Cell Phone Photos

My new computer has been up and running for a little over a week, but it's still restoring my files from the Carbonite backup. (Carbonite or equivalent cloud backup is a real bargain -- I had a hard disk failure two weeks ago, but I'll have all but a few photos back by tomorrow.)

It looks like I'll need to reload the USB port drivers before I can upload new photos from my camera. However, since reloading the drivers will make me reboot, I don't want to do this until all my files have been restored. But I have some cell phone shots that I was able to e-mail myself and use in the meantime.

The first one may or may not be one of my last of a Surfliner F59PHI.

Fifteen of these locos, 450-464, were delivered for a new Amtrak California service between San Diego and San Luis Obispo in 1994. These are all now nearly 25 years old, and Siemens has begun delivering 14 Charger locomotives to replace them on Surfliner service. The F59PHIs are supposedly to be replaced by the end of August and are going to be rebuilt and go to Chicago Metra. However, I posted a question about all this on the Altamont discussion board, and the consensus is that nobody actually knows what's going on, so there you are, the locos may hang on longer.

Below are two photos of the Amtrak California station facilities at Goleta, CA, which is about 10 miles north of Santa Barbara and the turnaround point for runs that don't go as far north as San Luis Obispo.

In light of how many models of modern passenger equipment are available in both N and HO, it's too bad that no one has thought about offering kits for these sorts of facilities. The closest you could come would be to use the Atlas station platform, which is available in both HO and N, but it really doesn't look all that much like the platform here. 3D printing would be another option, especially in N.