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A Tribute to the Great Domes and my 775,000.0 Rail Mile 12/1/2003

I said that line on May 16th, 1998 when I had my first opportunity to ride in former Burlington full-lengthd dome 1395 "River View", now Amtrak 9302. This dome was shortly joined thereafter by the Great Northern full-length dome 1391 "Ocean View", which became Amtrak 10031 and Great Northern 1392 "Mountain View" was later Amtrak 10030. They were used on the Empire Builder until the advent of Amtrak on May 1, 1970 and continued on that train until it was the first service to have all-new Superliner equipment assigned in 1978.

After that, they were assigned to Amtrak's Auto Train were they ran between Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida, until that train was converted to Superliners in the mid-1990's and the domes were removed from service and placed in storage at the Beech Grove Indiana Shops. In 1999, Amtrak assigned them to the Corporate Service Unit and Amtrak West bid on all three for service in the San Diegan pool. "River View" first came out to San Diego Rail Days where the above photograph was taken in May 1998 and I had the opportunity to ride in one of these cars a few days later. That car was returned to Beech Grove but next "Mountain View" was assigned to café service on the San Diegans and the dome rotated to every train on our line along California's West Coast. That started my many trips in this car.

"Ocean View" was the last car to journey west so now I could take one dome south and the other north. Nothing could be finer than riding a round trip in a full length great dome. Over the next few years, I took many trips travelling south to San Diego and north to Santa Barbara and Goleta, which were were the great days of train-riding on the San Diegan route.

"Mountain View" was used on the Amtrak West excursion and I briefly rode it it on a Mount Shasta Daylight journey in June 1998 and at the National Railway Historical Society convention in Sacramento in 1999. Amtrak West then ordered the bi-level Pacific Surfliner trainset, which was put in service on May 26th, 2000. The San Diegan named, used since 1939, was dropped and the service was re-named Pacific Surfliner Service. As the new cars arrived, the Horizon cars were removed from service but the dome cars continued until the last new cars arrived. That should have been the end.

In September 2001, Amtrak sold "Mountain View" and "River View" to the American Orient Express for their train service. A problem developed with the Pacific Surfliner trainsets as they were built as five-car sets. How does one expand the trains for peak travel periods? The solution was to add a Superliner car into the consist, much to the crews' dismay. As ridership grew, more cars were be needed, so one Horizon set was returned into Surfliner service with the remaining Great Dome "Ocean View" back running on the famed Surf Line. Trips were once again made to Goleta and San Diego and dome car schedules were posted on Trainorders.com to all interested riders of the great cars.

Ken Ruben, the official caller of Let's Talk Train, decided that my 775,000th rail mile was very important, for a reason I could never work out. Was it that he thought it was three quarters of a million rail miles? That had occurred on May 26th, 2003 on Pacific Surfliner 769 2.8 rail miles from Santa Ana. So to me, this 775,000 rail miles would only get me closer to 800,000, and on to the one million mark.

As the days neared, I learnt of the excursion into the Carrizo Gorge and thought about reaching it on the Goat Creek Trestle, however, there was no way I could plan to do it on that trip. Then on Trainorders.com, Ed Van Nordeck posted the Thanksgiving schedule for the low-level Horizon, but a service disruption throw that schedule out of the window, but the new schedule would be become important in my train-riding career. It turned out that on Monday, December 1st, 2003, the Great Dome would run from San Luis Obispo to San Diego on Pacific Surfliner 774, then turn into on Train 783 to Goleta. Since the Orange County Railway Historical Society meeting was that evening, it meant an afternoon run so I worked a full day at McFadden Intermediate before driving to the Santa Ana station for a journey to Solana Beach.

I boarded Pacific Surfliner 578 on a beautiful afternoon and Mishi punched my ten-ride ticket and we proceeded south, passing Train 579 at Irvine followed by a northbound BNSF freight. Following our run along the beach and the Pacific Ocean's edge, we met Metrolink 609 at San Onofre then at Oceanside, took the beach-side track as always as we met Train 581 at the station. Twelve minutes later, I stepped off at Solana Beach, where I purchased a maple bar at the Solana Beach donut shop then crossed the tracks and rode the elevator down to Track 2 to wait for my northbound Pacific Surfliner.

The low-level set of Horizon cars arrived with locomotives on both ends and Great Dome 10031 the second car back. I said hello to Pablo, our conductor, before entering the dome and choosing the front rear-facing seat so I could overlook the train then departed on time as I was enjoying the 360 degree view the dome offered. We left Track 2 at Craven, switching onto the mainline and quickly sped up to 90 miles per hour as we proceeded through Encinitas while I was listening to "Rush In Rio" as Pablo punched my ticket. I was enjoying the setting sun as we sped towards Oceanside.

While the train was fairly full, the dome was almost empty, which made it nice and quiet. As the North Carolina dome car was now out of Amtrak service, 9302 was the final dome running on the entire Amtrak system. We arrived at Oceanside and departed on time, which led to the moment fast approaching. We crossed the San Luis Rey River and passed CP Eastbrook as the train was reaching track speed. As we neared the former location of Fallbrook Junction, we ducked under the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 and two-tenths of a mile later, the point of me passing my 775,000.0 rail mile before going past the Coaster Stuart Mesa maintenance facility and across Camp Pendleton.

Pablo stopped by to congratulate me before we went into the siding at San Onofre for Metrolink 604. The sun had already set, but we had a beautiful twilight Pacific Ocean shore run with Venus shining in the western sky. It was one of those scenes that a still camera could not capture, but perhaps a video camera might. San Clemente Island was visible as well, which does not occur often, so it was indeed a special evening. All too soon, we turned off the beach for San Juan Capistrano and our next station stop then passed Pacific Surfliner 582 at CP Avery, and later Metrolink 606 just beyond Irvine. Nine minutes later, I detrained at Santa Ana with 775,049.4 rail miles, thus ending another Amtrak rail adventure.

When might I ride an Amtrak Great Dome again? Only time will tell, but I hope it is soon!

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