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Irvine, the Cajon area, some Colton Yard and with real Surf(liner) at San Clemente


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  • RMweb Gold

I recently had to visit the US for work, I managed to get out for a lunchtime visit to the local station - Irvine, a day out at Colton and Cajon (thanks to a colleague) and a quick shot of the surfliner, with some surf, sadly that was all I managed, work was too demanding.

 

My first visit was to the local station for some lunch time shots of the trains.

 

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Looking South

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Looking North

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188 and 6951 on 572, 11:15, Los Angeles - San Diego - Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

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667 and 895 on 851, 10:40, Riverside (Downtown) - Oceanside - Metrolink

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6901 and 456 on 763, 10:42, San Diego - San Luis Obispo - Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

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648 and 869 on 811, 11:20, San Bernardion - San Juan Capistrano - Metrolink

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Edited to add train descriptions.
 

More soon.

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In the seventh photo is that a sign banning ladders? :P

 

 

It's a ubiquitous sign in California -- an illiterate-symbol basically saying don't walk on railroad tracks.

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  • RMweb Gold

Superb photos Dave.

 

If some of our new footbridges are high then just try walking up some of those USA footbridges such as the one at Irvine in the heat!! At least they do have lifts. More and more Pacific Surfliners seem to be worked by P42's these days. The F59PHi's must be getting worn out. certainly very rusty bodyside doors.

 

Look forward to you next batch of photos.

 

Ian

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  • RMweb Gold

I took lots of wagon shots - I'll put these in a thread on their own to save cluttering this with several hundred of them ! - the same with the closer loco shots.

 

Some of the shots are very similar, rather than sorting them I'm just posting them all - some are slightly wider views to show the mountains or a part of the scenery.

 

Colton Yard - the first of two visits

 

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  • RMweb Gold

After Colton we headed up Route 66 (yes, literally) to Cajon, paralleling the line, and, of course, we passed trains on the way.

 

These are the assisters at the back of the train

 

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And as we got to the front, one came the other way - and here it's left hand running so it passed behind !

 

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That's a signal gantry !

 

One head per line, bi-directional.

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I had to photograph the level crossing.

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Continuing further along the line, towards Cajon, we overtook the train see above, we stopped at a suitable grade crossing.

 

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<I then photographed every wagon>

 

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Don't ask why I snipped it's nose.

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Onwards and upwards - this is Route 66 (!)

 

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I recently had to visit the US for work, I managed to get out for a lunchtime visit to the local station - Irvine,

It's amazing how much that area has changed in the 22 years since I lived there.

 

The Irvine Spectrum area (where the station is) was all orange groves. I don't recall, but I don't think that Barranca Parkway extended beyond Sand Canyon Ave where Old Town Irvine (and the original Irvine ATSF depot) used to be. There wasn't much of anything (besides orange groves) south east of Jeffrey Rd.

 

In Old Town, the Irvine Ranch's silos and warehouse were preserved and repurposed as a hotel about 25 years ago. They are still trackside at Sand Canyon Ave.

 

I found the following online:

The Santa Fe depot was in the real town of Irvine that was where the tracks cross Sand Canyon. When the University of California was established in the 1960s the post office was move from the general store at Irvine and the name changed to East Irvine (after some thought of other names such as Myford) The Santa Fe changed the station name in 1965 to Valencia and renamed the location (station) near the old blimp base from Venta to Irvine. the name was moved to its present site when the station near the Marine base was built. Irvine is a collection of "villages" that covers a large area of what was the Rancho San Joaquin (Irvine Ranch). The depot serve the business area and the El Toro (unfortunately renames Lake Forest) Foothill area, Mission Viejo area as well.

 

The Santa Fe depot was a two story wood combination station and was razed in about December of 1970.

 

Myford Browning

1961 8th grade class Irvine Elementary School

 

This webpage shows the ATSF Venta spur (which ran between Irvine Blvd and Bryan Ave) to serve orange packing plants in Irvine, northwest of Old Town. The alignment for the Venta spur junction is still visible as green space. The rails on this spur were removed in 1984, shortly before I moved to the area.

 

The new station is right across the tracks from the old El Toro MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station). Back in the 1980s El Toro hosted a squadron of F18s and at times even flew C5-A Starlifters into El Toro. They were a pretty amazing sight flying into the valley.

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  • RMweb Gold

The new station is right across the tracks from the old El Toro MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station). Back in the 1980s El Toro hosted a squadron of F18s and at times even flew C5-A Starlifters into El Toro. They were a pretty amazing sight flying into the valley.

 

Some of the old timers were telling me the same thing. The site is now derelict sadly.

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Beast, did you get a shot of the white painted Cargill tunnel motor, and did you make it up to Sullivans Curve?  It's only a mile beyond your last shots at taken at the Cajon Station.

 

I had a blast there last September - looks like you got the LA Basin Murk, I was lucky and had clear skies and temps in the mid 80s

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  • RMweb Gold

I remember planes at the base in Irvine but its been derelict for a few years now including when we were at Irvine in December 2011.

 

Sullivans Curve is an ice spot. Looks like Beat was lucky with the number of train photo'd/. Our last trip to Cajon we saw just one in a quite a few hours so we moved onto Mojave where there was no movement and finally to Tehachapi where we stayed then digh't and heard loads of trains but come morning it all went quiet again!

 

Int terms of weather I cant remember the last time we had the murk in LA as its always been sunny. Santa Barbara though has often been in low cloud and it took some years to get the backscene shots for the layout.

 

Ian

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I used to commute out to Hollywood every two weeks from Manhattan. One year my Wife was invited out to a special conference held in San Diego by Microsoft (this was back in the Nineties) which unusually for Microsoft was a small, limited attendee function. She asked me if I wanted to go because spouses were invited and I said no - because I was tired of going backwards and forwards (it's a six hour, each way journey from New York).

 

So I missed out on a special Microsoft treat to the Miramar Naval Air Station (aka Fightertown, USA and Top Gun), San Diego. Dammit.

 

She did bring me home a bunch of Hats, T-Shirts, Bags and other Tat which were tres cool.

 

Best, Pete.

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<I then photographed every wagon>

 

Ah, but did you manage to get photos of 'complete' wagons? (For those that don't know, articulated 3- or 5-unit well or spine cars are numbered single wagons and treated as such.)

 

Were there any bulkhead well cars (e.g. Gunderson Twin-Stack) or 48' wells in that train? Both are now quite rare up here.

 

Adrian

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Ah, but did you manage to get photos of 'complete' wagons? (For those that don't know, articulated 3- or 5-unit well or spine cars are numbered single wagons and treated as such.)

 

  The wells all have the same number, but have a sub-letter.  Some roads consider them one "car" (BNSF) some consider them individual "cars" (UP).

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  • RMweb Gold

Ah, but did you manage to get photos of 'complete' wagons? (For those that don't know, articulated 3- or 5-unit well or spine cars are numbered single wagons and treated as such.)

 

Were there any bulkhead well cars (e.g. Gunderson Twin-Stack) or 48' wells in that train? Both are now quite rare up here.

 

Adrian

 

I think so to the former - can't recall to the latter, but I'm happy to post them all to a separate thread if people are interested - there will be several hundred though.

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  • RMweb Gold

Beast, did you get a shot of the white painted Cargill tunnel motor, and did you make it up to Sullivans Curve?  It's only a mile beyond your last shots at taken at the Cajon Station.

 

I had a blast there last September - looks like you got the LA Basin Murk, I was lucky and had clear skies and temps in the mid 80s

 

Afraid not.

 

The temperature was 110 when we were on the mountain.

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