16-06-14 PHOTOS: San Diego Trolley

So when I fly out to Southern California I make it a point to avoid the LA Basin as even if I found something remotely redeemable in that metroplex, it's airports are not transit accessible and far from anywhere I would want to be. Therefore I utilize San Diego as my SoCal port of entry as it not only has a rich transit scene and a pleasant climate, but one can easily connect with one's choice of Amtrak long distance route out of LA via a short Surfliner ride.

This year I was conducting a do-over of my 2015 Sunset Limited trip that, due to an unfortunate placement of a private car, turned out to be a complete waste. After scheduling time to stuff fish tacos in my face and visit the beach, I still had more than enough left over to take another tour of the San Diego Trolley network and wander around downtown. I am actually no stranger to San Diego, as this would be my 4th visit since 2009, however I had still not ridden the full length of the Orange Line nor had I ridden either the Orange or Green lines since my first trip back in 2009.

You can find the full set of photos, which also include Amtrak and Coaster content, here.

Transfering from the airport bus to the Green Line trolley I spent a few minutes taking pictures at the former Santa Fe station, southern terminus of the Surfliner corridor. Amtrak handles most of its maintenance at LA, but they do keep a protect F59PHI at San Diego, just in case. This time #460 was filling the role.

Coaster cab car #2303 was at the southern end of the trainset that was currently laying over at the station providing mid-day service on the line to Oceanside. Despite Metrolink's freakout over the safety of this type of cab car, and their beefier replacements, in various types of accident, Coaster, Metrolink and ACE have no compunction against operating the type. 

Milwaukee Road private car "Montana" was also hanging out on a station track. The car lives in LA and the owners had decided on a short trip to San Diego to entertain a client.

Passengers shuffle out of Green Line LRV #4017 at Santa Fe Depot. The westward track serves both the Green Line as a station and the Orange Line as a terminal. A separate berthing area is provided for each service as Green Line trains will often pull up behind Orange Line trains to allow passengers to transfer. 

MTS LRV #3005 is seen here on the head of a train stopping at Washington St. The 11 3000 series S70 LRV's were purchased in 2004 for the construction of the Green Line. They are about 10 feet longer than the rest of the fleet and may not be able to operate on the downtown loop, restricting them to the Green Line service.

MTS LRV #4052 arrives at the Olde Towne Transportation Center, which also provides a connection with Coaster and Surfliner trains. The 65 4000 series LRV's were purchased to supplant the original U2 trams purchased from Germany in 1981.

The Green Line loops west through a valley north of the city, eventually joining with the opposite end of the Orange Line before terminating at a "towne centre" in Santee. The Green Line is the only part of the San Diego Trolley system no built on an existing right of way as is evidenced by numerous elevated sections like this one at Grantville. The route was partly motivated to serve the San Diego Chargers' stadium.

The San Diego Trolley was the country's first modern Light Rail system and line several successors, it operates under an FRA waiver to allow freight service on the original rail lines the Light Rail took over. While the freight traffic on the orange line is greatly reduced, a customer in an El Cajon industrial park still gets shipments.

Here we see MTS LRV #4039 at the Santee terminal. Since the 4000-series delivery was completed, the MTS has moved to sandwitch the older 2000-series SD100 cars in the interior of 3-car trainsets for ADA reasons. 

14-08-22 PHOTOS: San Diego Streetcar

So if you recall my last few posts I wasn't just riding the Coast Starlight for my health. Unlike many of my cross country trips I actually had a genuine reason to head out to the west coast in the form of a computer security conference in San Diego. Now I've been to San Diego before, for about 24 hours in 2013 and then a longer stay in 2009. This time the 4000 series LRV's were really making the old 1000 series U-2s scarce, however I was pleased to find that the MTS was running its PCC trolley on a downtown loop 3 days a weeks.

Unfortunately there was a bit of a downside in that I left my camera on an ISO 800 setting after a round a night photos so all the day photos look like absolute shit :-( I guess these things happen. Anyway, you can see all the photos here

We kick things off with a new 4000 series LRV arriving and departing from the Gaslamp station.

Three is a crowd at the Gaslamp station as #4015 pulls into the yard while #4023 and #4020 pass by in service.



I was actually completely unaware of the downtown loop PCC service and was taken completely by surprise when #529 pulled up.

Here is a little video montage of the PCC making its rounds.



View inside #529.

The MTS is actually looking to run a full-week PCC loop service and went as far to trade some of its old U-2 trams to some trolley museums in exchange for enough PCCs to implement it. Not a bad deal for a transit system with an LRV fleet to scrap.

Later that night I encountered giant lashup of GE units, including C44-10W #7731. blocking crossings across from the convention center as they flat switched the San Diego yard.

Video of the same.



BNSF road monsters weren't the only thing out at night. MTS trolleys were also pulling into the yard via the waterfront line.



The old U-2's weren't completely gone. I caught #1010 running around towards the end of the morning rush.

About the same time the Coaster trainsets were pulling down into the yard to wait out the mid-day period in the pleasant San Diego weather. Here Bombardier cab car #2306 leads the way.

13-06-18 PHOTOS: Ride to the Border

As far as I am aware there is exactly one rail transit system where one can ride to an international border and that's the San Diego Trolley's Blue Line. Because Los Angeles is on my black list of cities with poor urban planning that I will never set foot in, this year's cross country Amtrak trip began with a 24 hour stay in San Diego where the weathermen have the easiest job in the universe. Seeing as I have been to San Diego before this time it would not only be something different, but also somewhat symbolic to begin my cross country journey from the San Ysidro International Transportation Center, connecting to Amtrak's Surfliner Service at the Sanfa Fe Depot before finally catching Amtrak's Southwest Chief at the LAUPT.

As always the weather was NICE and despite having to take a bus in from the Airport, San Diego is bustling with both light and heavy rail transportation ranging from the aforementioned trolley to Amtrak and Coaster passenger services and a healthy dose of BNSF serving the local post and industry. I also paid a visit to the USS Midway (CV-41), which is docked downtown as a floating museum, but those photos will have to wait for another time.

You can find all the photos right here.

After getting off the airport bus I found Amtrak F59PHI #450 seemingly bad ordered at the ATSF Depot. It remained there the next day with the blue flags in place so something was clearly wrong with it.

Behind #450 is the the Cyrus K Holliday, which had made the run down to San Diego with a bunch of mid-whigs which were discussing some future station improvements. The car was made for the president of the Soo Line railroad and named after a former official of the Santa Fe railroad.

There is usually a coaster trainset laying over at the santa Fe depot and today was no different with Bomber cab car #2003 on the south end. 

During the peak periods Coaster trainsets head in from the yard south of the city. Here is F40PH-2 #2101 crossing Broadway into the platform area.

Wrapped Bomber Cab Car #2310 promoting unnecessary medical spending.

The former ATSF main line between LA (Fulelrton) and San Diego has split ownership between Metrolink and San Diego county. Due to it being a primarily passenger route it is still equipped with Intermittent Inductive Automatic Train Stop between MP179 and 249 allowing 90mph operation. All leading locomotives and cab cars must be equipped with an IIATS pickup receiver. All the adjustment screws are because the receiver must pass within 1.5 inches of the track mounted shoes.

Since the SDT re-arranged its routes a few years ago moving the major transfer point from Old Towne to the more logical ATSF depot now Green Line trains travel through all the way to 12th and Imperial with Orange Line trains terminating at the station. Blue Line trains now terminate across the street at American Plaza. This results in both Orange and Green line trains having extended layovers at the ATSF depot to allow passengers to transfer. Here is one of the brand 57 new 4000 series Siemens S70 LRV's which were purchased to phase out the original Duewag U-2 trams. The 4000 series are shorter than the earlier 3000 and can operate on the tight curves of the downtown street running.

The old 1000 series U-2's were still plentiful with 1047 here on a Blue Line run to American Plaza. The 1000 and 2000 series high floor trams are still used on the Orange and Blue lines because, ironically, the low floor trams need higher platforms for ADA access than the high floor trams which are equipped with lifts that can service zero height platforms.

Video of #1047 with new #4024 at American Plaza.

09-02-17 PHOTOS: San diego clouds

Last year about this time I shipped off to San Diego for an executive conference on Cloud Computing. It was a pretty swank event with most expenses paid and I was lucky to have the attendance ball drop in my lap, but I was not going to be contented with fillet minion dinners and open bars, so I set off with my camera to document a transit system that gets a relative lack of coverage at least by the folks on the forums I frequent.

San Diego's two major attractions are its trolley and the Coaster commuter rail network. It also sees some Amtrak service in the form of the Pacific Surfliner, but no other long distance trains.

The San Diego Trolley (operating under the Metropolitan Transportation System brand), is widely held to be the first modern light rail transit system in North America using Siemens articulated LRV's. It also made extensive use of having freight trains run on its system before the FRA stopped giving out waivers for that sort of thing. The Trolley pioneered several innovations now common in North American light rail systems such as in-street reservations in the downtown, proof of payment and multiple unit operation.

The SDT consists of three lines, Orange, Blue and Green. The Blue Line was built first in 1981 and is the light rail line in the country that can take you to an international border crossing. This was followed in 1986 by the Orange Line, which used an old ATSF commuter RoW to travel inland. Both of these lines use classic style The new Green Line was opened in 2005 on the I-8 alignment serving the Chargers stadium and a UC San Diego.

Coaster is exactly what it says on the tin and runs up the coast almost to Camp Pendleton. The line is partly equipped with the Automatic Train Stop system which allows for speed of up to 90mph.

I had plenty of opportunity to take pictures around the old ATSF Union Station downtown where the Coaster and Surfliner terminate and Blue and Orange line trolleys also stop. I took a Blue/Green/Orange circle route on the Trolley and also took pictures around the combined Trolley/Coaster yard near the 12th and Imperial transportation center.

You can view all of the photos I took by clicking this link right here or just see the small fraction that I post below.

I will start with the old ATSF depot downtown which has kept most of its original detailing. (Specifically the ATSF tilework on the domes). Here we see the depot with a blue line trolley going past.

The inside was no different. I am sure there is some sort of interesting preservation story associated with this place.

The depot has a total of 6 tracks, 2 trolley and 4 for Amtrak/Coaster. There are two islands and two side platforms. Here we are at the north end of the platforms looking back as a Blue Line trolley departs at night.

Amtrak trainsets are based out of LA so when they arrive in San Diego they don't tend to stay very long. Here is Amtrak F59PHI #455 painted in Operation Lifesaver colors shortly before its departure northbound.

And here it is departing.



Of course the main tenant of the station are the Coaster trains. Coaster uses MPI/M-K built F40PH-2's and those Bombardier octagonal bi-level coaches that don't do so well in crashes. The Coaster trainsets hang out in large yard complex south of the downtown area and have to navigate a long single track segment with lots of grade crossings to get to the station. This track is also used by BNSF freight trains to reach the San Diego freight yards.

Here we have Coaster F40 #2103 waiting at the end of the lead track waiting to proceed across Broadway and platform at Union Station. The light rail tracks are on the left. Uh Oh, do I see bi-lingual warning signs? Someone better call Lou Dobbs!

The south end of the station is non-interlocked so Coaster employs a switchtender to line the routes by hand during the peak periods. Here the tender unlocks the hand throw points while Coaster cab car #2301 passes by.

Here that same trainset trailed by #2301 sits at the depot.