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At the April Train Riders Meeting at the Rail Restaurant in Fullerton which is always the 4th Monday Night of the Month I suggested a trip to Santa Barbara after we all did Fullerton Railroad Days to relax. At first we chose the weekend of May 13th but soon it was pointed out that it was Mother's Day Weekend. The next weekend was then chosen and the word got out through E-mails and the What's New on Trainweb.com. Amtrak had two for one companions and a fare deal on their web site using the same concept. All we had to do was wait for the day of the trip to arrive.
5/20/06 I started out by preparing for the trip, watch a little Classic VH1 before driving down to the Santa Ana Train Station. I had a southbound green signal at CP Lincoln so the only thing it could be with the line shut down below San Juan Capistrano due the a underpass for a Bike Path along San Juan Creek was being put in this weekend was deadheading Surfliner 763 heading to Irvine. Amtrak was bussing south of Irvine this whole weekend. As I have done before all my recent trips I will give you a quick look at the construction at Santa Ana for our new platforms and the like.
The new northwest wheelchair ramp is almost ready to be poured.
The bridge is covered as they work on it during the week.
The west tower has its elevator control room being added.
Deadheading Surfliner 763 sped south through Santa Ana on the way to Irvine.
On the way to the parking structure roof a view of the future hall from the building to the bridge.
The overview of the area. Back inside the station I found Pat Moran waiting for me. She and I walked outside and soon were joined by Chris Parker with the three of us talking until the train arrived.
Surfliner 763 pulled into Santa Ana with only a five car train. It dawned on me that
wasn't this also the weekend of the Oxnard Strawberry Festival. We stepped onto the train
which was very crowded but we did find seats at the front of the cab car. The train left
Santa Ana on time and made its way to Anaheim before we ran to Fullerton. At Fullerton
we were joined by Steve Grande, Ray Burns, Shivan and his wife Kranti with a thirteen
month beautiful girl named Khushi. Also joining us here was Dan, Jonathan Ortiz and
his dad. We all had seats as the train headed to Los Angeles Union Station where Ken Ruben
joined us and managed to get a seat. Also at Los Angeles about two hundred other passengers
all going to the Strawberry Festival boarded causing the train to become Standing room only.
At Glendale, Bob Hope Airport and Van Nuys passengers were accepted and the train filled up more. From here to Oxnard only "Reserved Pacific Business Class" would be accepted to board this train. So at Chatsworth we turned away a dozen passengers. As we neared the Chatsworth Rocks for the first time we saw rock climbers repealing down the face of the first largest rock. We went through the Chatsworth Tunnels and onto Simi Valley where twenty three passengers were refused boarding. At Moorpark the Altamont Commuter Express {ACE} train set was laying over for the weekend. We made our way to Camarillo where we met Surfliner 774 doing it's station work on the siding platform. At Oxnard we lost a couple of hundred passengers going to the Oxnard Strawberry Festival. You were now free to walk down the aisle and visit the bathrooms or cafe car if you chose. We picked a beautiful day for a trip to Santa Barbara. We stopped at Ventura before we did our coastal running. The train made its way to Carpinteria before we ran on time to Santa Barbara.
Here we detrained with me taking a group picture of our passengers today. Steve and most
the Fullerton boarders headed up to 1027 State Street and ate at the Spice Avenue Restaurant.
The rest of us walked to 628 State Street and ate at The Habit. Here I enjoyed a Tri Tip Sandwich, fries and a chocolate shake. Everyone here enjoyed their meal. We all walked back except Dan who took a shuttle bus back to the station where we waited for Train 14 to arrive into Santa Barbara.
The Coast Starlight arrived into Santa Barbara. After walking around the back of the train, I visited with several of the Starlight Crew Members I knew from my travels. Once the Coast Starlight left we returned to the benches in the shade of the station arches. About a few minutes before Surfliner 784 was expected I went out to the platform to wait. The train came in and we all boarded with us having a nice quiet trip back home. At Los Angeles the train filled up again but we arrived into Santa Ana ending another exciting Train Riders Group Trip.
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