This was a very unusual venture for me. Although I'd been to the US for two months in my student days and travelled for a month of that, almost all by the then-traditional Greyhound, I'd been to Washington, the top of Pike's Peak (by train, since you ask), the Grand Canyon, LA, San Francisco, Vancouver, Chicago, Montreal, Boston and who knows where else. I'd regretted ever since that trip in 1969 that I hadn't made the effort at least to cross the Mexican border. I hadn't ever expected to be back in the US so when work required me to spend a week in southern California and flight schedules dictated that I'd have a day free, an opportunity seemed to appear. Diligent research has unearthed my passport from the time, which reveals my arrival in LA on 29 January 1994, so that free day would have been 30 January.
I set off from Heathrow with great trepidation - my two trips to Germany in 1992 and 1993 had, I think, been my first flights since the end of the 1970s, and with my total number of flights since the 50s only just about into double figures (DH Comet IV, HS Trident, Vickers Viscount, get the idea?) I was still in the nervous flyer category. Despite scores of short-haul flights in B737s, Airbuses, Canadair RJs, Embraers, ATR42s (awful), Saab 340s, Bombardier Dash-8s, BAC 111s, and goodness knows what else, I'm still not a fan. Eurostar's the way forward. The thought of a non-stop LHR-LAX flight was absolutely appalling, and the reality lived up to it. Having not slept at all during the flight and then had to get through the slow (in those days) US immigration checks, get hold of a hire car (no Internet to do all this at short notice from home) and drive the 100 miles or so from LAX to Goleta, it was no great surprise when I fell asleep just as I reached the required freeway exit. Luckily the rumble strip woke me up so all was well, and having booked into the Holiday Inn I turned on the television in my room to find it showing 'Inspector Morse'. I could have watched that at home...
In the few days I'd had to consider the Mexico business, it had occurred to me that with the San Diego tram (OK. 'trolley', light rail or whatever) system running to San Ysidro I could go to Mexico by tram and foot. Well, why not. A long drive from Santa Barbara was needed (400-odd miles there and back) but it was perfectly doable. On one of the spare days I duly set off and found it was a doddle down the freeways to one of the San Diego suburbs whose name I can't remember. I'd managed to do enough research to find out timetables and so forth, and was soon on a tram down to San Ysidro, the US border town. On arrival I duly walked down to the border crossing point nearby, and was in Tijuana in a minute or two more. One look at Tijuana's rather scruffy (then) border area was enough to persuade me not to bother exploring the town centre, which is quite close by, so with track done and the 'visit Mexico' box ticked, I turned north and made my way back through a mildly curious US immigration (I wonder what they're like now at that particular location) to McDonalds, the tram, and the freeway back to Goleta.
Most of the rest of the week was occupied with work but I did find time to visit the Amtrak station at Goleta, and a small railway museum nearby. Then there was another umpteen hours in the scaryplane back. Why do people want to do long haul flights?
In the few days I'd had to consider the Mexico business, it had occurred to me that with the San Diego tram (OK. 'trolley', light rail or whatever) system running to San Ysidro I could go to Mexico by tram and foot. Well, why not. A long drive from Santa Barbara was needed (400-odd miles there and back) but it was perfectly doable. On one of the spare days I duly set off and found it was a doddle down the freeways to one of the San Diego suburbs whose name I can't remember. I'd managed to do enough research to find out timetables and so forth, and was soon on a tram down to San Ysidro, the US border town. On arrival I duly walked down to the border crossing point nearby, and was in Tijuana in a minute or two more. One look at Tijuana's rather scruffy (then) border area was enough to persuade me not to bother exploring the town centre, which is quite close by, so with track done and the 'visit Mexico' box ticked, I turned north and made my way back through a mildly curious US immigration (I wonder what they're like now at that particular location) to McDonalds, the tram, and the freeway back to Goleta.
Most of the rest of the week was occupied with work but I did find time to visit the Amtrak station at Goleta, and a small railway museum nearby. Then there was another umpteen hours in the scaryplane back. Why do people want to do long haul flights?
Passengers joining MTD Siemens-Duewag U2 'trolley car'/light rail unit/tram 1024 at San Ysidro for its return trip to San Diego. These units were built around 1980 for the original opening of the system and only 1 (1001) remains in service as part of the Silver Line heritage fleet.
|
Despite the implied threats to anyone moving this border marker, it's not on the present day US-Mexico border. At the time I took the photo it was about 170 metres north of the border line but it may have been moved again in the course of development around the area. The number 255 is a serial number - 258 were set out in all following the 1853 border treaty. |
Happy campers queueing up to cross into the USA from Mexico on 30 January 1994. |
Another view of the San Ysidro terminus, with car 1022 just arriving. |
A southbound Amtrak passenger service arriving at Goleta. The single (to my surprise) loco is Amtrak's 233, an EMD (General Motors Electro-Motive Division) F40PHR 3000 hp Co-Co built in the late 1970s and now withdrawn. |
A southbound freight at Goleta, headed by EMD GP60 9659 (3800hp Bo-Bo),EMD GP38AC 2164 (2000 hp Bo-Bo) and EMD GP30M 4251 (2250 hp Bo-Bo). The first loco is in St Louis South Western livery - at the time SLW was a subsidiary of Southern Pacific. The other two are in the corporate livery of CSX Transportation. |
I was lucky in noticing this in time to point the camera for a hasty third photo of the same freight. Careful examination of the nearer of the two tank wagons will reveal that someone got their spelling a bit wrong... |
The picturesque (and relocated) former Southern Pacific Goleta Depot (station) building at the South Coast Railroad Museum on the outskirts of the town.
|
After my little transatlantic venture it was time to refocus on Europe and I set off to Luxembourg in April for a steam bash with some track included.
