LA questions.

[Long Train Runnin']

What's more surprising is sometimes they run with the door to the baggage car not completely closed. It can get really dirty in there.

On my Feather River trip last September, they ran the Mountain section with baggage car doors completely open... and the Crew standing in the doorways to admire the view!

Yikes! While a good place to get a view deff not the safest place

 

[sechs]

What's more surprising is sometimes they run with the door to the baggage car not completely closed. It can get really dirty in there.

Actually, it can get really dirty in there when the door is always properly closed.

I took a Zephyr trip in the winter where sleeper got bad-ordered, and the consist got goofed up, with the transition dorm on the end, well away from the baggage car. My bag came back with mud caked on it because the conductors had to keep tromping around in the snow and mud to work baggage.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

I also passed a northbound Surfliner on Saturday morning, somewhere south of Santa Barbara, wasn't the usual Surfliner set, but was formed of what looked like a P32 and a cabbage car with some of those horrible single deck straight sided coaches and one of the round bodied vehicles behind the loco.

Neil, while I posted above about the 799/798 Surfliner consist, on Saturday, 3-21, I was at Oxnard (OXN) early to ride 774 to LAX with an AU friend. Shot these current pics of the bizarre lash-up that is this consist:

799 at OXN, 3-21-09 (six pics)

For good measure and comparison I've included the pic linked in my earlier post.

 

[jackal]

I also passed a northbound Surfliner on Saturday morning, somewhere south of Santa Barbara, wasn't the usual Surfliner set, but was formed of what looked like a P32 and a cabbage car with some of those horrible single deck straight sided coaches and one of the round bodied vehicles behind the loco.

Neil, while I posted above about the 799/798 Surfliner consist, on Saturday, 3-21, I was at Oxnard (OXN) early to ride 774 to LAX with an AU friend. Shot these current pics of the bizarre lash-up that is this consist:

799 at OXN, 3-21-09 (six pics)

For good measure and comparison I've included the pic linked in my earlier post.

Isn't that the normal consist for 799/798? Nothing odd about those pictures, then, unless I'm missing something.

Is that snow on the Santa Monica Mountains?! I don't remember that happening often driving down through there at least once a month growing up!

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Isn't that the normal consist for 799/798? Nothing odd about those pictures, then, unless I'm missing something.
Is that snow on the Santa Monica Mountains?! I don't remember that happening often driving down through there at least once a month growing up!

Neil M. thought it was odd for a Surfliner, and it is, notwithstanding it being the normal consist for 799/798.

Mountains with snow are not the Santa Monicas, and not the coastal range behind Oxnard/Ventura. From what I gather they could be the Topatopa Mountains, one of the "transverse ranges" (running east-west) in SoCal. That's from some cursory Googling and Wiki-ing around.

 

[jackal]

Is that snow on the Santa Monica Mountains?! I don't remember that happening often driving down through there at least once a month growing up!

Neil M. thought it was odd for a Surfliner, and it is, notwithstanding it being the normal consist for 799/798.

Mountains with snow are not the Santa Monicas, and not the coastal range behind Oxnard/Ventura. From what I gather they could be the Topatopa Mountains, one of the "transverse ranges" (running east-west) in SoCal. That's from some cursory Googling and Wiki-ing around.

Ah. Is the picture taken in the general direction of north? Then yes, it appears you're right. (I suppose if this is [northbound] train 799, and it is departing OXN and all but the F40 cabbage is past the platform, then that means that the Dash 8-32BWH is leading and the cabbage is following, and therefore the picture is indeed taken to the north [actually, slightly northwest]. I had initially assumed that this was taken to the southeast and they were the Santa Monicas, though after review of the area on Google Maps, no such right-turning curve would exist at OXN if facing south.)

Wikipedia's article on the Topatopas indicates they do get snowfall occasionally.