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For several days after the Christmas holiday, Metrolink shut down their West Bank line for all trains in and out of Los Angeles's busy Union Station to do much needed signal upgrades and other MOW rail improvements. Amtrak still ran many of their trains, all the 700 series Surfliners, Coast Starlight, and Sunset Limited ran via the East Bank line on the River Sub which is definitely out of the norm. This detour bypassed Union Station all together... buses were acquired to transport passengers originally boarding in LA to other stations such as Glendale, Van Nuys, Ontario, and Fullerton to catch their train.
The trains would run with a "pilot" crew for the uncharted territory the regular crew was not qualified to run over. I caught some of the crew swaps in the video.
After catching the rare Amtrak detour moves I decided to spend the rest of the day in LA getting some more train footage. Information listed in the timeline below...
0:00 Amtrak 770 arrives at Main St for a crew swap
1:13 Pilot Crew takes over train
2:40 Amtrak 765 detouring at Redondo
4:00 Coast Starlight #14 crew swap at Main St
5:15 Coast Starlight #14 road crew takes over
7:28 UP 6421 heads to the Alameda Corridor with Jingle Bells
9:24 UP light engine shove at Redondo
11:00 Amtrak 769 entering East Bank Line at Redondo
12:16 Amtrak 774 entering Alameda Corridor Sub to Wye
13:40 Amtrak 774 at San Pedro Jct
14:06 Commerce
14:34 Amtrak 573 with 6905 Leading
14:55 BNSF 5001 leads XU AXTWAT7 24A
16:25 Z LACALT5 28A departs Hobart Yard
18:13 BNSF 7707 leads XH BARWAT1 28A past Commerce
20:30 NS 1220 close behind leading Z NYCLAC4 24A
21:09 BNSF 7707 at Hobart with funky K5HLB horn
21:54 UP 8004 West in Montebello
23:04 UP 7881 leads the Hauler past the Oroweat bread factory
24:50 Great K3LA on UP 7130 leading the Rock Train
25:40 Southwest Chief #4 deadheading thru Los Nietos
26:25 Southwest Chief #4 departs Fullerton with Horn Show
27:30 S LPCSCO1 23L in Fullerton heading to Thenard
Thanks for Watching!
AmtrakCal462