Railfanning Ventura - East (w/ F125) - 7/2/18

After a pleasant night stay in Ventura, I headed out on an early Monday morning to railfan the East Ventura Metrolink Station in continuation of my railfanning trip along the Coast Line; as well as my first video along Metrolink’s Ventura County Line and first time seeing an EMD F125 ! The East Ventura station particularly is solely only a Metrolink station and serves as the terminus for the Ventura County Line, whereas a separate Amtrak dedicated station serves the City of Ventura closer to Downtown and across from the city fairgrounds. Although this station does not have many amenities, the train activity here is intriguing to watch, whether in the morning or evening in correlation with the commute times. This station however is especially interesting mainly because it sits on the northern portion of a railroad wye connecting the Santa Paula Branch Line with the Union Pacific Santa Barbara Subdivision (Coast Line), thus resulting for some interesting switching movements. In essence, all trains that come out or into the station will enter the wye and proceed onto the Santa Paula Branch briefly before ultimately reversing direction to either proceed towards Los Angeles or into the station itself. Compounded with the fact that this location also serves as an overnight storage facility for Metrolink trainsets, the switching activities in the morning and/or evening make for a flurry of back and forth movements. In total, one trainset, from startup to departure in the morning goes as follows : The train will proceed out of the storage yard onto the Santa Paula Branch, where it will then switch and back into the station. After boarding passengers, the train will then head back onto the Branch Line briefly, then switch over and reverse direction to turn on the wye and proceed south to Los Angeles. This procedure is exhibited with all trainsets and the opposite is done for evening, terminating trains. Please note that although this video is rather lengthy, it is mainly to illustrate the typical morning operations to start up the Metrolink trains for the day. Overall, this station makes for a nice, quick early morning railfanning opportunity; where spanning only two hours, one can watch how Metrolink trains begins their day as only a small part of a bigger, major commuter rail system.
Train 1 : Metrolink #102 with F125 #910 & CabCar #653. First time seeing the EMD F125 and I’ll have to say, it looks good ! Maybe even better than the Siemens SC-44 in my opinion ! ;) Included are close up shots to show the details of this new locomotive in addition to the contrast between the old and the new, with the F59PH and F125 side by side.
Train 2 : Metrolink #104 with F59PH #861 & CabCar #658. Very intriguing to watch the crew run through their typical morning routine with a load test of the locomotive and inspections prior to beginning their revenue run south.
Train 3 : Metrolink #106 with MP36PH-3C #890 & CabCar #672.
Thanks for Watching !

[@coppercruz3605]

Great Video:) You caught your first F125.

[@BrentNguyen46]

Copper Cruz Thank you ! Yep, they sure are shiny, haha !

[@daboidarwin1299]

Thank you so much! I've been trying to find a video of this station! It's kinda akward seeing the trains back and forth alot. :/

[@BrentNguyen46]

darwinboy 129 You’re very welcome ! Glad you like the video ! Yeah, it is back and forth, but for 4 train movements per trainset, I’d say a 4 for 1 is a pretty good deal, haha !

[@nortonhatfield7312]

Metrolink recently added weekend service to this line. That was due to Ventura hosting the X games last summer.

[@nh_highlander1985]

Kewl trains with the clear view of the internals!! Nice video!!

[@BrentNguyen46]

Tweety Swauger Thanks ! It’s nice to hear from you again ! Glad you noticed the shot of the inside of the locomotive !

[@average_joe8905]

Nice catches!

[@BrentNguyen46]

Average_ Joe Thank you !

[@reynoldhunter8600]

Metrolink leaves in the crack of dawn

[@BrentNguyen46]

Pretty amazing when you think about all the commuters that do this daily for work.

[@reynoldhunter8600]

@@BrentNguyen46 agreed

[@brihntrainvideos289]

Finally someone has a good video of this station. Also why do the F59s leave their headlights dimmed while pushing?

[@average_joe8905]

Not entirely sure, freight railroads also do so maybe the FRA made passnger railroads do it. But I'm not 100% sure.

[@BrentNguyen46]

AmtrakFan2309 Thanks for the kind comments ! The F59s and other passenger locomotives have had recent issues regarding the “effectiveness” of the rear red marker lights from the FRA’s viewpoint. You’ll see certain passenger locomotives run with both the red marker lights and dimmed headlight to coincide with the FRA’s current standing on the brightness for any rear markers for any train.

[@TheNazar123]

The FRA started enforcement of that law at the end of 2016. Also, Amtrak has to conform too with their Surfliners.

[@LucyLoud2002]

The arrangement of this station in the system is kind of odd. When trains enter, they have to go forward (locomotive in the front) and then backwards (cab car in the back) and then the other way around when they leave for L.A., but it’s still unique to all the other final stations throughout all lines.

[@Adumzzinthehouse]

Odd but awesome. Makes the train action last longer for the short amount of trains there are.

[@nortonhatfield7312]

What's even more unique is when metrolink runs special trains to the Ventura county fair grounds. They switch from "pull mode"to " push mode"or vise versa at this station.

[@Cards8114]

Is it just me, or does the Rail buckle and cause the train cars and locomotives that run over it to 'sway' when entering/exiting the station?

[@BrentNguyen46]

Remixed Person v8114 Sort of. The tracks that parallel the station here are actually the original jointed rail back when Metrolink began service here and are the same ones used to this day. As a result, the trackbed is not equivalent to modern designs; though it is still capable of handling the current trainsets, hence the minor swaying and “clickety-clack” as illustrated in the video. The rail however is not buckling from the weight of the train.

[@Cards8114]

@@BrentNguyen46 Oh alright, any plans to replace these tracks with concrete ties in the future?

[@BrentNguyen46]

Remixed Person v8114 As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think it’ll be anytime soon. Essentially only three trainsets use those tracks, so the wear is rather minimal, even after 16 years of use.

[@reynoldhunter8600]

That's near ventura County Beach

[@butthurt8]

I surprised Amtrak won’t buy any F-125 and they got charger instead.

[@BrentNguyen46]

butthurt8 Yeah, same here. Personally, I think the F125 looks better than the SC-44. However it is worth noting that initially there was a slight issue with the F125s when they were first delivered concerning the urea filter / emissions system. That was why there was a delay from the time they were delivered until most of the units ran trains by themselves. Nonetheless, the F125 is certainly a nice locomotive.

[@butthurt8]

BrentNguyen46 you got that right. I think Charger actually won Amtrak over since it has 4400hp and can travel 125 mph and zero black exhaust smoke.

[@kelsadilla367]

Isn't it illegal to leave the door on the locomotive's snout open?

[@BrentNguyen46]

Leafynitemare2 I would like to believe it is not illegal. I was not able to find any information regarding train movements and locomotive doors being open based on the GCOR specifications; however this is just based on what I was able to find.

[@nortonhatfield7312]

15:59, Was that engineer or the conductor boarding the f59 locomotive?

[@BrentNguyen46]

The conductor. The trains run CabCar forward on its trip to Los Angeles but has to make a reverse switching moves at this particular station. The conductor rides the engine as the engineer in the CabCar “reverses” the train.

[@rhettrossalbert]

Nice Video!

[@BrentNguyen46]

Rhett Ross Albert Thanks !

[@GoldRailfan162]

9:05 Lights turn on quick