Metrolink's Antelope Valley Line Irl

For those who don't know much about the route, or who would like to see what the route looks like IRL, here is a Youtube video from 2019 from a "DETOURING" Amtrak Coast Starlight train. (Amtrak doesn't regally run this route, only on detours when the Coast Line is unavailable.)

The points of interest in this video is from 0:07 to 1:33:50

Also POI's for those that don't know the locations.

-LAUPT: 0:07-1:00
-Mission Junction: 2:29
-Metrolink's CMF: 3:23
-Glendale Station: 4:18
-Burbank Station: 7:40
-Ventura County Line: 8:30
-Whiteman Airport: 13:08
-Sylmar / San Fernando Station: 17:29
-San Fernando Tunnel: 24:30-27:19
-SP M4 Mogul #1629: 29:41
-Historic Saugus Depot: 29:44
-Newhall Station: 30:07
-Metrolink MOW caboose: 32:22
-Santa Clarita Station: 36:10
-Via Princessa (2 trains originate/terminate here): 40:58
-Appx location of Vista Canyon Station: 43:15
-Bridge over the Santa Clarita river +2 tunnels (Unknown names): 50:15-51:12
-Start of Soledad Pass 1:16:36
-Palmdale Dam 1:22:56
-Palmdale Cuttoff connection (To Cajon Pass) 1:24:23
-Palmdale Station 1:26:41
-Lockheed Martin Skunk Works 1:28:37
-Landcaster Station 1:33:39

The video cuts out the Burbank Airport – North Station just past the Ventura County line and the Vincent Grade/Acton Station just before Soledad Pass.

 

Matt said they used LIDAR for this route. I'm intrigued now.

 

I was a certain someplace this afternoon, more photos to come later....

 

Landcaster




Aliso Canyon Road Crossing near Paris, CA



Somewhere near Bobcat Canyon


From the road bridge near Agua Dulce Canyon


Note, the tunnel in the distance here was used in the movie "Duel"



Bridge over the San Clara River (This was the only Metrolink Train I saw yesterday)



UP Intermodal train and the tunnel near the same area.





Bad photo, but the new Vista Canyon station


Via Princessa Station


Speed Board for trains going east of Via Princessa

 

To be honest this looks quite cool. Very excited to drive this route in the game, finally some rural and scenic American passenger action. Exactly what many players wanted after endless commuter runs in the vicinity of New York

 

79 MpH territory.
Wonder how DTG will manage both the mountains and the desert, so better not spoil us with too many photographs ;-)

 

My first reaction to this route was a bit meh (I am more of a NEC/trees/forest/city kinda guy) but the more I am learning about it the more I am excited about it. I did like the Caltrain route and this has a bit of that feel on the urban sections. I love these pics and vids because I like comparing the routes to real life and I have never been to California.

Some questions that are popping up in my head:

1. In the previews we see freight layers from BNSF. In reality (which is seen in your pics) it seems like UP is the one that runs on those lines. We have UP stock in the game so I am wondering if there's a reason we are only seeing BNSF instead and what the final release will look like there.

2. This is thinking pretty far ahead but there seemed to be a strong hint from Matt in the stream that the MPI MP36 is coming. I am assuming that would be with the Bi-levels too. Definitely hope it does since the more stock on the route the better, and I am wondering if they will find a way to have mixed consists with both the bi-levels and Rotem cars (I am not sure if that is possible to have random mixes or if the game requires the consist to be pre-determined). Seems like mixed consists are pretty common in real life.

 

I'm super excited for the AVL. While people have said it's a weird choice of route, I disagree. Sure, it's quiet, single track running, but not every single route needs to be hustle and bustle NYC commuter level action. While I don't drive on Cajon Pass much due to lacking the practice for heavy US freight, I do really enjoy the scenery on there, so I am truly looking forward to having a similar feeling route, but with passenger action instead. The wide variety of scenery we'll be seeing in this route from busy downtown LA to the rural mountains and valleys has me excited too. While there's definitely some routes that have good variety too, a lot of routes tend to have the same feel along the route, and while there's nothing wrong with that, having variety is always welcome - which is why I am so looking forward to the route, cause it's truly quite different to anything we have currently. And I know people aren't keen on the aesthetics of the F125 and Rotems (I do quite like them, but maybe that's just me), but DTG could've easily just redone the MP36 and bombardier bi-levels... I hope we can see a gameplay pack in the future that adds them for Metrolink, but I am very much pleased to be getting new trains on all of the core routes.

 

Great video and pics.
I'm now looking forward to this one.

 

Thanks for taking the time to make this thread Blacknred81. Couldnt have known what I was looking at most of the time without your notes.

 

Impressive and for UP Freight these must come from Caltrain Cane Creek Sherman Hill routes if DTG wants the layer in

 

Hopefully, I want to be able to run freight trains on this route being as I have no interest in passenger trains.

 

Thanks for the pics.
Enjoyed it & really looking forward to this route in the game

Meanwhile, some goofy thoughts in my mind -

That's an awfully 'British' name

That's either a made-up place OR named by some 4-year old. XD

Isn't that the place where they designed the SR-71 ?

 

Seems like it All of skunk works aircraft

 

We Yanks have been shamelessly appropriating British placenames for 400 years

Back when the place was Spanish, they still had princesses

 

Last photos, these are from my phone, but the Vincent Grade - Action station. Has a nice little theme going on with it.

 

Not only British, but French ( Des Moines ), German ( Palatine ), Russian ( Moscow) and many others, not forgetting Spanish and Native American.

 

I lived in Los Angeles for around 10 years. One of the neat things about LA is how many different little micro biomes inside one county. Like when you watch the weather they give weather for multiple areas like beaches, the valleys, high desert, low desert, and downtown. So I think that it will be an amazing route where you can get a taste of different scenery. And I am waiting eagerly to see how the model of Union Station turns out as it is a magnificent station.

 

This thread has made me much more interested in AVL than I was before. Highly considering pre-ordering TSW4 now.

 

I rode this line about 10 years ago and remember the wild animal park that the train passes, wonder how they will treat this landmark. It is on the right side of the train out bound.

 

Yes and no - Skunk Works was located at Burbank Airport (which was the main Lockheed factory/headquarters) until the '90s

 

We still have princesses today
A lot of Americans maybe don't realise how many Spanish names there are in their towns, rivers, mountains that they simply use everyday even with the huge number of people who speak Spanish right now.
Awesome photos by the way!

 

A route not only has to look pretty but it also has to offer interesting and varied operation.
This being a commuter route with only one train supplied on purchase I doubt it will have that much lasting interest once the novelty of driving a new train has worn off.

 

The represented area has single and double track sections, and has passenger and freight services. Depending on what they did with the timetable, I think there could be quite a number of representative real life situations like waiting for a train to clear the track in front of you, or waiting on the siding for another train to pass you, etc ... that are quite interesting for a rail fan.

If they did a timetable with this kind of situations I think this route will be quite re-playable. If they didn't, it will not.

 

I posted the timetable for the Metrolink trains in another post related to this line, thought I would put it here also.

 

capture this from an youtube video that was filmed a month ago

 

Really enjoying this thread, thanks much!



Kind regards,
Dave

 

would like to get amazon containers one day

 

Did they mentioned why we wouldn't get the San Bernandito AI layer for Metrilink services?
wouldbe great to get them for Cajon pass

 

I hope that maybe they will go back and layer in some metrolink in Cajon Pass now that we have Antelope Valley coming.

 

This route is close enough to my home that I can hear the horn in the early morning.

Another fun fact about this region: If you're a fan of Steven Spielberg's classic Duel, BnR's pics should look quite familiar to you.

 

I too am extremely familiar with the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line IRL and can confirm first hand that there is plenty of variety on the route. Especially if you run an afternoon service from Lancaster to LA against all the PM commutes to Lancaster. Or an early AM train (201) up to Lancaster against all the trains inbound to LA for the morning commute. Trust me, there's a few times you'll be waiting in sidings and have trains waiting for you, not to mention passing some along the way on double track sections. All of these meets are built into the schedule so you're not running late because of a meet. That is unless something else has caused you to already be running late. Then you'll be out of your time slot and the dispatcher might hold you for trains running on time! This doesn't include the several daily UP freight trains that run up and down the line but typically, you'd never see Metrolink in a siding waiting for a UP freight.

If DTG does in fact release a DLC with the MP36 and Bombardier cars (and maybe a working Bombardier cabcar?) like they've alluded to already, then it would certainly provide variety for equipment to run, especially since the Bombardier coaches are running in most trainsets, AND the fact that Metrolink is actively rebuilding the Bombardier coaches now indicating they will be in the fleet for sometime. A solid Rotem car set is quite rare, even though that's what DTG has portrayed as the norm. Nearly all the MP36s are still in active service, with the exception of the 892, and are very frequent on this line to Lancaster along side the F125. And dare I say a surprise DLC of an F59PH? As of writing this, 4 of the F59PHs are also still in service and while not as frequent due to being such a small fleet now, they still do make their way to Lancaster on a weekly basis. Metrolink's trainsets rotate through all of their 8 lines daily and aren't captive to any single line. There are 32 total trainsets to operate the service on all lines. That said, no 6 car trains are permitted to Lancaster due to the steep grades through Soledad Canyon and through Acton. The maximum is 5 cars to Lancaster, although almost all trains on the line are 4 cars. This also has to do with a fairly short Lancaster platform and adjacent layover track where 3 trainsets need to park every night and 2 trainsets stay on the platform track. Trains with 5 cars are common on the trains that only go to Via Princessa, commonly referred to by train crew as a "Princessa flip." Those not familiar with the route are in for a real treat and will see why trains can't be 6 cars when you're running up the steep grades. Think about them returning to LA. The dynamic brakes cannot hold a train at the speed limit on such a steep down grade. Don't ask me how I know. Anything over 6 cars requires a 2nd locomotive, or used to, and typical in front of the cabcar so there's an engine at each end, although this almost never happens. Hope this provides a little insight to the route and that it does in fact have plenty to offer and is likely to be far superior to the Peninsula Corridor.

 

If you watch the San Juan Capistrano cam on YouTube, you can see that most trainsets are loco, the Bombardier coaches and a Rotem cabcar.

 

Certainly whets my appetite for this route. Thanks for all the " first hand " information.

 

We'll have to wait and see what DTG make of this, won't we?
They have made claims like 'complete busy schedule' and 'most realistic operation' before that didn't materialise.

 

Yeah, I can't disagree with you there. There's always some kind of inaccuracies every route release. However from what we've seen, and me being very familiar with this route, I would say they got it pretty good. Won't know until we run the whole route. But like I said in my post, they'd really need to release an MP36 and Bombardier coach/cabcar DLC for added realism. Almost every single Metrolink trainset has Bombardier cars in it. They need to fix the locomotive bell DTG Matt ... It doesn't ring that slow and should be quite obvious based on previous recordings of the e-bells from stuff like the CalTrain DLC. I don't understand how this was messed up if you took a direct recording of it. And please don't tell me it was a copy and paste of the horn from the F125 to the Rotem cabcar. The F125 and cabcar have very distinctly different sounding horns. And since we haven't seen any cabcar previews yet of the cab or sounds, it makes one wonder. 55 hours of sound recordings, you'd hope the two different horns were recorded. And hopefully not from just outside. Horns sound different in the cab. Time will tell just how much of a "most realistic operation" this truly is.

The Chargers came out in 2017. And not one developer has ever made a Charger locomotive for any Train Sim ever. TSW, TSC, etc. None exist. It would be a nice addition. However, if the Surfliner route is indeed made, don't just do San Diego-Oceanside as rumored. I'm so sick of the lazy 1 hour max end to end routes that DTG seems to do, with the exception of this AV Line route. Rarely are routes ever done in their entirety. It's lazy. No Amtrak trains only operate this section. Only Coaster does. Spend some time and make the entire route Los Angeles-San Diego. As it should be. And you can use the existing Metrolink stuff on the route LA-Oceanside. Would be a tie in to the already made LAUPT. OR.... step outside the box since DTG and TSW team are trying to do stuff never done before... how about FINALLY LAUPT north onto the Coast Line LA-Goleta. Never been done on any Train Sim either. And again, the Metrolink equipment could be used. A nice, accurate Surfliner consist with a Charger to go with it. That route has been requested for so dang long now. And it's always just ignored.

 

As a follow up to my previous post, there are 32 trainsets for the entire operation on all 8 lines. Less than FIVE are straight Rotem sets. Likely 3-4 out of the 32 trainsets. This would have been obvious on the trip out to Los Angeles and working with Metrolink. One of the photos taken even shows a Bombardier coach in the consist. Just a little added context.

 

If an MP36PH + Bilevel pack does release, there better be a hefty discount for those who already own Baby Bullet. Perhaps throw in the F59 too...

 

I'm all for an F59PH! Maybe even an F59PHI? But I'm certainly not hopeful. There's only 4 F59PHs left in the fleet. I doubt it's worth the effort to DTG. According to what Matt said, the MP36 and Bombardier pack that's supposedly "getting re-done" will be an entire update with fixes and proper sounds and stuff to the original CalTrain ones. So likely, there won't be a discount. Or it'll just be a direct copy and paste of the CalTrain ones with little effort to update them and fix any bugs...

 

It looks like a station in the middle of nowhere. No people seem to use the station but still it looks very tidy. Don't really understand why you would build such an inviting station there? Is there a tourist trap in the neighbourhood? This station looks gorgeous but also very funny.

 

It serves the small communities in Soledad Canyon and those who live on rural land but work in Los Angeles. It also serves the small community of Acton, CA. It doesn't get much ridership but it gets enough to keep it going. It's also the steepest station built in the whole system sitting on a 2.5% grade. Starting a train from a stop, even if it's 4 cars, on a 2.5% grade isn't exactly ideal. But you work with what you got. It's in the best position for those communities. Trains going north to Lancaster really pull hard leaving. Trains going south to LA have a much easier time except you really have to be on your game stopping the train when going south.

 

Sounds cool. I'm actually becoming very excited about these route since I saw the voralberg stream. Really curious how all these stations are gonna look in TSW. They have a movie feel to them so I hope this route has nice vibe going on.

 

The route itself is great. It offers urban running through cities, mountain running through a long canyon, tons of grade crossings, and top speeds of 79MPH. Plenty of speed changes to keep you on your tows. 22 Metrolink trains to choose to run. I'm seeing a lot say it won't provide much variety from people who've never even heard of it. If DTG did it properly, it's a fantastic route to chose from. I've been over it many times over the years. It being boring is simply a matter of opinion and not factual based.

 

By the way, if anyone on this forums is near Los Angeles this weekend, LA Union Station is having Train Fest this weekend, which includes displays of various railroad equipment including Metrolink's stock.
http://unionstationla.com/happenings/train-festival-2023

Ill probably head out there to take a look at whats around.

 

There weren't discounts in the past for previous loco packs, so don't expect it to be applied here. But it'll be cheaper if all dtg do is a livery change and maybe even a new horn since the horn is not the same as the caltrain one.

 

It would probably fall into the same category as the CSX SD40, ATSF F7, and BNSF SD70ACe.

 

In technical terms, they both have the Nathan P2 airhorn. However, you're partially correct. The Metrolink MP36 ones sound different. Louder and maybe differently tuned. They're still both electronically controlled. The overall locomotive and cab are pretty much identical. CalTrains ones arrived in 2003 and Metrolinks arrived in 2009. But there wasn't really any changes made between the two. If DTG takes the lazy way and just does a copy and paste of the sounds to an "updated" Metrolink pack, I guess it would work. But really, a new horn should be recorded for the Metrolink MP36, as you suggested. And please, FIX the issue with no airbrake sounds on the locomotive. The MP36 doesn't have quiet airbrakes in the cab. They definitely make noise when you set air.

 

Oh if I were still in LA I would be all over that commerative TAP card. Nothing like showing off your nerd card while entering the red line station!