The end of a railroad era on the West Coast has been reached. The last Surfliner unit, #458, has left for good on last evening's Southwest Chief and is currently in transit to Chicago where it will join the other F59 units for future use on Metra's two Milwaukee District lines (West & North), North Central Service, and possibly the Heritage Corridor.
These engines were one of my favorites built by EMD and it's sad that I didn't get to see these as often as I had wished. The reason being is that I currently reside in the Inland region and driving to the Surfline ranges anywhere between 45 minutes to over 1 hour. That builds up a lot of gas expenses and that's not necessarily a good thing.
As you may know, 13 months ago and 4 months before I moved, Metra purchased all 21 owned Amtrak F59's from California and the Pacific Northwest (Amtrak Cascades). It's hard for me to believe that by the time I got here, a handful of the Surfliner units were still hauling passengers and now here we are, 8 months later and they've all vanished completely, having been replaced by more efficient, Tier 4, Siemens Charger engines.
While Coaster, Metrolink, and the state-owned Amtrak California routes in NorCal are still keeping their versions of the F59's for a few more years, let's take one last listen to those mighty EMD 710 engines spool up and the beautiful, but somewhat sick K5LA horns that will be missed, but remembered among train enthusiasts along the California coast.
At least I got what I got; better than nothing. Here's a montage of clips I put together of the few remaining Amtrak-owned F59's that were still hauling passengers up and down the coast. The next time I'll be seeing these is when I'm in Chicago sometime this summer. At least 5 of them are already on the road, still sporting their original paint job. Hopefully they won't get repainted into the full Metra paint scheme for a while.
Locations mainly include: Fullerton, Sorrento Valley, and downtown San Diego
Enjoy!
