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When we picked Vicki and Art up yesterday I noticed that their Surfliner Pacific Business Class car had a name -- Echo Park. I've never noticed a name on the Surfliner cars, only on the California cars. Is this something new? It didn't look as if it had been to Beech Grove lately.
Frank in cloudy but smoky SBA
HopefulRailUser Member # 4513
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Frank - when we pulled into LAX there was a Surfliner there and there was a name on that car too. Of course the name now escapes me, after all, that was yesterday.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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It is something new. The Echo Park car that you saw (#6802) was the car that was on display at Union Station on National Train Day on May 10th. It had just returned back to LA from Beech Grove. Another car with a new name is #6903, now called, "Point Mugu".
sbalax Member # 2801
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Smitty--
Did you tour the car? Has anything been done to the interior? Did they remove the TV monitors? The last Business Class car we were in was showing it's age badly. We had to try three different seat pairs to find one where everything was working and clean. The had broken recline, broken tray tables, broken reading lights and really grungy table tops.
Frank in smoky SBA
smitty195 Member # 5102
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Hi Frank,
Yup, I toured the car. As a matter of fact, I sat down in it and chit-chatted with some friends for about 15 minutes. The funny thing is, I'm not very familiar with the Surfliner equipment as I've only ridden them a half-dozen times, and I've never really paid attention to much. The one thing I noticed about this car specifically was that the windows were squeaky clean (and not covered with all of that weird grime that most of them have). The exterior paint also looked really good.
On the inside, everything was brand new. The seats were installed in Los Angeles the day before the train was put on display---so it smelled like a new car inside. And yup--the TV's are gone!
Andy
train lady Member # 3920
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Frank, off topic for a moment. How bad is the smoke in SBA. Are the fires close enough to be a worry? When I think about all the people in the wes and mid west who are suffering it sure makes our complaints of heat and humidity seem petty
sbalax Member # 2801
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Smitty--
I just had an e-mail from Vicki saying no TV's. I'll look forward to riding in one of the renovated cars. I wonder who choses the names. Echo Park? Point Mugu? How about Port Hueneme? (That's Why-knee-me for those of you not from around these parts.) There doesn't seem to be a theme here except locations in Southern California.
Train Lady--
Thank you for asking. The smoke has, for the most part been blowing the other way from us or out to sea and then down the channel. We were in Goleta yesterday and could see the flames clearly. We also lost power (along with 140,000 others) last night for four hours. The Edison spokesperson said that dense enough smoke can ground out high tension lines. I learn something everyday!
Frank in less than sunny SBA
smitty195 Member # 5102
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quote:Originally posted by sbalax: How about Port Hueneme? (That's Why-knee-me for those of you not from around these parts.)
So that's how it's pronounced! I've never had occasion to say the word out loud, but I always thought it was something like "You-Nemee". Thanks for the info!
sbalax Member # 2801
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Smitty--
You're welcome. Come to Santa Barbara sometime and I'll show you streets with names like Micheltorena, Arrellaga, Cañon Perdido, and Salsipuedes ("Get out if you can" --There's quite a story behind that one). My personal favorite is Indio Muerto so named because a dead indian was found there. Forces for political correctness have tried several times to get it changed but it remains to this day.
Frank in smoky SBA (mostly south over the Channel).
BTW, we live on Alameda Padre Serra, locally known as APS.
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