Los Angeles Metrolink

[yorkie]

Does anyone have any recommendations for lines to travel on the LA Metrolink network?

If anyone has any experiences, tips/hints etc feel free to post these too.

 

[ac6000cw]

The lines to Oceanside and Palmdale would be my suggestion, as both have a variety of urban and other scenery. The 'Sprinter' DMU service from Oceanside to Escondido is worth a ride too.

 

[QJ]

Here's a link to a PDF copy of the current metrolinktrains timetable. San Bernadino is located at the base of the Cajon Pass. Lots of UP and BNSF freights to be seen there if that floats your boat. IIRC the Riverside line runs past the main UP freight yard.

 

[railfan99]

Here's a link to a PDF copy of the current metrolinktrains timetable. San Bernadino is located at the base of the Cajon Pass. Lots of UP and BNSF freights to be seen there if that floats your boat.

I have also been there. Recommended.

I can't recommend the network as the most scenic worldwide though.

 

[ac6000cw]

I can't recommend the network as the most scenic worldwide though.

Agreed - you need to like urban and desert landscapes

And yes, if you want a decent length ride - about 90 minutes - with railfan interest at the end, San Bernardino Depot station is the place to head for - the BNSF mainline and an intermodal yard are right alongside. If you don't want go as far (from LA), Fullerton has a great mix of freight and passenger - Metrolink, Amtrak and BNSF.

 

[43096]

Agreed - you need to like urban and desert landscapes

And yes, if you want a decent length ride - about 90 minutes - with railfan interest at the end, San Bernardino Depot station is the place to head for - the BNSF mainline and an intermodal yard are right alongside. If you don't want go as far (from LA), Fullerton has a great mix of freight and passenger - Metrolink, Amtrak and BNSF.

Fullerton is quite a nice spot with the good mix you describe, such as this BNSF double-stack.


Just a shame that Metrolink aren't still hiring the AC4400CWs from BNSF, as they did back in 2016!
(photo of 5648 leading a Metrolink service into LA Union)

 

[philden]

You can also travel to Perris by Metrolink to visit the Southern California Railway Museum (formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum).

 

[ac6000cw]

Fullerton is quite a nice spot with the good mix you describe, such as this BNSF double-stack.

You're slipping a bit there, 43096 - there's no 7FDL power in the photo...

To put that right, here's a few in 2019 - intermingled with EVOs, 645s, 710s, QSK95s and C175s:

Sunrise at Fullerton:

...and Sunset (same day):

In between recording the video for those, I took Metrolink from Fullerton to Oceanside, 'Coaster' service to San Diego, then Coaster or Amtrak (can't remember which) back to Oceanside, the 'Sprinter' DMU service to Escondido and back, a quick visit to the beach and pier (only a short walk from Oceanside station), then back to Fullerton by Amtrak 'Surfliner'.

The beach and pier at Oceanside:




As for San Bernardino, this is a (not very good) frame-grab from video back in 2007, taken standing outside the old Santa Fe station building, looking east with a westbound train rounding the 90 degree curve from the the Cajon Pass line (the summit of which is about 2700ft higher and 25 rail miles away to the north):

 

[yorkie]

Thanks for all the contributions to this thread!

We visited Oceanside, which was a surprisingly pleasant temperature for the time of year and as I write this we are just about to depart Lancaster heading back towards LA.

The two lines were very different, but both well worth doing.

All our trains have been hauled by EMD F125 locos which have the same engines as Class 68s.

 

[ac6000cw]

All our trains have been hauled by EMD F125 locos which have the same engines as Class 68s.

Technically they use the 4700hp V20 version of the C175 engine (the 68s use the V16).

The F125s also share design heritage with the 68s as the bodyshell and bogies were designed and made in Valencia by Vossloh/Stadler (AFAIK).

 

[Taunton]

You can also travel to Perris by Metrolink to visit the Southern California Railway Museum (formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum).

I've been going to Perris museum on odd occasions since the late 1970s. I have to say it hasn't advanced a huge lot, although initially then it was on cheap land in the desert, now the urban growth of Perris/greater LA is getting close. Its roots were a streetcar museum for the old Pacific Electric interurbans, and Los Angeles city cars, but recently mainstream railroads seem more dominant. The dry desert air aids the old equipment which is stored outdoors (much has been there for decades it seems). I wonder if the recent unusual heavy rains have had an impact.

I'm afraid taking Metrolink to the museum is pretty impractical. The only possible way from Downtown LA is early, at 0730, taking two hours to get to Perris main station, and the only one back is at 1500. The museum is about a two (maybe more) mile walk each way from there, in desert heat. Perris South Metrolink station is even further away. All other passenger trains on the route are the normal US commuter "in morning, out evening" style. No return trip possible at weekends at all. As the museum only seem to operate their trains and streetcars on weekend days, that's pretty much it. I'd certainly recommend going, but like everyone in Southern California would expect, by car.

 

[ac6000cw]

I went to the museum in October 2015, when it happened to be 'Pumpkin Day' so I was lucky in that there was steam, interurban and street cars operating (named the Orange Empire Railway Museum then). Well worth a visit.

Photo album - https://flic.kr/s/aHsksrzCRg . The photo with the staff lined up was spontaneous - they saw me taking photographs and just decided to pose for it! Made a nice picture with a streetcar, interurban car and steam loco all lined up as well .

https://socalrailway.org/

 

[nw1]

I have also been there. Recommended.

I can't recommend the network as the most scenic worldwide though.

Not sure about the Metrolink network but there is some extremely scenic country in the San Gabriel Mountains just north of LA.

 

[ac6000cw]

Not sure about the Metrolink network but there is some extremely scenic country in the San Gabriel Mountains just north of LA.

The Metrolink line to Lancaster goes past the western edge of the San Gabriel Mountains between San Fernando and Palmdale (through Soledad Canyon), and of course Cajon Pass is at the eastern end (but the Amtrak Southwest Chief is the only passenger train to traverse it). Last time I was in LA I drove the length of the Angeles Forest Highway through them en-route from Tehachapi to LAX, and I agree it's a very scenic area (and the road is very twisty!).



...and looking west from Cajon Pass summit (as it was in 2015) towards them, under stormy skies. The railway curves round to the left (south) in the distance as it descends the pass, and the Interstate highway climbs up the hillside on the upper right to its summit:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/CMt5BV] BNSF TOFC at Cajon Summit 1 by ac6044cw, on Flickr[/URL]

 

[43096]

You're slipping a bit there, 43096 - there's no 7FDL power in the photo...

I know! But more than made up for by the 23 BNSF AC4400CWs I had for haulage during that trip.

 

[185]

Went to Metrolink's Pomona (their one, not our one) solely for the obligatory selfie, an otherwise very boring line through the gritty industrial east of the city. Felt the light rail was more interesting, down to Long Beach and surviving passing through Compton. The only exception on Metrolink was the line out to Oxnard, that's a nice run, about an hour and three quarters past vineyards and a changing landscape.

 

[Taunton]

Felt the light rail was more interesting, down to Long Beach and surviving passing through Compton.

I went on the Long Beach light rail line in its first year (1990). It was like the DLR, unmanned stations, ticket machines, and periodic ticket inspection. The latter comprised two inspectors and two glowering armed police, all wearing stab vests. As the fare was about $1 in those days, it seemed that pretty much all the revenue would be absorbed just in the inspection. In those times Watts, a onetime Pacific Electric major junction, had the poor reputation, but it has since moved a bit south to Compton. The whole line is pretty much on the alignment of the last Pacific Electric line, which closed in 1963.

Lived there for some time. We were on what is now the G line, originally to be light rail as well but downgraded to be a busway with special articulated buses on a dedicated alignment, it's yet another onetime Pacific Electric line. In my time, 1980s, it was an obscure, dilapidated Southern Pacific branch, which had a once-a-day GP9-hauled freight, westbound only, which hooted each morning through what was once orange groves but now developed into stereotypical LA suburbia, "The Valley", along with various older industrial units which the freight served. I think it's mistaken that LA has gone for so many different technologies, incompatible of course, the light rail approach would have suited them all.

Up to the Long Beach line opening rail passenger service was at an absolute low. There was no Metrolink or Metrorail, and Union Station had about half a dozen trains a day on Amtrak - three to San Diego, which was (amusingly) thus called a "corridor", and one each to Oakland, Chicago, and New Orleans. That was it. In fairness the 1940-era Union Station never descended into the Skid Row character of some others (I recall Detroit having certainly done so), despite most of the tracks being unused, but it was a close thing. Nowadays there's a capacity shortage there.

 

[nw1]

I went on the Long Beach light rail line in its first year (1990). It was like the DLR, unmanned stations, ticket machines, and periodic ticket inspection. The latter comprised two inspectors and two glowering armed police, all wearing stab vests. As the fare was about $1 in those days, it seemed that pretty much all the revenue would be absorbed just in the inspection. In those times Watts, a onetime Pacific Electric major junction, had the poor reputation, but it has since moved a bit south to Compton. The whole line is pretty much on the alignment of the last Pacific Electric line, which closed in 1963.

I have also used the Long Beach line about four times or so, in 2002 and 2003 (twice in each). I was staying with a friend who lived in Lakewood, CA, and got a bus to Del Amo station then the metro. It was operated wholly by the original 1990 stock.

Perhaps by that time the area was considered safer as I don't remember seeing any armed police and there was no trouble on the trains, though I did use it at reasonably busy times (mid-morning into downtown, evening rush hour back).

We then transferred to the Red Line (underground) as were generally heading for the Hollywood area - not a lot goes on in Downtown LA!

Never visited Union Station but it looks like the light rail network has expanded considerably since then. In those days it was just the Long Beach line (Blue), the underground line (North Hollywood, Red) and a line which intersected the Long Beach line near Watts Towers, heading from the airport area inland (Green).

 

[CS2447]

Does anyone have any recommendations for lines to travel on the LA Metrolink network?

If anyone has any experiences, tips/hints etc feel free to post these too.

Check a channel called Simply Railway on YouTube He's done some of these lines