Amtrak and Coaster Passenger Trains Around San Diego, CA - July 2023

[@collinstrains5176]

1:23 bro just walked across the tracks with a train within feet of the crossing, thats crazy 😮

[@anthonywarrener1881]

Thank you for this superb video ! Glad the weather in San Diego lived up to expectations, and good to see some of the trollies in action also !

[@rail_spike_productions]

Always a great time up there. Thank you!

[@ericschwartz3559]

The weather in California is hot and lovely and I hope you had fun while going there. Hope you and your family made it there and back to Massachusetts safely. Are you planning on going to San Diego again?

[@rail_spike_productions]

Thanks for the kind words! Always a great time out there. We normally go out to the San Diego area every summer to visit family. I was just there in July of this year as well. I have lots of videos coming up from there - I’ve just got to get through my content from May and June first !

[@ericschwartz3559]

Love those SC-44's. Boston should get them.

[@DianaMiaGonzalez]

The Bell Sounds Like CalTrain 120 On 7:44

[@ericschwartz3559]

COASTER has sc-44s also, I’m done. I wonder how well they are performing for COASTER. Also, why are two locomotives pulling a four-car train? The weather in San Diego is pretty decent, so you were lucky there mate. Instead of quitting the siemens charger, they seem to continue receiving orders to build more.

[@rail_spike_productions]

The reason for that double-header was the loco in the lead still being in testing. The second engine is only there as a backup just in case the newer one develops issues - it’s a safety precaution for the first few weeks of service of a new locomotive

[@ericschwartz3559]

This makes me miss the f40phm-2c locomotives that coaster used to own from the point coaster started service in February of 1995 up until their retirement in February of 2021. Anyways, you can see Locomotive 2103 at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, California where it is preserved. Moved to the museum in the summer of 2022 as part of a move following a multi-year effort by the museum to acquire one of the Coaster F40 locomotives from San Diego’s North County Transit District for preservation. Also, I love the new livery on the Bombardier Bi-Level Coaches, very cool looking. These were recently refurbished. I like the light blue for the top, the dark blue for the middle and black for the bottom.

[@rail_spike_productions]

No worries - yes the 5008 was one of the new ones that entered service in 2023. The 5006, 5007, and 5009 also went through similar treatment

[@amtrakandcsxrailfanning164]

people should stop complaining about the train whistling I hurd that's why this town San Diego has some people complaining saying the whistle actuation in ignoring and they dont like haw a train can wake people up like a polar express train but I Hurd the horns are back naw these days but people are starting to complain agin about the whistle action but I Hurd some day there understand that railfans are out there try to get some horn action its not fun taping a train with no horn

[@ericschwartz3559]

I wonder how many chargers Coaster bought? I know they had four additional units on order, with all of them being delivered in May 2023. In June 2023, Coaster announced that they would be selling their Bombardier Bi-Levels and four of their newest diesel locomotives to another railroad, have you heard about that. Never happened, thank god, why would any railroad sell brand-new locomotives to another railroad, just doesn’t make one bit of sense to me.

[@rail_spike_productions]

I believe Coaster has about 9 chargers. Numbers 5001 through 5009. The newest ones are 5006 through 5009 and they started service in 2023

[@Nouvellecosse]

Weird how it takes two locomotives to pull just four passenger coaches. Must be the weakest locomotives in the world considering that in Toronto a single locomotive pulls 10-12 coaches of the same model.

[@rail_spike_productions]

In the cases in this video where there were 2 Coaster locomotives on one train, that was one of their 4 newest locomotives in front of one of their older ones. The newest ones are almost always put with other locomotives at the beginning of their service lives in case of unforeseen issues that could arise, leaving the second locomotive as backup power.