87electric
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£17 per day for 7 days is good value for me.
And I see 91108 is still in service for a bit longer.
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87electric jaunts
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And I see 91108 is still in service for a bit longer.
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87electric
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2017 USA Epic Jaunt
I never did get round to posting my USA trip in 2017 so I’ve been going through my notes to attempt my recollection of the epic jaunt. Going through the photos has been time consuming enough in itself. I’ll probably have to do multiple posts with all this.
This was the itinerary:
April
5th Heathrow to San Diego
6th Los Angeles
7th San Diego
8th Anaheim
9th Las Vegas
10th/11th San Francisco
12th Sacramento
13th/14th Portland
15th Vancouver
16th Seattle
17th Boise
18th Salt Lake City
19th Denver
20th Kansas City
21st St Louis
22nd Minneapolis
23rd Chicago
24th Louisville
25th/26th Indianapolis
27th Cincinnati
28th Cleveland
29th Detroit
30th Toronto
May
1st Travel to New Jersey
2nd - 6th New Jersey
7th Philadelphia
8th Travel to Baltimore
9th Baltimore
10th Durham, North Carolina
11th Atlanta
12th Orlando
13th St Petersburg
14th Fort Lauderdale
15th Travel to New Orleans
16th New Orleans
17th Houston
18th Dallas
19th Austin
20th El Paso
21st Tempe
22nd/23rd Brooklyn
24th Boston
25th Montreal
26th Fly to Heathrow
Being in the entertainment industry I travel a lot and whenever opportunities arise I indulge in my rail hobby. This trip was a biggie. Many of the destinations I’d been to before but quite a few would be new to me. Downtime was an unknown factor so I had to take it when it presented itself. The only flights involved were the transatlantic ones so travel between cities was using a nightliner coach. More often than not it would be travel overnight to wake up every day in a new location. Some of my light rail/ rail requirements have changed since this trip as I have been back to various cities.
April 5th Heathrow to San Diego
365 508 & 365 541 took me to King’s Cross and then Piccadilly units 107/118 to Acton Town. I hadn’t cleared my Piccadilly stock at this point and I hung around for winners with no luck. 106/141 then forward to Terminal 3. Flight then taken to San Diego. I don’t remember the airline as I have no interest in planes whatsoever. Rail info logged only.
April 6th Los Angeles
Time had for a few hours chasing winners on the LA Metro. 17 of them. New Metrolink locos for sight at LA Union were 869, 876, 887, 899 (i did manage to get these 4 for haulage later in the year in November).
158 LA Metro at Pico station
Hollywood/Vine metro station with the ceiling decorated with film spools
April 7th San Diego
Back to San Diego and 7 winners on the Trolleys that took me to 117 out of the 128 in the fleet. Currently I now only need 6 to clear and it has been proving difficult unless I hit the peak times.
2105 Coaster loco at Santa Fe station, San Diego
April 8th Anaheim
Nothing possible on this day except catching up with many old friends.
April 9th Las Vegas
Another big party day but did attempt photography of the Vegas shuttle that operates between casinos/hotels.
April 10th San Francisco
This was more like it with plenty of time to indulge in my favourite city in the US. Loco haulage on CalTrain out to San Mateo and back with winners 908 & 916. Switching to the Muni Metro i bagged 13 winners.
No Streetcars were needed for haulage but a few I did require had been sent away for refurb.
Winner 916
F-line Streetcars
April 11th San Francisco
Took a trip out to Marin Yard to find the stored and rotting Streetcars. Most were tarpaulined over but 9 were identifiable before I was questioned by security of my antics with my camera. Yep, this happens to me the world over. It does pay to be pleasant and engage in conversation of the hobby as it brings results and sometimes they even offer up more gen that I might not be aware of.
CalTrain loco winner 921 was taken for a short ride to Millbrae. 22 more winners also nailed on the Muni Metro.
Muni Metro 1448
Streetcar 1040 departing Muni Metro East Depot
April 12th San Francisco & Sacramento
Up really early for the rush hour Muni Metro and I had 31 winners. That took my tally to 92. I was trying to do as much as I could as new stock (Siemens S200) was going to replace this fleet. Couldn’t find my last CalTrain loco and I hear that it is one that has been refurbished and will still be utilised when the electrification of the line is opened with new EMU fleet. One to chase for 2020 maybe.
Arrived in Sacramento mid day so a couple of hours were spare to try the RT (Regional Transit) light rail for the first time. Successful as well with 32 winners.
Amtrak CDTX loco 2005 in Sacramento
April 13th Portland
Walked around the city taking photos. My first time here and really enjoyed it.
Amtrak locos 76 & 466 at Portland station
April 14th Portland
Very rewarding day with 49 MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) light rail winners and 10 Streetcar winners.
A visit to the Oregon Rail Heritage Centre to see the diesels and steam engines exhibited was very satisfying. It's a small but beautifully presented museum.
Alco PA 190 loco
Streetcar 021 passing over switcher locos Utah 324 & UP 96
April 15th Vancouver
I had been looking forward to visiting Canada for the first time and although the transport excited me I did not enjoy it at all. IMHO I felt awkward there and it was quite unpleasant and the later trips to Toronto and Montreal underlined that. But I do still plan to book a proper luxury Rockies rail trip in the future as it’s on the bucket list. Anyway, I travelled extensively on the 3 Vancouver Skytrain routes of Expo, Canada and Millennium. That resulted in 84 winners.
SkyTrain sets
Vancover Pacific Central station
to be continued.....................
I never did get round to posting my USA trip in 2017 so I’ve been going through my notes to attempt my recollection of the epic jaunt. Going through the photos has been time consuming enough in itself. I’ll probably have to do multiple posts with all this.
This was the itinerary:
April
5th Heathrow to San Diego
6th Los Angeles
7th San Diego
8th Anaheim
9th Las Vegas
10th/11th San Francisco
12th Sacramento
13th/14th Portland
15th Vancouver
16th Seattle
17th Boise
18th Salt Lake City
19th Denver
20th Kansas City
21st St Louis
22nd Minneapolis
23rd Chicago
24th Louisville
25th/26th Indianapolis
27th Cincinnati
28th Cleveland
29th Detroit
30th Toronto
May
1st Travel to New Jersey
2nd - 6th New Jersey
7th Philadelphia
8th Travel to Baltimore
9th Baltimore
10th Durham, North Carolina
11th Atlanta
12th Orlando
13th St Petersburg
14th Fort Lauderdale
15th Travel to New Orleans
16th New Orleans
17th Houston
18th Dallas
19th Austin
20th El Paso
21st Tempe
22nd/23rd Brooklyn
24th Boston
25th Montreal
26th Fly to Heathrow
Being in the entertainment industry I travel a lot and whenever opportunities arise I indulge in my rail hobby. This trip was a biggie. Many of the destinations I’d been to before but quite a few would be new to me. Downtime was an unknown factor so I had to take it when it presented itself. The only flights involved were the transatlantic ones so travel between cities was using a nightliner coach. More often than not it would be travel overnight to wake up every day in a new location. Some of my light rail/ rail requirements have changed since this trip as I have been back to various cities.
April 5th Heathrow to San Diego
365 508 & 365 541 took me to King’s Cross and then Piccadilly units 107/118 to Acton Town. I hadn’t cleared my Piccadilly stock at this point and I hung around for winners with no luck. 106/141 then forward to Terminal 3. Flight then taken to San Diego. I don’t remember the airline as I have no interest in planes whatsoever. Rail info logged only.
April 6th Los Angeles
Time had for a few hours chasing winners on the LA Metro. 17 of them. New Metrolink locos for sight at LA Union were 869, 876, 887, 899 (i did manage to get these 4 for haulage later in the year in November).
158 LA Metro at Pico station
Hollywood/Vine metro station with the ceiling decorated with film spools
April 7th San Diego
Back to San Diego and 7 winners on the Trolleys that took me to 117 out of the 128 in the fleet. Currently I now only need 6 to clear and it has been proving difficult unless I hit the peak times.
2105 Coaster loco at Santa Fe station, San Diego
April 8th Anaheim
Nothing possible on this day except catching up with many old friends.
April 9th Las Vegas
Another big party day but did attempt photography of the Vegas shuttle that operates between casinos/hotels.
April 10th San Francisco
This was more like it with plenty of time to indulge in my favourite city in the US. Loco haulage on CalTrain out to San Mateo and back with winners 908 & 916. Switching to the Muni Metro i bagged 13 winners.
No Streetcars were needed for haulage but a few I did require had been sent away for refurb.
Winner 916
F-line Streetcars
April 11th San Francisco
Took a trip out to Marin Yard to find the stored and rotting Streetcars. Most were tarpaulined over but 9 were identifiable before I was questioned by security of my antics with my camera. Yep, this happens to me the world over. It does pay to be pleasant and engage in conversation of the hobby as it brings results and sometimes they even offer up more gen that I might not be aware of.
CalTrain loco winner 921 was taken for a short ride to Millbrae. 22 more winners also nailed on the Muni Metro.
Muni Metro 1448
Streetcar 1040 departing Muni Metro East Depot
April 12th San Francisco & Sacramento
Up really early for the rush hour Muni Metro and I had 31 winners. That took my tally to 92. I was trying to do as much as I could as new stock (Siemens S200) was going to replace this fleet. Couldn’t find my last CalTrain loco and I hear that it is one that has been refurbished and will still be utilised when the electrification of the line is opened with new EMU fleet. One to chase for 2020 maybe.
Arrived in Sacramento mid day so a couple of hours were spare to try the RT (Regional Transit) light rail for the first time. Successful as well with 32 winners.
Amtrak CDTX loco 2005 in Sacramento
April 13th Portland
Walked around the city taking photos. My first time here and really enjoyed it.
Amtrak locos 76 & 466 at Portland station
April 14th Portland
Very rewarding day with 49 MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) light rail winners and 10 Streetcar winners.
A visit to the Oregon Rail Heritage Centre to see the diesels and steam engines exhibited was very satisfying. It's a small but beautifully presented museum.
Alco PA 190 loco
Streetcar 021 passing over switcher locos Utah 324 & UP 96
April 15th Vancouver
I had been looking forward to visiting Canada for the first time and although the transport excited me I did not enjoy it at all. IMHO I felt awkward there and it was quite unpleasant and the later trips to Toronto and Montreal underlined that. But I do still plan to book a proper luxury Rockies rail trip in the future as it’s on the bucket list. Anyway, I travelled extensively on the 3 Vancouver Skytrain routes of Expo, Canada and Millennium. That resulted in 84 winners.
SkyTrain sets
Vancover Pacific Central station
to be continued.....................
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Quite a beast of a trip that already! 
I'm over in LA in a few days for the first time, when I heard they had a Metro service I wasn't expecting to see trams!
I'm over in LA in a few days for the first time, when I heard they had a Metro service I wasn't expecting to see trams!
ac6000cw
Established Member
LA Metro Rail is a mixture of heavy (the 'red' and 'purple' subway lines) and light rail (the other four lines).
Then there are the longer-distance real heavy rail, diesel loco hauled, 'Metrolink' services which mostly radiate out from Union Station, plus the regional 'Surfliner' Amtrak services.
So plenty of variety to occupy a few days...have fun!
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Thanks! Metrolink on the side of a heavy-rail train sounds like such a weird concept, being so used to it in Manchester!
I'll be on Metro from whichever station it is where the free shuttle bus runs to from LAX into town (I think my hostel is close to Union Station, must check that in the morning) and no doubt for visits to Long Beach and of course Santa Monica. The Metrolink, I'll have to have a look!
I'll be on Metro from whichever station it is where the free shuttle bus runs to from LAX into town (I think my hostel is close to Union Station, must check that in the morning) and no doubt for visits to Long Beach and of course Santa Monica. The Metrolink, I'll have to have a look!
ac6000cw
Established Member
LAX to Union Station on Metro involves using the shuttle bus, two light rail lines and one subway line. If you have large luggage the direct LAX-Union Station 'FlyAway' bus (coach) service is much easier.
If you are there at the weekend, there is a cheap $10 Weekend day rover ticket for the Metrolink system - https://metrolinktrains.com/ticketsOverview/ticket-info/ticket-types/ (but services are less frequent at weekends). On weekdays it's just singles and returns (which are twice the single ticket price).
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Cheers for the heads-up, and yeah I looked up the journey to base camp earlier, by cripes it takes some doing on Metro!
Did not know that about Metrolink, you've given me some ideas there and I've potentially a busy weekend!
EDIT: Wow! That covers a large area, all those coloured lines on the map for $10?! Ooh yes I will be having some fun for sure!
Did not know that about Metrolink, you've given me some ideas there and I've potentially a busy weekend!
EDIT: Wow! That covers a large area, all those coloured lines on the map for $10?! Ooh yes I will be having some fun for sure!
Last edited:
ac6000cw
Established Member
Note that some of the routes are quite long (to the end of the line) so check the timetables before planning where to go. Also check for weekend engineering work of course...
One recommendation if you want to do some train watching is to spend a little time on Fullerton station (35 minute journey from Union Station on Metrolink 'Orange County' & '91/Perris Valley' lines) - this has a busy mixture of Metrolink & Amtrak passenger trains plus BNSF freights, as well as a decent cafe/diner on the platform with some outdoor seating. On Friday evenings and at the weekend you are likely to find other enthusiasts there as well - it's one of the best spots in the greater LA area to watch trains (a Friday evening photo below). Have a good trip!
P1260003 by ac6044cw, on Flickr
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Mental note made! Going to have a nosy tomorrow at the locos and decide from there!
ac6000cw
Established Member
When I was there in October, Metrolink was running a mixture of old EMD F59s and new EMD F125s (which have the more powerful V20 version of the Cat engine used in the Cl.68, but are surprisingly quiet for 4700hp diesel loco). The Amtrak 'Surfliner' regional trains were mostly hauled by the new Siemens SC44 'Charger' locos (Cummins powered), with the rest hauled by the old GE P42s.
So a reasonable variety at the moment of passenger diesels...
(Note some stations/routes - e.g. Fullerton - are served by both Metrolink and Amtrak 'Surfliner' if you are fancying a ride behind something in particular, but the Amtrak fares are generally higher. In exchange, the Amtrak trains have fewer stops so are faster).
Metrolink all-lines timetable - https://metrolinktrains.com/globalassets/schedules/singles_mlk_lft_alllines_19_10_14.pdf
Amtrak Surfliner timetable - https://metrolinktrains.com/globalassets/schedules/pacific-surfliner---102119.pdf
Last edited:
87electric
Member
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2010
- Messages
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I echo all of ac600cw’s info above. If you choose to use the Metrolink on the weekend then read timetables carefully as you could end up with long waits inbetween services. Enjoy yourself.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Cheers for those, just read them after a long day exploring. Definitely some long waits in places there at the weekend, but I'll make a final decision tomorrow. Even if it ends up just being one out and back ride on Sunday, then it'll be worth $10 by the looks of it.
If I do it, then it'll be in my trip report. Wordpress is being a dingbat this week, so I've now decided to look into alternatives for posting trip reports. Not tonight though, it's time to hit the hay as that 12 and a bit hours of exploring has worn me out! Another full day tomorrow too...
If I do it, then it'll be in my trip report. Wordpress is being a dingbat this week, so I've now decided to look into alternatives for posting trip reports. Not tonight though, it's time to hit the hay as that 12 and a bit hours of exploring has worn me out! Another full day tomorrow too...
87electric
Member
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2010
- Messages
- 1,023
Fullerton station would be a good one one for you I think. ac600cw also mentioned it. Within a few minutes walk of it there are some great bars for beer and food. I recommend The Slidebar or Bourbon Street Bar or The Hopscotch Craft Beer Tavern. All on Commonwealth Avenue.
Also a comic book store on the station if you are into that stuff.
Not sure on the quantity of freight trains on a Sunday through the station though.
Also a comic book store on the station if you are into that stuff.
Not sure on the quantity of freight trains on a Sunday through the station though.
ac6000cw
Established Member
It should be OK - in my experience, weekends are one of the busy times for freight, Monday/Tuesday can be quieter. There was no shortage of freight on Cajon Pass when I was there in October on a Sunday (Cajon Pass is about 50 miles further east on the same BNSF Railway route, for those who don't know the area). But this American freight railroading, so you might have 4 trains in an hour then almost nothing for the next 2 hours - it's just the luck of the draw (been there, got the tee-shirt
)Note that there is engineering work over the weekend between Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo and Oceanside (bus replacement services over that stretch) - https://metrolinktrains.com/news/alert-details-page/?alertId=343806 - which might affect the timing of some passenger trains between LA and Fullerton.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Just had a look at that, a shame the line's not open all the way to Oceanside but hey-ho. I'll make a decision on my moves once I get to Union Station. I had a sneak peek at some Metrolink trains last night, ooh that was a beast of a noise!
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