After the trip on the Niles Canyon Railway, I drove to the VTA station in Alum Rock and parked my car in the lot before walking across the street to the station where I bought a $5 day pass paper ticket which was good only on the light rail for eigh hours.
Santa Clara VTA Light Rail HistorySanta Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail is a transit system that serves the Santa Clara County. The system has 42.2 miles of tracks and is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), which oversees public transit services in the county. The system serves over 32,000 passengers a day as of fiscal year 2007.
The initial segment of the VTA light rail between the Civic Center and Old Ironsides stations began service on December 11, 1987. In 1988 and 1990, the system was extended south of Civic Center to Downtown San Jose and Tamien station. Another 9.7 miles segment to Santa Teresa and Almaden stations was added to the system in April 1991, completing the entire Guadalupe section. In December 1999, the system underwent another extension with the completion of the Tasman West section and began services to Mountain View. The system was extended to I-880/Milpitas in 2001 and to Hostetter station in 2004 as part of the Tasman East extension. In the same year, the Capitol extension to Alum Rock station was also finished. The latest section, the Vasona extension, was completed in 2005, connecting Campbell to Downtown San Jose.
The system currently has 61 stations, of which 37 are served by the Mountain View-Winchester line, 36 by the Alum Rock-Santa Teresa line, and 3 by the Ohlone/Chynoweth-Almaden line. The majority of stations, 41, are located in San Jose. Seven stations are in Sunnyvale and five are in Mountain View. Campbell, Milpitas and Santa Clara each have three stations.
VTA closed Evelyn station on March 16, 2015 in order to build a second track between Mountain View and Whisman stations.
Our TripI had to wait for the next train to come in before I could start taking pictures.
My VTA train at Alum Rock. This is a Blue Line train which makes stops at these stations if you request them: McKee, Penitencia Creek, Berryessa, Hostetter, Cropley, Montague, Great Mall/Main, I-880/Milpitas, Cisco Way, Baypointe, Tasman, River Oaks, Orchard, Bonaventura, Component, Karina, Metro Airport, Gish, Civic Center, Japantown/Ayer, St. James, Santa Clara, Paseo San Antonio, Convention Center, Children's Discovery Museum, Virginia, Tamien {connection to Caltrain}, Curtner, Capitol, Branham, Ohlone/Cheynoweth, Blossom Hill, Snell, Cottle and Santa Teresa the end of the line.
The train that brought me from Alum Rock.
My next ride back to Ohlone/Cheynoweth for the line that will be eliminated. I detrained here.
My train then departed.
Another train for Santa Teresa stopped at Ohlone/Cheynoweth.
My train for Almaden came into the station at Ohlone/Cheynoweth. I boarded this one-car train which stops on request at Oakridge before arriving at Almaden.
Views of my train at Almaden. I reboarded and rode back to Ohlone/Cheynoweth.
My train from Almaden.
My train for the Convention Center arrived and I rode to the Convention Center station where I detrained and waited for the next train to Winchester.
My train left the Convention Center station.
First a train to Santa Teresa arrived.
A Mountain View train came through the station next.
My train for Winchester finally was here. The stations on this line are: San Fernando (SAP Center), Diridon (connection to Caltrain), Race, Fruitdale, Bascom, Hamelton, Downtown Campbell and Winchester.
My train was taken out of service so I had to wait, which, in addition to the wait at the Convention Center stop, did not allow me the time to ride the complete system, so Mountian View would wait for another trip.
This train would take me to Tasman, where I would connect to a train to Alum Rock.
The Campbell Central Pacific freight station.
My train leaving Tasman.
My last train, bound for Alum Rock, arrived and took me back there, arriving at 6:07 PM. I drove Interstate 680 and had to deal with a seven-mile long traffic jam. Elizabeth told me there were two accidents on Interstate 580 before Tracy so I took Altamont Pass Road and missed both of them. Back in Tracy, I stopped at Arby's for a pair of roast beef classics and enjoyed them in my room. A little later, I called it a night.
7/21/2019 I was up at 6:15 AM and after checking out, stopped at MacDonald's for breakfast then drove east to Escalon where I found my first train of the new day.
BNSF 7054 West at Escalon. I then drove to the Modesto Amtrak station.
Santa Fe 4-8-4 2921, built by Baldwin in 1944, on display at the Modesto Amtrak station, which had been moved from Beard Park. It was donated to the City of Modesto in 1968. I then drove back to Empire and took J7 south along the BNSF mainline.
San Joaquin 711 just north of Turlock/Denair. From here I drove south to Le Grand.
BNSF 7219 West.
San Joaquin 701 south of Le Grand. I next drove to Sharon and did not have to wait too long.
San Joaquin 702 at Sharon. I then took CA 99 south.
California High Speed Rail bridge across the San Joaquin River.
California High Speed Rail bridge across CA 99. I stayed on this road to Selma, where I turned south onto CA 43, taking me back to the BNSF mainline. Here I pulled off at a crossing due to a train heading my way.
BNSF 4193 West at Avenue 136 at Milepost 948.45. Back into the car, I drove just one mile and saw two headlights with one coming my way.
BNSF 4010 West just north of Angiola.
BNSF 7623 West in the siding.
This train at Angiola had DPUs on the rear end.
BNSF 7990 West at Sandrini with a coil steel train which is very heavy for BNSF. I drove CA 43 to Interstate 5 then at Castaic, I called Chris Parker who checked the traffic for me so I took Interstate 210 to CA 57 to CA 22.
I shot a Gold Line Train during the traffic jam. I had heavy slow traffic from Pasadena all the way to CA 57, then the usual heavy traffic where that highway joins CA 60. I got through it all, arriving home at 2:15 PM, ending a great solo railfanning trip.
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