Railfanning Riverside - Downtown - 1/8/17

On a rather very clear and early Sunday morning, while on my way to Orange County, I decided to spend the early to mid morning railfanning the Riverside - Downtown station knowing that I had a good amount of free time for the morning part of this Sunday. This was also in continuation after railfanning all the stations along the Perris Valley Line as well as closing up some of the other Metrolink lines I have railfanned. This station in particular is of great interest to me mainly because I have travelled by this station and seen it many times ever since I lived in SoCal, but I have yet to railfan here until today. This station has lots of activity stemming from the Metrolink trains, the BNSF San Bernardino Subdivision, and the Union Pacific Los Angeles Subdivision, although no UP freights were seen during my time here. The station also serves as a layover /storage facility for weekday Metrolink trains, seen parked throughout the west side, and to the north of the station as well. From the time I arrived until I left, trains were almost continuous with a maximum of thirty minutes between trains. The security here was also very nice and even informed me about the Metrolink 91 / PVL train movements from the storage yard. Typically on weekends, all departing Metrolink 91 / Perris Valley Line trains originating from Riverside - Downtown (#751 & #753) are stored in the yard northeast of the station. All in all, this is certainly one of the more interesting and action packed stations I have been to ! Whether it was the horn action, the frequency of trains, or even the train movements from the yards, it was definitely worth finally checking out after so many years !
Train 1 : Metrolink #857 with CabCar #644 & F59PH #872.
Train 2 : BNSF Q-LACHOU2-08A with ES44DC #7550, ES44C4 #4202, #4201, & C44-9W #4362. Sorry for the clipped shots of Metrolink #857 & the BNSF intermodal meet. Had to conserve battery power for the time being.
Train 3 : Metrolink #751 with CabCar #676 & F59PHI #879. This is one of the two 91 / PVL trains originating from Riverside today, seen departing the storage yard to pick up passengers.
Train 4 : BNSF Q-LACALT4-08A with ES44DC #7456, C44-9W #5245, ET44C4 #3839(DPU), & ES44C4 #7179(DPU). Just as Metrolink #751 departs, BNSF Q-LACALT4-08A rounds the corner heading north.
Train 5 : BNSF Q-HOULAC3-07A with ES44DC #7669, & ES44C4 #8171. Literally as BNSF Q-LACALT4-08A disappears around the curve north of the station, Q-HOULAC3-07A approaches the station ! Awesome engineer on this train with some horn action as well !
Train 6 : BNSF S-STLLAC1-06A with ES44C4 #8378, C44-9W #4125, #4033(DPU), & ES44C4 #6728(DPU). Literally tailing behind, BNSF S-STLLAC1-06A appears just minutes after Q-LACALT4-08A passed. Nice horn action from the crossing to the north as well.
Train 7 : BNSF U-LACSEA3-08T with ES44DC #7716, SD70ACe #9118, C44-9W #4353, & ES44DC #7740. Pretty friendly crew on this train.
Train 8 : Metrolink #753 with MP36PH-3C #888 & CabCar #663.
Train 9 : BNSF Z-CHILAC7-06L with ES44C4 #6614, #6791, C44-9W #4647, ES44C4 #7949, & ES44DC #7333. Definitely a hot shot intermodal !
Train 10 : Metrolink #859 with CabCar #680 & F59PH #852. Nice horn action upon departure.
Train 11 : Amtrak 3 (Southwest Chief) with P42DC #192, & #184 (Phase IV Heritage Unit). This train was running approximately two hours and thirty minutes behind schedule. Right as the train begins to depart, the train goes into EMERGENCY ! It turns out that the crew have had some difficulty with the Surfliner coach all the way from Chicago regarding the air brakes fully releasing. This issue was also partly due to their late arrival into Riverside. Pretty cool engineer though !
Thanks for Watching !

[@nortonhatfield7312]

One of the 2 metrolink trains departing that station is a reversed train set. It has the locomotive leading towards los angeles instead of the cab car.

[@daboidarwin1299]

Finally Riverside-Downtown in action

[@OceansideRailfan]

Great video! WOW they park a lot of metrolinks in down town riverside!

[@BrentNguyen46]

OceansideRailfan Thanks ! Yeah, there's roughly five Metrolink trainsets stored here (not including #751 & #753). These are visible from the 91 freeway.

[@OceansideRailfan]

BrentNguyen46 wow that's cool also nice to see 184 is back in socal!

[@BrentNguyen46]

OceansideRailfan #184 actually came into California and left within a day after I Railfanned here. I'm certain it was placed onto an outbound Amtrak train judging by HeritageUnits.com Definitely would've been nice for it to stick around though.

[@OceansideRailfan]

BrentNguyen46 ahh I see I was hoping for a little visit to the Surfline 😰😥

[@SandraHernandez-mr5bs]

OceansideRail

[@MultiMusicianman]

Excellent footage.

[@BrentNguyen46]

MultiMusicianman Thank You !

[@nh_highlander1985]

Kewl beans, thanks for sharing!

[@BrentNguyen46]

Tweety Swauger You're welcome ! Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@YardLimit]

Nice video, Brent!

[@BrentNguyen46]

Yard Limit Thank You !

[@willberestartingthischanne9984]

Nice Video

[@BrentNguyen46]

Thank you !

[@Ferromexfan4081]

Very cool

[@BrentNguyen46]

+Amtrak 505 Thanks !

[@grahamboaviation]

Dang.... I just realized you were my first subscriber! Two years ago I started a KZbin channel with no real intentions, now I am growing at a fast pace and posting aviation related videos!

[@BrentNguyen46]

+grahamboaviation That's good to hear ! Glad to know you're prospering !

[@grahamboaviation]

BrentNguyen46 :)

[@inlandempirerailfan4269]

Is 879 off the PV line? I only saw 860 and 872.

[@BrentNguyen46]

InlandEmpireRailfan Are you referring to the date of the video or at the present moment ? Equipment is interchanged often among the Metrolink system and can be seen on different Metrolink lines from day to day.

[@inlandempirerailfan4269]

BrentNguyen46 When you said there were 2 trainsets on the Riverside to Perris Line, I always saw SCAX 860 with 634 and 864. Did that F59PHI leave the PV line causing the trainsets to go to the 91 Line?

[@BrentNguyen46]

InlandEmpireRailfan It kind of depends on which train number you’re talking about essentially. For example, the South Perris to/from Riverside Downtown only trains, they are the same trainset for that day, however trainsets traveling to and from LAUPT to Perris can be different on any given day. Metrolink interchanges equipment not based on locomotive and car numbers, but the number of cars for that particular train number passenger demand. (Like if a train on a route requires a 4 car trainset, whichever 4 car trainset is available will run on that route.) F59PHI #879 has likely been interchanged many times since this video. I actually caught #879 in Camarillo on the Ventura County Line back in July; quite a ways from Perris I would say.

[@inlandempirerailfan4269]

BrentNguyen46 Okay thanks for notifying me. I always hear a P2 that sounds like 860 and I saw 634 when I visited March a few days ago.

[@BrentNguyen46]

InlandEmpireRailfan No problem. Thanks for the comments !