrived in South Perris and we boarded the bicycle car.
As we arrived in Riverside, Metrolink 817 was waiting in the storage tracks there.
Metrolink 735 at rest. We said goodbye to my excellent train crew then walked to where we would board Metrolink 817.
Metrolink 402 next arrived running a few minutes late.
After the conductor checked that no one was coming to board her Perris train from Metrolink 402, Metrolink 736 left for Perris on her last run of the day.
Metrolink 817 arrived and we boarded and rode the bicycle car for our journey back to Santa Ana. It had been a fantastic day of train riding with Bill, but all good things must end as we detrained, two very happy, but tired, train riders.
| RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE |