Station update: cool machines

They are finishing up the new tracks at Union Station.  Laying track is interesting--first a deep trench, then rock ballast;  the ties (sleepers in the UK) are adjusted first by hand with long poles and a tape measure,  and then the long rails are welded together to create continuous rail.  Finally,  these wild machines run along and dig in and push rock around.  Maybe a railfan will tell us what they are doing.

Locomotion (updated)

Normally the Surfliner is pulled by the matching Surfliner locomotive,which according to Wikipedia is a General Motors EMD F59PHI. Sure it is. ;-) Anyway, it's tall and sleek and makes for a very smooth looking consist.

Conversely, when they hook it up to the sad old Amfleet set, this locomotive looks too tall and as though its a thoroughbred pulling a wagon. Which in some respects it is.  Metrolink runs some of these too.

Recently, some of the trains have been pulled by the long distance Amtrak locomotives, which Wikipedia tells me are of the GE Genesis class.  Big trains like the Pacific Coast Starlight  or Southwest Chief will be pulled by a couple of these.

These are noticeably lower than the regular Surfliner engines, so that the surfliner cars stick up above the top of the locomotive.  When I walk through the tunnel in Union Station below the platforms, I can sometimes tell if there's one of these on the track above because it makes spitting noises and its idle is a much louder roar than the regular ones.  I think they are kind of ugly with the flat grey nose and plain sides.  And of course they look squat next to the surfliner consist.

Our helpful Anon from Amtrak (in the comments) tells us that the Surfliner locomotives are designed for commuting stop-and-start, with about 3000 HP while the "Gennies" are tuned to cruise long distances, with about 4200HP.  He says they are a "blast" and I'm sure they are.

This one is a GE Dash 8-32BWH .  I  don't know what it was doing at Union Station that day because I usually see it in the yard (though it does pop up now and again pulling a consist).  There's also a little yard switcher you see sometimes (not in the station), which someone told me is called a "hog" but our friendly Anon in the comments tells me is actually called a "goat".  A "hog" or "hoghead" is the nickname for an engineer.

And sometimes, mysteriously, there is a big Union Pacific freight engine sitting on one of the middle tracks at Union Station. (Wikipedia informs me that this is a GE AC4400CW with 4400 HP). Anon tells us that those are generally borrowed when there's a need (it seems there's a real community amongst railroaders) and they hang out till their UP crew comes to get them. They are very noticeably bigger and really loud with spitting noises when they are sitting idle.

And what's with leaving those engines in the middle tracks anyway?  Here you can see the Surfliner engine just sitting on the central spur, not adjacent to a platform.  Is that to have a spare around when they break down?  (You can also see it's taller than the long distance engine.)  Yes, or else it DID break down.

Amfleet Cabbage: we may be safe yet!

A helpful Anonymous commenting in an earlier thread fills us in on the Amfleets:

Additionally, there are 9 trainsets; 7 Bilevel (Surfliner) sets and 2 single-level (Amfleet) sets. The Amfleet sets work opposite each other on a two-day cycle which does trains (1)761-(1)790-599(565 on weekends)-572-583. Unless things get haywire they shouldn't be on 763, 784, 580, or 582 at all this year.

Yay!  That means as long as I stay off the "express" (599), I should be able to avoid the Amfleet trainset.  Speaking on behalf of my fellow commuters, thanks for this news, Anon!

Imitation is flattery? Maybe not so much

There is someone taking the material I write on this blog and posting it to a Rancho Santa Fe digital press.   While imitation is said to be flattery, passing off someone else's work without formal attribution is called "Plagiarism".  And without permission, it's just rude.  

So, if you are coming to this blog from "Ah-Ha Rancho Santa Fe News", welcome. Look around a bit.  Say "hi" in the comments.  But don't quote me without attribution, and you may want to review the standard copyright policies on "fair use".

How many are there? (updated)

Last time we discussed the fact that the cab cars all have names, and those names are all geographic points in California.

Here are the ones collected so far:


Point Buchon
Point Conception
Point Dume
Point Estero
Pointe Hueneme
Point Loma
Point Mugu
Point Piedras Blancas
Point San Luis
Point Sur
Point Vicente


(Updated) We've now got all 11, according to a helpful commenter.

The naming of things

It took me awhile after I started riding the surfliner to realize that the cars were named, and that the names had a pattern.  Of course, first of all, they are all California place names.  Second, they correspond to the type of car named. For example, the Business Class Car is always named for a Park, the Cafe car is named for a Canyon, and the regular cars are named for Beaches.  The three Superliner cars that are repainted in Surfliner colors are named Sequoia Grove, Redwood Grove, and Sycamore Grove.

And, proving that someone at Amtrak has a sense of humor, the cab cars are named for Points.  Point, get it?  Since half the time, the Cab Car leads the train (being pushed by the locomotive).

Here are three of them.  Collect them all!  Post the names of any others in the comments.  :-)

What's happening at Union Station?

Construction of new platform 7

There is a construction project at the historic Los Angeles Union Station,  which is now languishing in that half-complete way of large projects.  It is the reconstruction of platform 7  which has been fascinating to watch as they have to re-open the sealed up stairs in the tunnel, and rebuild a "butterfly wing" overhang.

This is the first stage of large construction project that will eventually lead to the temporary closure of tracks 3-6 which will be converted to through tracks.

You see, Union Station is a stub station:  the tracks are dead ends and all traffic comes from one direction. Trains from the south come in on a long sweeping 180 turn, and then essentially reverse out of the station on the same route (hence the consist has a locomotive at one end, and a cab car at the other, leading to a push-me-pull-you sort of trainset). The plan is to connect several tracks over the 101 freeway and link them to the mainline along the river.  That way, through trains from San Diego to Santa Barbara will just keep going, and trains going/coming south won't have to make that long turn into the station.

Union Station at night

It's a big project, though, and since those eventual-through tracks will be out of commission for some time, it's essential to increase track capacity.  Hence, Platform 7 is being  rebuilt.  At the rate they are going,I'm not expecting to see through trackage any time soon.

Promontory Point? The Triple Track Project

@Amtrak_CA published this yesterday on their twitter feed, in celebration of the ground breaking for the next phase of the Triple Track Project which will add a third track north of Fullerton.  This region has heavy freight usage, and a new track will reduce the Pacific Surfliner delays by increasing capacity.    And this is ARRA funding:  putting people to work.  Yeah!

That's a Surfliner locomotive on the left, and a BNSF freight locomotive on the right.

The latest schedule tweak: 763 gets it together, and Old Town is hopping

Recently, even as 582 has been stopping at the Woodpile every night, the often plagued763 seems to have a new lease on promptness. It leaves San Diego a little early, adds in a new stop at Old Town Transit Center (which is a great connection point to the San Diego trolley system AND has lots of parking), and arrives at Solana Beach 3 minutes earlier than before. But what's really remarkable is that 763 is now nearly ALWAYS on time, or even early, into Los Angeles Union Station. Plagued by tardiness no more, the latest tweak seems to have given 763 a magic slot. I, for one, am enjoying it-- getting to work on time is a good thing. Incidentally, several other trains also now stop in Old Town, so if you are a San Diego rider who had to go up to Solana Beach to park, you may want to see whether your train of interest makes an Old Town stop.

Woodpile Haiku

Every evening for the last few months, southbound Pacific Surfliner 582 (the 4.10 departure from LA) comes to a sighing stop at the woodpile just south of San Juan Capistrano. Despite all our tweets,and a recent schedule tweak, it sits there waiting for the Northbound 785 for 10 or 20 minutes.

I've taken to writing Haiku.

Silver wheels now still
As @Pacsurfliners train stops
Yet time keeps moving


Remember Haiku is supposed to have a twist in it, as you compare two unlike things.

Metal rails stretch
into the distance
yet we stop by the wood

The themes are obviously limited, but at least it amuses me.

Meet you at the woodpile?

I try to catch Pacific Surfliner train 582 from LA at 4.10pm every evening.  Generally, it's far more reliable than 784 (5.10pm) which has to come down from Goleta and is usually late.

582 traditionally is close to on time.  It used to have a meet with a Coaster train down in San Diego County, near Carlsbad at a site called Ponto (after the creepy old storage unit on the west side of the track). But that got better and we were doing great.

Then, things really went to hell.  Actually, where they went is the Woodpile.  I don't know the proper name (all crossing points have a name) but it is just south of San Juan Capistrano, and marked by a large pile of wood in a construction yard on the west side.  And every night, 582 comes to a long sighing stop at the Woodpile and waits.

And waits, and waits, for Amtrak 785 coming up from San Diego.  Apparently 785 gets tangled up in Coaster traffic (San Diego having lots of single track where trains have to wait for each other) and 582 and its tired and hungry commuters wait sometimes 20 or 25 minutes until we can get going again.

Naturally, we complain.

But there's hope!  The new schedule coming in April will ahve 785 leave 5 minutes earlier.  Perhaps it will be able to evade the Coasters and make the meet at the woodpile more efficiently.

So we won't have to meet you at the Woodpile.

A failure in management

Things have been rough for those of us on Pacific Surfliners 763 lately.  This is the first train out of San Diego, and is very heavily used by commuters.The big stop is Irvine, but a surprising number of us are power commuters going all the way to LA on a daily basis.

From LA, 763 goes on up to Goleta, where it turns around and comes back down as train 784.  This is the 5.10 departure out of LA and is also a heavily used commuter service.  Of course, if 763 is late going out, 784 is late coming back.

For the last few weeks 784 has been a disaster, mainly due to trackwork north of LA.  Finally, Amtrak decided to have 763 terminate in LA, and use the Amtrak coaches to bring everyone down from up north.  (This was suggested by one of the regular tweeters some days before they did it.... did Amtrak listen to him?)   That helped. Now the trackwork is done and 763 is again going up to Goleta.

But 763 has been having problems.  There have been cancellations, mechanicals, and a trespassing incident last week (= railspeak for fatality, probably suicide) .  This last caused me to get a ride to Irvine from a fellow commuter, D;  he dropped me at the Irvine station so I could get on Metrolink.  My mother would be horrified that I'm getting into cars to drive 50 miles with men whose last names I don't know!  ;-)

Monday this week 763 was 30 min late which had me really peeved.  But yesterday, it exceeded even that, by throwing a mechanical just before it reached the LA river, about 15 min outside of LA Union.  We came to a stop and sat waiting.

Normally, if there is a locomotive failure, they sweep it up by coupling the dead train to the next Amtrak coming by, making a double-length train that limps the rest of the way into LA.  The yard is there and they can swap out the engine.

Foolishly, we assumed that since we were at most 2 miles from the yard, they would just send out a locomotive and pull us in.  Right?

Wrong!  Turns out the worst place it could have happened was near the yard.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Apparently they drove some mechanics over who couldn't fix it.  They offered to let people off and walk them to the street, but we were in industrial east LA/Vernon, in the middle of the freight yards-- not exactly a place where you can catch a cab, and not easy to direct a colleague with a car.  We watched as Amtrak 599 (the express) went by an hour later, and then, another hour after that, we saw 567 go by. Finally, FINALLY, a rescue locomotive arrived and took us into LA Union, 2.5 hours late.

A conductor told me today that the problem was that the rescue locomotive didn't have a conductor and they had to have one to leave the yard. (Conductors are the commanders of the train; the engineer is the driver).  If that is the case, why didn't they just hook us up to 599 when it came through, and go in together?  Yes, 599 would have taken a 20min delay to do that, but the hundreds of people on 763 would have gotten to LA much earlier and 599 is often late anyway.


Whose brilliant idea was it to leave 763 sitting there stranded for 2.5 HOURS?   

The first goal should be to get passengers where they are going.  Especially for 763, which is not full of vacationers, but full  of people trying to get to work.  I should have been at work at 9.15;  I needed to be at work by 10;  I got there at 12.

 If we'd thrown the mechanical in San Juan Capistrano, we would have been to LA by 10 and I'd have been to work by 10.30--not good, but not nearly as awful as it was.

Every morning when I get on 763, I feel like Dorothy Parker:  What fresh hell is this?

Time to move the train

They built some extra trackage outside of LA so that the Metrolink trains can lay over there.  I think this has to do with the platform construction at LA Union (which I'll blog about shortly).  In any case, this one trainset on a dead-end track appears to have been here for a bit too long!   Yes, there IS tumbleweed along the tracks on the LA river.   Sometimes it even blows into the station.

Schedule Changes: the commuter's view

Yes, there is a schedule change coming! But you wouldn't know it because Amtrak isn't telling you. Given it's a mere 4 days away, this seems--unfortunate. Not sure what the point is of their social media accounts since they never actually tell you what's going on.

Good for us that @Rail_Tweet and his gang have the inside info, down there in the cafe car, and send out the news by tweets.

And, fortunately the automated ticketing system has the new schedule in place. (Which makes it even more incomprehensible that they haven't put it on line as a timetable somewhere).

For those of us commuting between San Diego County and LA, the morning trains are only different by a minute or two (though the #563 "express" is now #599).

There are bigger changes for the afternoon trip back from LA Union Station. Train 578, the 2pm departure from LA, is now train 580, departing at 3.05.

Train 582 (4.10pm) and Train 784 (5.10pm) remain.

But train 592 (8.30pm) is now replaced by train 790 departing at 7.30pm.

 Now, do notice that this is a 700-number train, which means it's coming down from Santa Barbara, and thus will be more prone to delays. It appears to replace the former train 798, which connected with 592. If you miss #790, the next train is the last train of the night, the 10.10pm departure.

On Line on Amtrak

Pacific Surfliners now have free wireless. They use cell towers along the route, and limit the bandwidth--so no streaming videos or mega downloads-- but for email and surfing, it's fine. Of course, the more people who find out about it the slower it will be. Still, nice to have it!