Pacific Surfliner (los Angeles-san Diego Or Los Angeles-goleta)

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by CrazyDash, Jul 18, 2020.

  1. CrazyDash

    CrazyDash Well-Known Member

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    DESCRIPTION
    I am back here with another route suggestion. Today I will be talking about my other local train, the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. However, I will be doing something slightly different. I am putting in two route suggestions at once for a couple reasons. These routes have fairly similar experiences, they are similar lengths, and they both have many different possibilities for DLC. For those who are not familiar with the line, the Pacific Surfliner is a passenger train that operates from San Luis Obispo, all the way to San Diego. The total route distance is 350 miles, with a total of 25 stops. (120 miles Los Angeles-San Diego &188.9 miles Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo) It is the third busiest Amtrak line, behind the Northeast Regional and the Acela Express, and the busiest on the west coast. They both have a mass variety of scenery from the beautiful sunny beaches of Southern California, to the bustling cities of Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Diego. The routes offer many amazing views along the journey making both very diverse routes. I will be talking about each of these routes separately.

    CORE TRAIN OF ROUTES
    The main routes would come with the Siemens Charger SC-44, Bi-Level coaches in Surfliner Livery, and the Bi-Level Cab Car. The SC-44 Charger was the replacement of all of Amtrak's F59phi locomotives, which were all shipped to Metra and can reach up to speeds of 125mph.
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    SOUNDS
    The sounds for the Siemens Charger will be very simple. It uses the same sounds as the Siemens ACS-64 with the same horn and bell. However, I think the horn should be lowered by one note since it sounds too high pitched on the ACS-64 when it is at high speed. The cab car would require a new custom horn, since it uses a different K5LA model than the SC-44 Charger. The cab car does use similar bells to the older gen trains on the Peninsula Corridor such as the Gallery Coach Cab Car.

    SERVICES (BOTH ROUTES)
    The Pacific Surfliner has 13 daily roundtrips each day. The core route would then come with 26 services with just the core route. (Excluding DLC)

    Now that we have talked about the main train consist and have a basic idea of the route, lets go into detail on each route on what they bring, and the DLC that could be added to each route.

    LOS ANGELES-SAN DIEGO
    First we will be talking about the more requested route of the two. The total distance is over 120 miles and contains 10 stops. This is the longer of the two routes by being longer than LA-Goleta by 20 miles. The journey takes approximately 2hr 55mins. The highest speed limit on this route is 90mph which can mostly be found within Oceanside-Encinitas.

    IMAGES OF ROUTE
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
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    [​IMG]

    DLC
    This will only cover what DLC could be added to this route that couldn't be added to the other route.

    COASTER
    This would be the most popular choice for DLC on this route. Coaster operates from Oceanside to San Diego. The route is approximately 40 miles and makes a total of 8 stops. The Pacific Surfliner skips most of the stops Coaster stops at so this would bring a similar experience as seen on the Peninsula Corridor between local trains and Baby Bullet trains. This would bring a good mix of services on timetable mode with the stopping Coasters and the high speed Amtrak trains. The rolling stock of coaster is made up of the EMD F40ph, EMD F59phi, Bombardier Bi-Level coaches, and Bombardier Bi-Level Cab Car. This could come in a pack coming with both locomotives and cab car, or the locos can be sold separately.
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    SOUNDS
    Coaster would require new custom horns. The F40ph and F59phi's both use K5LA horns from different generations. The cab car would be much more difficult since Coaster uses a wide range of horns on their fleet. My favorite coaster cab cars (2309 and 2310) use K5LA horns. Other cab cars use another horn I am not familiar with that isn't well liked by the community, and a K5LA model similar to the F40ph. All of the bells Coaster use are similar to other routes so these can be recycled.

    SERVICES
    Coaster runs approximately 20 services during the weekdays, and additional services on the weekends, and special events.

    BNSF
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    Now I am very unfamiliar with the freight part of this part of the route. But BNSF does not operate on the other Amtrak line. There are many different locos that could be added and there are many possibilities for services on timetables such as manifest trains and hauling of other cargo. You could even go as far as doing special passenger services shown in the second image.

    CONCLUSION ON LOS ANGELES-SAN DIEGO
    This would be a good choice for a future route in Train Sim World 2. With the support of longer routes, as shown with CSX Heavy Haul, this would be an amazing route to play on with a good variety in scenery, and a good selection of DLC. I have ridden this route multiple times and it is always a joy to ride on.

    LOS ANGELES-GOLETA
    Now you may be asking. Why not Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo? The route is a total of 188 miles. This is nearly double the length of CSX Sand Patch Grade. This would also be a major risk on performance for consoles and even high end pc's. Goleta, is in fact a terminus for lots of Pacific Surfliner routes. If the route is only from Los Angeles-Goleta, the route length shortens down to 103 miles, which is a fairly similar length as Sand Patch Grade. So this would be a much better solution to do. It would be similar to the Peninsula Corridor where only a few trains go on to the Gilroy extension. Now some info on this route. Los Angeles-Goleta is 103 miles and has a total of 13 stops. The route delivers a fairly similar experience as Los Angeles-San Diego. From the bustling city of Los Angeles, to the mountains of Simi Valley and Chatsworth, to the beautiful beaches from Ventura all the way to Goleta. (May be wrong) The max speed on this line is 79mph. The journey takes approximately 2h 45 mins.

    IMAGES OF LOS ANGELES-GOLETA
    upload_2020-7-17_17-50-59.jpeg [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    DLC
    This route would contain fairly different DLC on this route with Coaster and BNSF not operating on this line.
    UNION PACIFIC
    [​IMG]

    Again, I am not too familiar with the operations of freight within this area as well. Most services would be manifest freights. I am not sure where the nearest freight yard is for Union Pacific within the Santa Barbara area, so if anybody would like to tell me, please let me know in a reply.

    CONCLUSION
    This would be a very good choice of a route to add to Train Sim World 2 due to it being slightly shorter than Los Angeles-San Diego while still giving a fairly similar experience as the other route. This route also has a special place in my heart because it is my other local train line. I have ridden on this line many times and it never gets old seeing the beautiful beaches of Santa Barbara. Although this wouldn't be able to offer as much DLC as the southbound route, I would love to see my local line in Train Sim world 2, and would be an amazing experience for me and many others.

    DLC FOR BOTH ROUTES
    We aren't done with DLC yet. The following DLC would be able to operate on both the northbound and southbound lines.

    AMTRAK F59PHI
    [​IMG]

    This was the predecessor of the SC-44 Charger. This train no longer operates on the Pacific Surfliner, with all F59's shipped to Metra to run on their roster. But this would be a very nice DLC since we do not have the F59phi in Train Sim World 2 yet.

    SERVICES
    These would simply be merged into the Pacific Surfliner timetable services and possibly single deck services.

    SOUNDS
    Most of the F59's use a K5LA. This would have to be custom made since it is different than the SC-44 K5LA. They are able to use the bell from the ACS-64 so this can be reused.

    AMTRAK P42DC
    [​IMG]

    There are multiple things that can be done with this loco. On the northbound route, this can be used on the Coast Starlight, which goes up to Seattle Washington. The train can start in Los Angeles and end service in Santa Barbara or Goleta. The P42DC can also be used on the Pacific Surfliner when there are not enough SC-44 Chargers to run all services. It is also used for a third reason that I will discuss later. The P42DC is a highly requested locomotive and the Pacific Surfliner route would be a very good route to use it on.

    SOUNDS
    The P42 would also need custom sounds. It uses a K5LA for the most part but however sounds different than the SC-44 charger and uses rather a bell you would hear on the ACS-64 or another bell type I do not know the name of.

    SERVICES
    Normally the Coast Starlight does one service in one direction each day. This mean there would have to be two different timetables for each direction and be accurate to the real life schedule. The P42 can also get its services merged with the Pacific Surfliner services if replacing an SC-44 on the normal trains or the single decker trains.

    F40PH
    [​IMG]
    The F40ph on the Pacific Surfliner is mostly used for single decker train trips between San Luis Obispo and San Diego. This is also what the P42DC can also operate on since they normally use an f40ph and rather an SC44 or P42DC. They also can be used as replacements for lack of Chargers for all services. It would also be cool if we can drive as Amtrak 90208 with its Veteran's day livery. This pack would also come with amfleet coaches so it can do the single decker services.

    SOUNDS
    The F40ph on Amtrak normally uses a K5LA so again would need a custom horn. The F40 traditionally uses a bell you would hear on the F40ph-2CAT on Peninsula Corridor.

    SERVICES
    The single decker train normally only does one round trip so this would only require one timetable. For Pacific Surfliner services, it can be merged into some of the services on the Surfliner.

    METROLINK
    upload_2020-7-17_18-38-16.jpeg

    Now there are 2 ways that can be gone about Metrolink as a DLC. The first way is whatever route gets picked, the Metrolink operates its respected route on that line. On the LA-SD route, Metrolink operates from Los Angeles-Oceanside to connect with Coaster. On LA-Goleta, Metrolink operates from Los Angeles-East Ventura. The final option is if Metrolink is not a DLC, but it has its own routes that we then can use Scenario Planner to use Metrolink on either line. With the recent Q&A stream, we learned that we can use scenario planner on any route with any train. With the Scenario Planner, we would be able to create scenarios for the Metrolinks to operate on if it has its own route and operate on the Pacific Surfliner routes using the scenario planner. The only downside to this is not being able to do the procedures to depart East Ventura since it requires multiple direction changes and people not knowing what stops that Metrolink stops at compared to Amtrak.

    SOUNDS
    I discussed this in my Antelope Valley line suggestion. But if this becomes a DLC for the pacific surfliner routes, it would come with the F125 and Rotem cab car which both use the Nathan K5 and a bell you would hear on the MP36ph-3C on Peninsula Corridor.

    SERVICES
    Ventura County Line:

    6 trains operate on Los Angeles-East Ventura, 4 trains operate on Los Angeles-Moorpark, 3 trains operate on Los Angeles-Chatsworth, and finally 17 trains operate from Los Angeles-Burbank Bob Hope airport
    Oceanside Line:
    8 Trains operate from Los Angeles-Oceanside

    CONCLUSION
    I would love to see one of these two routes to come to Train Sim World 2 in the future. They both have very amazing varieties of scenery. They also have a good collection DLC that can be added from commuter trains like Metrolink and Coaster, to addition to the Surfliner fleet such as the P42DC, F40ph, and F59phi, to freight trains such as Union Pacific and BNSF. I can't pick which route I prefer more since I love both routes equally and they are good in their own ways. These two routes have something for every railfan from stopper commuter trains, to high speed passenger trains, to freight action. They may be lengthy routes, but they would both be good fits in the Train Sim World 2 collection since we don't really have any semi-fast passenger train lines mixed with commuter trains. The Pacific Surfliner has a special place in my heart since I ride this train occasionally and always have amazing experiences. Adding one of these routes to Train Sim World 2 would be absolutely amazing. Ride on Railfans!
     

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  2. Deimenried

    Deimenried Member

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    The scenery on these routes are breathtaking, and for it to be fully realised would provide a very unique environment for passenger operations. It has a very Peninsula Corridor quality to it, and I love that. Sun, Sea and Services!
     
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  3. fanta1682002

    fanta1682002 Well-Known Member

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    yes i see very good route or very good train
     
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  4. maxthum

    maxthum Active Member

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    Pacific Surfliner would be an amazing route in TSW2. It would be a definite purchase from me tho I'm more leaning to the classic LA Union Station - San Diego.
     
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  5. Rush

    Rush Member

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    This would be amazing!! I would absolutely love to have The Pacific Surfliner from Los Angeles to San Diego! I was thinking the Coaster would then be perfect for DLC as well
     
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  6. jedi247

    jedi247 Well-Known Member

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    This route would be awesome. I'd love the Amtrak California SC44 Charger, BNSF ET44C4 and UP ET44AH, and BNSF and UP GP60s. BNSF needs to be added into TSW2.
     
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  7. FabricioLeandro

    FabricioLeandro New Member

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  8. Purno

    Purno Well-Known Member

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    The Pacific Surfliner was one of my favourite routes in Train Simulator. However, partly because it was a long route with high speeds (for American standards), offered different landscapes and still had plenty of stations to stop at. Considering TSW features routes much shorter, I have my doubts about a Pacific Surfliner route for TSW. I fear the route may be less fun when it's shortened to TSW standards.
     
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  9. jamesonmin

    jamesonmin Well-Known Member

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    Sounds cool. But AMTK still uses the F40PH and F59PHI?
     
  10. CC Johnson

    CC Johnson Active Member

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    I'd go for that. Even though we already got SF, this looks interesting. And much prettier.

    PS: Very well done proposal. Cudos!
     
  11. Blacknred81

    Blacknred81 Well-Known Member

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    F40ph cabbages still exist all over the system where needed, Amtrak California is the only Service left with F59PHIs as the Cascades and Surfliner sold theirs.
     
  12. Blacknred81

    Blacknred81 Well-Known Member

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    From what I can gather from looking at Google Maps there are a few small yards.

    -1st Yard of note is the one located in Oxnard. It exchanges cars with the Ventrura County Railroad, and the majority of the freight from there seems to be automobiles from Port Hueneme. Another major load appears to be lumber. Some hoppers and reefers can be seen in the yard as well.
    Oxnard.png
    showimage.jpg
    showimage (1).jpg

    -Another small yard appears near Van Nuys, I assume this is for local switching operations and local freights in the area. A numerous amount of autoracks, which I assume come from Oxnard, appear here as well.
    Van Nuys.png
    showimage (2).jpg

    -UP Maintains a large intermodal facility across the LA River near LA Union Station, however I think most of these trains go towards Soledad canyon to go over Tehachapi, as I don't think UP sends their Intermodal traffic on the Coast Line.

    -Another Small UP yard exists at 6th Street near Union Station as well.
    [​IMG]
     
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  13. anelson7751

    anelson7751 New Member

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    I'd really love to see the P42DC in TSW or TSW2
     
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  14. Ansellus

    Ansellus New Member

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    I've been on the Coast Starlight from LA to Salinas (For a couple of days in Monterey) then onto Oakland. It's a bloody amazing train ride. Santa Barbara and along the coast. Through Vendenberg Air Force Base, into Mountains and desert and follow Route 101. Just awesome.
     
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  15. Raffomatiko

    Raffomatiko New Member

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    This routes would be sooo nice, I hope at least one of them will be coming to TSW 2.
     
  16. CrazyDash

    CrazyDash Well-Known Member

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    Hi. Very late reply. Amtrak does still operate F40ph’s on the line on their single decker services and sometimes on the Surfliner. The F59phi though is not operating on Amtrak as they have now all moved to Metra.
     
  17. CrazyDash

    CrazyDash Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for telling me!
     
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  18. 59321747

    59321747 Well-Known Member

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    I like your post very much. It's very persuasive.
     

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