chuljin
Lead Service Attendant
there were more smilies when I first wrote this; the forum software complained that I was too emotional. 
Edit: a few corrections and amplifications
1/17/09: BJG's second-to-last (but fortunately not really) hurrah
So I found out last week that it was Sadie Hawkins time at Amtrak (read: job bidding and musical routes), and that (which she said is no big secret) that our own BlueJeanGirl was outbid on her usual (until Sunday 1/18) assignment of 763 LAX-GTA, 784 GTA-LAX.
I'd gotten it into my head that being outbid means one leaves Amtrak altogether, so booked a trip during her last weekend, so we could have a someone longer chat (we've now met several times, but the 2-3 times we knew it were only some 10-15 minutes).
I booked GDL-GTA on 763, GTA-VEC on 784, and (because of my [almost unshared] fondness for that trainset) VEC-GDL on 792.
I later figured out that being outbid simply means being skunked out of one's preferred assignment, but as I'd booked, and never been to GTA before, I took the trip anyways.
763 was due at GDL at 9:18. For a variety of reasons, when I'm to travel from GDL, I get there quite early, and this day it was about 8:50. Lucky I did, because I'd chosen (because it was the only choice) to get my tickets for this reservation from a Metrolink TVM (as well as the one-off GDL-VNC ticket for Bonus Trip #2 below). Of the two machines, the left had crashed (the Windows "the memory could not be 'read'" dialog), and the right one could not read my card (IME neither at GDL has ever been able to), so I had to enter...my...reservation...numbers...one...character...at...a...time, video-game-high-score-initials-style, for both reservations.
763 arrived at GDL 2 minutes early. I met BJG at the door of Car 3, 6400, and went up. Amtrak still doesn't know when it left GDL (nor when it arrived at or left BUR) but we left on time (or *maybe* 1 minute late) IIRC.
Aside: In contrast to my usual [whooz]elitist dog[/whooz] tendencies for such long Surfliner trips, this was in coach. Also, unlike most other trips in coach of any duration, this trip and the next were the only two (or two of a very few) that I purposefully sat somewhere other than above the cafe.
The consist for 763 and 784, from north (front of 763/back of 784) to south (back of 763/front of 784) was:
455 F59PHI
6807 Surfliner Business
6307 Surfliner Café (Surfliner)
6400 Surfliner Coach (Surfliner)
6410 Surfliner Coach (Surfliner)
6907 Surfliner Coach/Cab/Baggage (Surfliner)
(455 is the red Operation Lifesaver one. I didn't realize it until I was looking at my Gathering pictures just recently that this is one of the 2-3 we saw at the shops during the tour, waiting to be repainted.)
This was the first trip I'd been on that I knew at least the names of everyone on board. They are all people I've met before (even the engineer once) and at least knew my face and v.v.
The family running this train ('crew' doesn't do justice to the camaraderie I witnessed):
Engineer: Adolph (NB: this is not confirmed. BJG had previously mentioned that this is their regular engineer, but I'm not sure if he was already back after the events of 1/11.)
Conductor: Kirk
Assistant Conductor: Joe (whom I'd previously called 'Mr. Big Voice'. Even though I know his name now, after this trip I might call him 'Mr. Big Wrong Conclusion'
Extra ('Deputy Assistant Conductor'?): our own BJG
Cafe Attendant: Randy
BC Attendant: Matthew
763 was full[-ish], and I was still looking for a seat when BJG asked how far I was going and gave me a seatcheck. I produced my ticket, but she said she'd wait until I sat, which I soon did in seat 39 (right side, facing forward) in Car 3/6400. Then she lifted my ticket, but had to hurry off to participate in Metrolink's little game (read on). Not long after, we began to *crawl* at some 12-15mph (per my phone's GPS), and (sounds like a joke, but I'm quite serious) maybe 1/4 mile before Burbank Junction, there was some insect (a bee or large fly) just outside my window flying as fast as the train. As we reached Burbank Junction and began to switch over to the Ventura County line, I saw a guy in a reflective vest holding a speed gun.
Shortly after we left VNC, BJG came by for a chat (one of several during longer stretches between stations), and told me the reason for the slowness earlier was that sometimes host railroads (in this case Metrolink) will simulate more restrictive signals to see if train crews are paying attention. Focus on safety is a good thing (despite its affect on OTP ... GDL was the last station arrived on time that day for 763). Soon Joe came along to see why BJG was just standing there, and she introduced us. As I stood to shake his hand, I lost awareness of my own height and smacked the overhead compartment pretty good. This was to plague me throughout the day. Joe asked how I knew BJG, and she just said 'It's complicated'.
We arrived at CWT, and BJG went to do station business while I went to the cafe to get chuljin's famous Diet Pepsi and chuljin's famous cheese and crackers (the BabyBel Gouda is back). When I came back, someone had sat in seat 40, so I excused myself into 39 and began to look around for a seatcheck that said SIM. Spying one at seat 37, I soon moved over there. BJG came by again, and seeing my cheese and crackers, said 'those are good, aren't they?' and was a little tickled when I reminded her of how I often wax poetic about them in my trip reports. She gave me some details of the 2nd choice schedule she'd bid on, and gave me some tips about what to do at GTA (not a lot, it turns out). But she reminded me that 14 comes through GTA at around 1pm. I'd been looking at SBA (the airport)'s website, and saw they had a restaurant of some kind there, so made my mind up to walk over there for lunch and come back to see 14. I asked her if it was some secret (or not allowed) that she was an AU contributor ('it's complicated') and she said no, but she'd just be teased over it if she tried to accurately explain. I don't know how it could have been worse (see below ).
At CML, she went about lifting tickets again. She asked a newly-boarded couple in 43/44 for their IDs, and they asked (not indignantly, just curiously) what the IDs were for. BJG said 'Just to make sure you exist. That's the only thing I can think of.'
We had one further chat, probably between VEC and CPN, but all the chats kind of jumble together in my mind now (I've slept twice since then). Somewhere along in there, I went down to get another Diet Pepsi, and my other favorite Amtrak California snack, the hummus, first discovered on the San Joaqins and recently added to the Surfliner Menu. Turns out they didn't have any, so another cheese and crackers. I decided to sit in the cafe's seating a while, because all the Conductors were down there, discussing trainy things over my head, and I thought I could learn something.
Since there's recovery time built into the schedule, the around-20-minute lateness past SIM was down to around 15 at SBA, and 10 at GTA, where we arrived at 12:05 (with at most 10 passengers; most had cleared out at SBA). I told BJG I'd see her for 14, then started to make my way over to the airport.
I walked south on La Patera, down to and across Hollister, then east on Hollister. I saw what I supposed to be the terminal, and thought 'wow, it's smaller than I thought!' and walked almost up to the front door, only then noticing that it was the Airport Fire Station. I checked out Google Maps on my phone, and discovered that the terminal is actually on the furthest (southeast) corner from the station, another 1.5-mile walk around the east side of the airport. If I'd walked really fast, I could get to the terminal just in time to rush back to the station by taxi, so I just walked back, dejected (but fortunately, not too hungry, though I was starting to get thirsty again). I got back to the platform at around 12:35. The train had already been moved to the siding (soon after we arrived, actually) and washed, and a couple people were checking and adjusting this and that on the train. On the platform were a young lady and her small child, talking to one of the Amtrak folks at the front of the cab car, perhaps the engineer (I met this day's assumed engineer once and admittedly forgot his face soon after). I walked past them and down the platform towards the middle of the train (mostly for shade more than anything). Soon the said lady and her child walked past me, past the large 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign, and across the front of the train, and disappeared (I did not see them again). I assume they're the family of one of the people working there. I walked on a little further and saw Matthew napping in the lower level of the business car.
I started calling Julie to see when 14 would leave/had left SBA. Soon BJG came out and joined me. She pointed to the signal 100-200 feet up the tracks and said that it used approach lighting, and that when it activated that would be our first clue that 14 was near. Matthew woke and saw us and started to practice sign language with BJG. It wasn't working. She called him. Then she called him again, and said 'You hung up on me! What? 14? I don't know, it's late.' Julie finally knew that 14 had left SBA. The same reflective-vested Gentleman from some minutes before opened a door and came out to chat with BJG; soon after, the signal came on and we prepared. As it passed, I captured
of it doing so. I know the latter is done by UP in Omaha or something; I was surprised that Amtrak do the former; I'd kind of thought UP would do that too. Surprising to me was the distance the train kept going once it got onto the mainline...perhaps it needed to be well clear of the switch, or back far enough to see the relevant signal. Soon it pulled up to the platform. Contrary to predictions, there was a *throng* of people boarding at GTA; they looked like some kind of high-school group.
I boarded, and soon after BJG lifted my ticket. Since I'd cheated myself out of lunch by my acute and uncharacteristic bad geography skills, I kept watching for the cafe to open, and when it did, I went down to get a jalapeño burger, Doritos, and Diet Pepsi. I sat down there to eat, making quick work of the burger, and had just started the Doritos when Kirk and Joe came down. Then the gentle, friendly crap started. Kirk said 'she talked about you all through lunch' and Joe encouraged me to 'ask for her phone number!'. I later told BJG I could have shut them up right quick by just saying (not a stretch) 'Why? She's a woman.' After they went back upstairs, some guy came to avail himself of the cafe just as Randy came out and closed the door, paused, opened the door and counted something, closed the door and hurried upstairs. He soon came back down, opened the door, counted something, said 'I think there's a thief', closed the door, and hurried back upstairs. He repeated this a few more times, sometimes with and sometimes without one of the Conductors. The guy who'd just missed buying something had sat across the way to wait, and we both agreed that it takes pretty big balls to steal something on a train, where there is no escape.
Finishing the Doritos, I went back to my seat; BJG came by to chat for about the first half of the time between CPN and VEC. She left to do paperwork or something, and I felt thirsty again, so I went down to the cafe to get yet another Diet Pepsi. The line by this time was considerable, so I got the can and prepared my $2. While waiting, I saw Randy writing on one of those forms OBS uses to send messages to 'ground' crews (airline metaphor): THEFT OF ONE RED BULL 2.75 CREDITED BY CONDUCTOR. So I guess there *was* a thief or something like one. I had been mistaken about how far along we were, so I was still in line when the train started to slow, and Joe announced 'This is Ventura,' so I put the can back in the fridge case and hurried back upstairs to collect my things, then back downstairs, bid farewell to BJG etc. and detrained.
The few pictures I took this day are here (unimpressive pics of the train on the GTA siding or stopped at VEC).
Briefly: in Ventura I went and had an apple fritter in the stripmall on west Main, visited a couple of the museums in the park at Main and Figueroa, had coffee at Bad Ass Coffee, and watched surfing a bit, then, like a good Amtrak passenger, presented myself back at the station at around 4:50, 15 minutes before the scheduled departure of 792.
I called Julie, who thought that it had not left SBA yet. Soon after, the EPIS changed to read: 'Train 792 is delayed due to train congestion. We apologize for the inconvenience.' I just waited and waited, then there came the train congestion: a UP freight. It was pulled by three locomotives (the middle one in very-well-beaten SP livery) and so I expected a very long train. Not so: it had perhaps 15-20 cars, among them a flatcar stacked high with sheet rock, and another with four John Deere tractors; the rest were boxcars with unknown contents. At long last, it left SBA 47 minutes late, and at longer last, arrived at VEC about 45 minutes late.
792 had the fourth of five different consists for this trainset in less than two weeks:
90208 Non-Powered Control Unit
58108 (was 53508) Horizon Club-Dinette (ADA) *Seat 3
54552 Horizon Coach (ADA)
82540 (was 81507) Amfleet-I Regional CoachClass Push-Pull
54500 Horizon Coach (ADA)
51 P42
(In the past, this has gone for weeks on end without changing, but over the past two weeks, I don't think it's had the same consist more than 2-3 days in a row. Always 90208 at the south end, 51 at the north end, and between, 58107 which was suddenly replaced with 58108 [to *Deborah's chagrin...see below], and three coaches selected apparently randomly from among 54500, 54552, 82500, 82540, and 82560 and also ordered apparently randomly between 58107/8 and 51. Not sure what they're playing at; perhaps the coaches are rotated in to keep them from rusting onto the tracks in the yard.)
I was met at the door by *Deborah, who put me in seat 3 (there are only 15 BC seats on this train, so they are carefully assigned), the front of the 1-side, after moving the girl already sitting there to seat 15 to 'sit with her family', who were sitting in 13-14. The door between the car and the cabbage in front was half open; she said it was because the AC was not working. She asked what I wanted to drink (white), then I hurried to 'powder my nose', since I'd waited much longer than expected at VEC, where there are no facilities for that purpose. I came back to find the wine and AmSnack in one of those boxes on my seat. Because I was in the front row, there was no table, nor even the cup-'holder' that the other side has, and that had been my undoing on my last trip on 792 (see below), so I took the wine and went to the cafe end of the car, and got chuljin's famous cheese and crackers. The cafe attendant said 'I remember you.' 'Yes, I'm on here from time to time on weekend evenings.' 'No, more than that. Oh, now I remember! You spilled the wine!' There are better ways to be remembered, but: the last time I was on 792, I sat in seat 1. When I got the wine, I poured it all into the little cup and put the cup in the cupholder, then went to throw the bottle away and get cheese and crackers. When I came back with them, I inattentively caught the edge of the cup with my...erm...wideness and spilled it all over the seat, the back of my pants, and between the seatback and seatbottom and onto the purse of the lady in seat 4 (she quickly noticed and moved it out of the way with no damage done). That was the only time I've taken my pants off on an Amtrak train (privately, of course, in the restroom), to try to dry them under the blowing hand-drier. It didn't work. The cafe attendant, the same one as on this trip, was kind enough to give me another wine and a thick stack of napkins to sit on.
Since I'd ridden in 58107 several times, and, in the past few weeks, in the next car over sometimes twice a day, I'd noticed posters in the cafe end advertising various Amtrak trains, among them 'Sunset Limited, Los Angeles-New Orleans-Orlando' and 'Three Rivers/Pennsylvanian, Chicago-Pittsburgh-New York'. I'd recently hatched a plan to bring post-it notes to cover the words 'Orlando', 'Three Rivers', and 'Chicago', but on this trip noticed that the posters were gone. It was several more minutes before I finally noticed that it was because it was an altogether different car. I mentioned this to Deborah, who'd moved to a table in the cafe end because I'd taken the last empty seat on the other end, and she said 'Yes, we just got this. It's cleaned up nice, but nothing works. We put in ticket after ticket on the old one [58107] and got everything working, then they sent it east!'
I went back to my seat, and she came by to warn me to 'be careful when you stand up', even though I'd been in its presumably identical sister car many times before and had never been warned and had never had a problem. Perhaps she shouldn't have warned me, because apparently I subconsciously took it as a dare, and clobbered myself no less than three times getting out of my seat.
I mentioned to Deborah something I'd wanted for a long time to say to anyone who would listen: 'It looks like 792 always keeps 798's old schedule anyways.' (792's schedule was derived from 798's by eliminating a long dwell at MPK that is used to well-time meets with Metrolink trains that don't run on the weekend anyways). She just kind of rolled her eyes and agreed. We made up a little time, and arrived at GDL only about 1/2 hour late. Just before I detrained, she asked my name, then whether (because I'm on it 798/792 frequently) I go to Ventura on business (this is actually the first time I've boarded there. It's usually OXN). 'No, just for fun,' I said. 'Must be nice to enjoy life so much,' or the like, she said. 'OK, see you next time, Chris!' she called from the open window as it left.
1/18/09: Bonus Trip 1: Shortest purposeful Trip Ever, to Fry's Electronics
Some months ago, the power supply went bad in my 'main' desktop PC. I just abandoned it in favor of exclusive use of my laptop, but decided to start getting data (trip pictures and whatnot) from the hard drives, which were presumably still in good working order. I therefore needed one or more USB enclosures. I'd priced them at Best Buy, but such esoteric gadgets are really not their thing, and they were pricey. I decided to go to Fry's Electronics (for those unfamiliar: NYC folks, think J&R. Elsewhere, I don't know...think a Radio Shack the size of a Wal-Mart, with knowledgeable but surly staff). They have several locations in SoCal and elsewhere; the one in Burbank is even closer to BUR (station) than the airport famously is (and on the opposite side from the airport). I'd convinced myself that there was no exit from the platform on that side. Having recently discovered otherwise, I thought what better way to get there than to drive to GDL and take 775/784, getting 200 cheap EQP, burning off one of those superfluous BUR-GDL tickets, and getting one last little chat with BJG.
775 is how I usually start my weekend hell-of-it trips to OXN, so I am familiar, if by face only, with its Conductor. But this day, none were familiar. It got to GDL early, left on time, and to BUR early. As scheduled, I had an hour here. I waited for 775 to leave, then crossed the tracks (BUR is one of those stations where you're allowed to when safe), out of the station, and across Vanowen and Fry's enormous parking lot to the store. I would usually browse, but I knew what I was after, and the cashier line was shorter and faster-moving than usual, so I was in and out in under 15 minutes. I therefore went and hung at the Airport itself for a while. Planes taking off from Runway 15 at BUR the airport go almost directly (a little bit west of) over the platforms at BUR the station, and while I was walking back to the station, an AA flight (in looking at their timetables, probably AA1978 to DFW) did so. Even the much-maligned MD80 is most impressive when it goes zooming past only a few hundred feet or less over one's head.
Like the old weekend 798 at MPK, the station where 784 sits and waits for a Metrolink train that never comes is VNC, where it arrived 12 minutes early and left on time. You just watch: the next schedule will have a '786' on weekends. (or 782? You'd think they wouldn't call it 782 because there's a 582, but they called 792 that despite there being a 592.) It arrived at BUR on time or a little early; I'd placed myself badly on the platform, as it stopped all the way forward on the really long platform, and I was standing near the engine end of the business car. So I started towards the cafe car, just as Kirk came out of the business car to say 'Hey, [bJG] was asking for you!' *eyeroll*sigh*. I boarded, got my ticket punched and lifted by BJG one last time, and had one last little chat (mostly about how I recognized no one on 775. I thought it was because these were the new people. She suggested it was probably rather people replacing old people taking the last day of their old assignments off) until we arrived at GDL on time or a little early. Lucky thing, too, because as it was going to leave, the *Superliner Voice said 'closing doors' in the usual way, then the doors all closed. Then they all opened. Then she said it again, and they closed. Then they opened. Announcement, close, Kirk fiddled with the north (engine) end door on the business car, open, announcement, close, then at last they were off.
1/19/19: Bonus Trip 2: Two segments on a workday morning; Depredicting Predictability; Conductor Blast from the Past
As a contractor, I have neither paid holidays nor any other benefits. I therefore choose to work on all but the most major holidays, including today. The one caprice and/or nod to a holiday that I allow myself is to come in at 10am instead of 9. This also conveniently allows me to 768 in, instead of some [pun]pointless[/pun] Metrolink train. Recently, I've been taking 799 from GDL to BUR, then some pointless Metrolink train back to LAX. Today I decided to combine the two: 799 GDL-VNC, 768 VNC-LAX (the latter of which was a 10-month old ticket which I can't remember why I originally bought, and have been carrying around until 30% of the printing had rubbed off ).
799's consist already differed from 792's just two days before (*blink*): 54500 was deleted, and 82500 inserted between 54552 and 82540. The Conductor, who by now has gotten used to me presenting a GDL-BUR ticket, was surprised that I was going as 'far' as VNC. It arrived at and left from GDL and VNC a little bit early; at VNC I treated myself to something rare in my adulthood: breakfast, in this case at the Carl's Jr. across from the station. 768 arrived early at every station until and including LAX (and perhaps after, but I haven't checked). I had a nice surprise on 768: *Denise lifted my ticket, a welcome blast from the past.
Metro and DASH are running their usual weekday schedules today, so I was going to get from LAX to my office in my usual way: Metro Red/Purple line to 7th/Metro, thence DASH or some Metro bus to my office. I came up out of the station at the 7th/Flower exit to find 7th Street (just the street, fortunately not the sidewalks) closed off between Flower and Figueroa, and packed full of LAFD and LAPD vehicles, officers, and dogs, including the LAPD bomb squad. That would have been the next block any bus I boarded then passed through, so I just walked. I still don't know what was going on.
*Characters:
For the Administrator/Moderator:
Edit: a few corrections and amplifications
1/17/09: BJG's second-to-last (but fortunately not really) hurrah
So I found out last week that it was Sadie Hawkins time at Amtrak (read: job bidding and musical routes), and that (which she said is no big secret) that our own BlueJeanGirl was outbid on her usual (until Sunday 1/18) assignment of 763 LAX-GTA, 784 GTA-LAX.
I'd gotten it into my head that being outbid means one leaves Amtrak altogether, so booked a trip during her last weekend, so we could have a someone longer chat (we've now met several times, but the 2-3 times we knew it were only some 10-15 minutes).
I booked GDL-GTA on 763, GTA-VEC on 784, and (because of my [almost unshared] fondness for that trainset) VEC-GDL on 792.
I later figured out that being outbid simply means being skunked out of one's preferred assignment, but as I'd booked, and never been to GTA before, I took the trip anyways.
763 was due at GDL at 9:18. For a variety of reasons, when I'm to travel from GDL, I get there quite early, and this day it was about 8:50. Lucky I did, because I'd chosen (because it was the only choice) to get my tickets for this reservation from a Metrolink TVM (as well as the one-off GDL-VNC ticket for Bonus Trip #2 below). Of the two machines, the left had crashed (the Windows "the memory could not be 'read'" dialog), and the right one could not read my card (IME neither at GDL has ever been able to), so I had to enter...my...reservation...numbers...one...character...at...a...time, video-game-high-score-initials-style, for both reservations.
763 arrived at GDL 2 minutes early. I met BJG at the door of Car 3, 6400, and went up. Amtrak still doesn't know when it left GDL (nor when it arrived at or left BUR) but we left on time (or *maybe* 1 minute late) IIRC.
Aside: In contrast to my usual [whooz]elitist dog[/whooz] tendencies for such long Surfliner trips, this was in coach. Also, unlike most other trips in coach of any duration, this trip and the next were the only two (or two of a very few) that I purposefully sat somewhere other than above the cafe.
The consist for 763 and 784, from north (front of 763/back of 784) to south (back of 763/front of 784) was:
455 F59PHI
6807 Surfliner Business
6307 Surfliner Café (Surfliner)
6400 Surfliner Coach (Surfliner)
6410 Surfliner Coach (Surfliner)
6907 Surfliner Coach/Cab/Baggage (Surfliner)
(455 is the red Operation Lifesaver one. I didn't realize it until I was looking at my Gathering pictures just recently that this is one of the 2-3 we saw at the shops during the tour, waiting to be repainted.)
This was the first trip I'd been on that I knew at least the names of everyone on board. They are all people I've met before (even the engineer once) and at least knew my face and v.v.
The family running this train ('crew' doesn't do justice to the camaraderie I witnessed):
Engineer: Adolph (NB: this is not confirmed. BJG had previously mentioned that this is their regular engineer, but I'm not sure if he was already back after the events of 1/11.)
Conductor: Kirk
Assistant Conductor: Joe (whom I'd previously called 'Mr. Big Voice'.
Even though I know his name now, after this trip I might call him 'Mr. Big Wrong Conclusion' Extra ('Deputy Assistant Conductor'?): our own BJG
Cafe Attendant: Randy
BC Attendant: Matthew
763 was full[-ish], and I was still looking for a seat when BJG asked how far I was going and gave me a seatcheck. I produced my ticket, but she said she'd wait until I sat, which I soon did in seat 39 (right side, facing forward) in Car 3/6400. Then she lifted my ticket, but had to hurry off to participate in Metrolink's little game (read on). Not long after, we began to *crawl* at some 12-15mph (per my phone's GPS), and (sounds like a joke, but I'm quite serious) maybe 1/4 mile before Burbank Junction, there was some insect (a bee or large fly) just outside my window flying as fast as the train. As we reached Burbank Junction and began to switch over to the Ventura County line, I saw a guy in a reflective vest holding a speed gun.
Shortly after we left VNC, BJG came by for a chat (one of several during longer stretches between stations), and told me the reason for the slowness earlier was that sometimes host railroads (in this case Metrolink) will simulate more restrictive signals to see if train crews are paying attention. Focus on safety is a good thing (despite its affect on OTP
... GDL was the last station arrived on time that day for 763). Soon Joe came along to see why BJG was just standing there, and she introduced us. As I stood to shake his hand, I lost awareness of my own height and smacked the overhead compartment pretty good. This was to plague me throughout the day. Joe asked how I knew BJG, and she just said 'It's complicated'.We arrived at CWT, and BJG went to do station business while I went to the cafe to get chuljin's famous Diet Pepsi and chuljin's famous cheese and crackers (the BabyBel Gouda is back
). When I came back, someone had sat in seat 40, so I excused myself into 39 and began to look around for a seatcheck that said SIM. Spying one at seat 37, I soon moved over there. BJG came by again, and seeing my cheese and crackers, said 'those are good, aren't they?' and was a little tickled when I reminded her of how I often wax poetic about them in my trip reports. She gave me some details of the 2nd choice schedule she'd bid on, and gave me some tips about what to do at GTA (not a lot, it turns out). But she reminded me that 14 comes through GTA at around 1pm. I'd been looking at SBA (the airport)'s website, and saw they had a restaurant of some kind there, so made my mind up to walk over there for lunch and come back to see 14. I asked her if it was some secret (or not allowed) that she was an AU contributor ('it's complicated') and she said no, but she'd just be teased over it if she tried to accurately explain. I don't know how it could have been worse (see below ).At CML, she went about lifting tickets again. She asked a newly-boarded couple in 43/44 for their IDs, and they asked (not indignantly, just curiously) what the IDs were for. BJG said 'Just to make sure you exist. That's the only thing I can think of.'
We had one further chat, probably between VEC and CPN, but all the chats kind of jumble together in my mind now (I've slept twice since then
). Somewhere along in there, I went down to get another Diet Pepsi, and my other favorite Amtrak California snack, the hummus, first discovered on the San Joaqins and recently added to the Surfliner Menu. Turns out they didn't have any, so another cheese and crackers. I decided to sit in the cafe's seating a while, because all the Conductors were down there, discussing trainy things over my head, and I thought I could learn something. Since there's recovery time built into the schedule, the around-20-minute lateness past SIM was down to around 15 at SBA, and 10 at GTA, where we arrived at 12:05 (with at most 10 passengers; most had cleared out at SBA). I told BJG I'd see her for 14, then started to make my way over to the airport.
I walked south on La Patera, down to and across Hollister, then east on Hollister. I saw what I supposed to be the terminal, and thought 'wow, it's smaller than I thought!' and walked almost up to the front door, only then noticing that it was the Airport Fire Station. I checked out Google Maps on my phone, and discovered that the terminal is actually on the furthest (southeast) corner from the station, another 1.5-mile walk around the east side of the airport. If I'd walked really fast, I could get to the terminal just in time to rush back to the station by taxi, so I just walked back, dejected (but fortunately, not too hungry, though I was starting to get thirsty again). I got back to the platform at around 12:35. The train had already been moved to the siding (soon after we arrived, actually) and washed, and a couple people were checking and adjusting this and that on the train. On the platform were a young lady and her small child, talking to one of the Amtrak folks at the front of the cab car, perhaps the engineer (I met this day's assumed engineer once and admittedly forgot his face soon after). I walked past them and down the platform towards the middle of the train (mostly for shade more than anything). Soon the said lady and her child walked past me, past the large 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign, and across the front of the train, and disappeared (I did not see them again). I assume they're the family of one of the people working there. I walked on a little further and saw Matthew napping in the lower level of the business car.
I started calling Julie to see when 14 would leave/had left SBA. Soon BJG came out and joined me. She pointed to the signal 100-200 feet up the tracks and said that it used approach lighting, and that when it activated that would be our first clue that 14 was near. Matthew woke and saw us and started to practice sign language with BJG. It wasn't working.
She called him. Then she called him again, and said 'You hung up on me! What? 14? I don't know, it's late.' Julie finally knew that 14 had left SBA. The same reflective-vested Gentleman from some minutes before opened a door and came out to chat with BJG; soon after, the signal came on and we prepared. As it passed, I capturedof it doing so. I know the latter is done by UP in Omaha or something; I was surprised that Amtrak do the former; I'd kind of thought UP would do that too. Surprising to me was the distance the train kept going once it got onto the mainline...perhaps it needed to be well clear of the switch, or back far enough to see the relevant signal. Soon it pulled up to the platform. Contrary to predictions, there was a *throng* of people boarding at GTA; they looked like some kind of high-school group.
I boarded, and soon after BJG lifted my ticket. Since I'd cheated myself out of lunch by my acute and uncharacteristic bad geography skills, I kept watching for the cafe to open, and when it did, I went down to get a jalapeño burger, Doritos, and Diet Pepsi. I sat down there to eat, making quick work of the burger, and had just started the Doritos when Kirk and Joe came down. Then the gentle, friendly crap started. Kirk said 'she talked about you all through lunch' and Joe encouraged me to 'ask for her phone number!'. I later told BJG I could have shut them up right quick by just saying (not a stretch) 'Why? She's a woman.'
After they went back upstairs, some guy came to avail himself of the cafe just as Randy came out and closed the door, paused, opened the door and counted something, closed the door and hurried upstairs. He soon came back down, opened the door, counted something, said 'I think there's a thief', closed the door, and hurried back upstairs. He repeated this a few more times, sometimes with and sometimes without one of the Conductors. The guy who'd just missed buying something had sat across the way to wait, and we both agreed that it takes pretty big balls to steal something on a train, where there is no escape. Finishing the Doritos, I went back to my seat; BJG came by to chat for about the first half of the time between CPN and VEC. She left to do paperwork or something, and I felt thirsty again, so I went down to the cafe to get yet another Diet Pepsi. The line by this time was considerable, so I got the can and prepared my $2. While waiting, I saw Randy writing on one of those forms OBS uses to send messages to 'ground' crews (airline metaphor): THEFT OF ONE RED BULL 2.75 CREDITED BY CONDUCTOR. So I guess there *was* a thief or something like one. I had been mistaken about how far along we were, so I was still in line when the train started to slow, and Joe announced 'This is Ventura,' so I put the can back in the fridge case and hurried back upstairs to collect my things, then back downstairs, bid farewell to BJG etc. and detrained.
The few pictures I took this day are here (unimpressive pics of the train on the GTA siding or stopped at VEC).
Briefly: in Ventura I went and had an apple fritter in the stripmall on west Main, visited a couple of the museums in the park at Main and Figueroa, had coffee at Bad Ass Coffee, and watched surfing a bit, then, like a good Amtrak passenger, presented myself back at the station at around 4:50, 15 minutes before the scheduled departure of 792.
I called Julie, who thought that it had not left SBA yet. Soon after, the EPIS changed to read: 'Train 792 is delayed due to train congestion. We apologize for the inconvenience.' I just waited and waited, then there came the train congestion: a UP freight. It was pulled by three locomotives (the middle one in very-well-beaten SP livery) and so I expected a very long train. Not so: it had perhaps 15-20 cars, among them a flatcar stacked high with sheet rock, and another with four John Deere tractors; the rest were boxcars with unknown contents. At long last, it left SBA 47 minutes late, and at longer last, arrived at VEC about 45 minutes late.
792 had the fourth of five different consists for this trainset in less than two weeks:
90208 Non-Powered Control Unit
58108 (was 53508) Horizon Club-Dinette (ADA) *Seat 3
54552 Horizon Coach (ADA)
82540 (was 81507) Amfleet-I Regional CoachClass Push-Pull
54500 Horizon Coach (ADA)
51 P42
(In the past, this has gone for weeks on end without changing, but over the past two weeks, I don't think it's had the same consist more than 2-3 days in a row. Always 90208 at the south end, 51 at the north end, and between, 58107 which was suddenly replaced with 58108 [to *Deborah's chagrin...see below], and three coaches selected apparently randomly from among 54500, 54552, 82500, 82540, and 82560 and also ordered apparently randomly between 58107/8 and 51. Not sure what they're playing at; perhaps the coaches are rotated in to keep them from rusting onto the tracks in the yard.
)I was met at the door by *Deborah, who put me in seat 3 (there are only 15 BC seats on this train, so they are carefully assigned), the front of the 1-side, after moving the girl already sitting there to seat 15 to 'sit with her family', who were sitting in 13-14. The door between the car and the cabbage in front was half open; she said it was because the AC was not working. She asked what I wanted to drink (white), then I hurried to 'powder my nose', since I'd waited much longer than expected at VEC, where there are no facilities for that purpose. I came back to find the wine and AmSnack in one of those boxes on my seat. Because I was in the front row, there was no table, nor even the cup-'holder' that the other side has, and that had been my undoing on my last trip on 792 (see below), so I took the wine and went to the cafe end of the car, and got chuljin's famous cheese and crackers. The cafe attendant said 'I remember you.' 'Yes, I'm on here from time to time on weekend evenings.' 'No, more than that. Oh, now I remember! You spilled the wine!' There are better ways to be remembered, but: the last time I was on 792, I sat in seat 1. When I got the wine, I poured it all into the little cup and put the cup in the cupholder, then went to throw the bottle away and get cheese and crackers. When I came back with them, I inattentively caught the edge of the cup with my...erm...wideness and spilled it all over the seat, the back of my pants, and between the seatback and seatbottom and onto the purse of the lady in seat 4 (she quickly noticed and moved it out of the way with no damage done). That was the only time I've taken my pants off on an Amtrak train (privately, of course, in the restroom), to try to dry them under the blowing hand-drier. It didn't work. The cafe attendant, the same one as on this trip, was kind enough to give me another wine and a thick stack of napkins to sit on.
Since I'd ridden in 58107 several times, and, in the past few weeks, in the next car over sometimes twice a day, I'd noticed posters in the cafe end advertising various Amtrak trains, among them 'Sunset Limited, Los Angeles-New Orleans-Orlando' and 'Three Rivers/Pennsylvanian, Chicago-Pittsburgh-New York'. I'd recently hatched a plan to bring post-it notes to cover the words 'Orlando', 'Three Rivers', and 'Chicago', but on this trip noticed that the posters were gone. It was several more minutes before I finally noticed that it was because it was an altogether different car. I mentioned this to Deborah, who'd moved to a table in the cafe end because I'd taken the last empty seat on the other end, and she said 'Yes, we just got this. It's cleaned up nice, but nothing works. We put in ticket after ticket on the old one [58107] and got everything working, then they sent it east!'
I went back to my seat, and she came by to warn me to 'be careful when you stand up', even though I'd been in its presumably identical sister car many times before and had never been warned and had never had a problem. Perhaps she shouldn't have warned me, because apparently I subconsciously took it as a dare, and clobbered myself no less than three times getting out of my seat.
I mentioned to Deborah something I'd wanted for a long time to say to anyone who would listen: 'It looks like 792 always keeps 798's old schedule anyways.' (792's schedule was derived from 798's by eliminating a long dwell at MPK that is used to well-time meets with Metrolink trains that don't run on the weekend anyways). She just kind of rolled her eyes and agreed. We made up a little time, and arrived at GDL only about 1/2 hour late. Just before I detrained, she asked my name, then whether (because I'm on it 798/792 frequently) I go to Ventura on business (this is actually the first time I've boarded there. It's usually OXN). 'No, just for fun,' I said. 'Must be nice to enjoy life so much,' or the like, she said.
'OK, see you next time, Chris!' she called from the open window as it left.1/18/09: Bonus Trip 1: Shortest purposeful Trip Ever, to Fry's Electronics
Some months ago, the power supply went bad in my 'main' desktop PC. I just abandoned it in favor of exclusive use of my laptop, but decided to start getting data (trip pictures and whatnot) from the hard drives, which were presumably still in good working order. I therefore needed one or more USB enclosures. I'd priced them at Best Buy, but such esoteric gadgets are really not their thing, and they were pricey. I decided to go to Fry's Electronics (for those unfamiliar: NYC folks, think J&R. Elsewhere, I don't know...think a Radio Shack the size of a Wal-Mart, with knowledgeable but surly staff). They have several locations in SoCal and elsewhere; the one in Burbank is even closer to BUR (station) than the airport famously is (and on the opposite side from the airport). I'd convinced myself that there was no exit from the platform on that side. Having recently discovered otherwise, I thought what better way to get there than to drive to GDL and take 775/784, getting 200 cheap EQP, burning off one of those superfluous BUR-GDL tickets, and getting one last little chat with BJG.
775 is how I usually start my weekend hell-of-it trips to OXN, so I am familiar, if by face only, with its Conductor. But this day, none were familiar. It got to GDL early, left on time, and to BUR early. As scheduled, I had an hour here. I waited for 775 to leave, then crossed the tracks (BUR is one of those stations where you're allowed to when safe), out of the station, and across Vanowen and Fry's enormous parking lot to the store. I would usually browse, but I knew what I was after, and the cashier line was shorter and faster-moving than usual, so I was in and out in under 15 minutes. I therefore went and hung at the Airport itself for a while. Planes taking off from Runway 15 at BUR the airport go almost directly (a little bit west of) over the platforms at BUR the station, and while I was walking back to the station, an AA flight (in looking at their timetables, probably AA1978 to DFW) did so. Even the much-maligned MD80 is most impressive when it goes zooming past only a few hundred feet or less over one's head.
Like the old weekend 798 at MPK, the station where 784 sits and waits for a Metrolink train that never comes is VNC, where it arrived 12 minutes early and left on time. You just watch: the next schedule will have a '786' on weekends.
(or 782? You'd think they wouldn't call it 782 because there's a 582, but they called 792 that despite there being a 592.) It arrived at BUR on time or a little early; I'd placed myself badly on the platform, as it stopped all the way forward on the really long platform, and I was standing near the engine end of the business car. So I started towards the cafe car, just as Kirk came out of the business car to say 'Hey, [bJG] was asking for you!' *eyeroll*sigh*. I boarded, got my ticket punched and lifted by BJG one last time, and had one last little chat (mostly about how I recognized no one on 775. I thought it was because these were the new people. She suggested it was probably rather people replacing old people taking the last day of their old assignments off) until we arrived at GDL on time or a little early. Lucky thing, too, because as it was going to leave, the *Superliner Voice said 'closing doors' in the usual way, then the doors all closed. Then they all opened. Then she said it again, and they closed. Then they opened. Announcement, close, Kirk fiddled with the north (engine) end door on the business car, open, announcement, close, then at last they were off.1/19/19: Bonus Trip 2: Two segments on a workday morning; Depredicting Predictability; Conductor Blast from the Past
As a contractor, I have neither paid holidays nor any other benefits. I therefore choose to work on all but the most major holidays, including today. The one caprice and/or nod to a holiday that I allow myself is to come in at 10am instead of 9. This also conveniently allows me to 768 in, instead of some [pun]pointless[/pun] Metrolink train. Recently, I've been taking 799 from GDL to BUR, then some pointless Metrolink train back to LAX. Today I decided to combine the two: 799 GDL-VNC, 768 VNC-LAX (the latter of which was a 10-month old ticket which I can't remember why I originally bought, and have been carrying around until 30% of the printing had rubbed off
).799's consist already differed from 792's just two days before (*blink*): 54500 was deleted, and 82500 inserted between 54552 and 82540. The Conductor, who by now has gotten used to me presenting a GDL-BUR ticket, was surprised that I was going as 'far' as VNC. It arrived at and left from GDL and VNC a little bit early; at VNC I treated myself to something rare in my adulthood: breakfast, in this case at the Carl's Jr. across from the station. 768 arrived early at every station until and including LAX (and perhaps after, but I haven't checked). I had a nice surprise on 768: *Denise lifted my ticket, a welcome blast from the past.
Metro and DASH are running their usual weekday schedules today, so I was going to get from LAX to my office in my usual way: Metro Red/Purple line to 7th/Metro, thence DASH or some Metro bus to my office. I came up out of the station at the 7th/Flower exit to find 7th Street (just the street, fortunately not the sidewalks) closed off between Flower and Figueroa, and packed full of LAFD and LAPD vehicles, officers, and dogs, including the LAPD bomb squad. That would have been the next block any bus I boarded then passed through, so I just walked. I still don't know what was going on.
*Characters:
- Deborah: One of the two alternating BC 'Conductendants' (portmanteau of 'Conductor' and 'Attendant'...they lift tickets like the former, and bring AmWine and AmSnacks like the latter) on 799/798/792. We've now met many times, usually on 798 (now 792) on the weekends. She's quite nice, and we get on well.
- Superliner Voice: the crazy virtual lady who hides in one of the Superliner Coaches they sometimes put on Surfliner trainsets, and tells you when the doors are going to close. Sometimes she isn't sure you heard, so she'll tell you 3-5 times. Sometimes she forgets to take her medicine and will tell you 10-12 times.
- Denise: She was one of the conductors on alternate days on 785 when I first started commuting home on it...she then began to work other trains, and today was the first time in, I guess, 6 months, and she's about to start working yet *other* trains. Together with Rosie as mentioned in my other posts, she was also a contender for BlueJeanGirl until I met the real one. Funnier yet, all these ladies know each other.
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