Rest In Pieces. The moon continues its ascent into the night sky above the 1924-built, ex-Southern Pacific station in Glendale, CA on a chilly night in Southern California. Calling on the 97-year-old depot this evening is Amtrak 865-28, a special move of two, retired "Talgo" Series 6 trainsets originally owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation that are traveling from Seattle, WA to Anaheim, CA. The two-day, 1,400-plus mile journey for these veteran cars is sadly one that has appropriately been dubbed a "funeral train" by some, as upon the cars arrival in Anaheim, they will be shoved into a scrap yard for a date with the cutting torch. The unfortunate fate for these cars came after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded the Talgo design played a part in the severity of a derailment in December 2017 where three passengers lost their lives. Since then, all Talgo Series 6 trainsets once used as part of Amtrak's Cascades service have been sidelined. For a brief moment as this photograph was captured, however, the two trainsets, dubbed "Mt. Baker" and "Mt. Olympus" to pay homage to the towering mountain peaks they once ran within sight of in the Pacific Northwest, enjoy a chance to cool their heels at a station. Soon the San Luis Obispo-based (SLO) crew that has brought this train in will be settling into a warm suburban for the drive back to SLO as the Los Angeles-based crew takes the train the remaining miles to Anaheim.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
