Visit to the Orange Empire Railway Museum

As part of the annual conference of the Association of Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums (ATRRM) we toured this wonderful facility in Perris, California. Here are some photos and videos from my visit.

Conference attendees could assist with guest operations. I got to drive this Los Angeles Red Car.

 The Museum steamed up this Ventura County Railway locomotive. After the photos is a video of the ride.

This is the "signal garden".

MetroLink's Central Maintenance Facility

As part of the Association of Tourist Railroads & Railroad Museums (ATRRM) conference, we were privileged to take a tour of MetroLink's CMF in Los Angeles last week.

The visit was part of an all-day field trip which started with bus transfer from our base at the wonderful Mission Inn in Riverside to the station in San Bernardino to board a MetroLink train to Union Station and the CMF. It was exciting to see this depot in person as it has been selected as one of the 16 illustrations on our forthcoming Rail U.S.A. Western States guide.

 San Bernardino Depot

 Lots of intermodal activity at San Bernardino

 A group of private cars sits adjacent to Los Angeles Union Station. I believe these cars are used by L.A. Rail.

Here is a short video followed by stills of the CMF:

The CMF visit was followed by a trip on Los Angeles subways and light rail to the MTA's Rail Operations Center. Understandably, no photos were permitted. I can say only that it is an impressive facility.

We returned to L.A.'s art deco Union Station for a banquet at this historic Harvey House.

After a long and enjoyable day, we returned via MetroLink to San Bernardino and then to the Mission Inn.