Nostalgia & History > Metrolink F59PH Original Scheme Burbank CA 1997

Back in 1997 I had an absolute dream job (except for the lower than expected pay and the drive to Burbank and home each day which probably took ten years off my life). Still, I was working at NBC, had a good title, and great lunch breaks that allowed me to poke about the local railroad scene. January 27, 1997 happened to be one of those days and I lucked out to also have great lighting and an unusual consist. Metrolkink #856, in the original (and frankly best) Metrolink scheme led Metrolink #859 in the (at that time) just appearing new scheme on Metrolink train #105, Ventura County line service. Most of my lunchtime adventures bagged me only one train, Metrolink #105, but I wasn't complaining this day. The spot here was the (at the time) Burbank Airport Metrolink station at the Burbank–Glendale–Pasadena Airport. Railroad-wise, this was CP Lockheed. Some years later this would bcome Bob Hope Burbank Aiport and the CP would become CP Katz. The airport was then renamed again, is now Hollywood Burbank Airport. (Photo Burbank, California, January 27, 1997. Charles Freericks.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/23 19:15 by erielackawanna.

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Great shot and excellent work with the scanner!

Posted from Android

And nowadays that commute might take 15 years off!  While I've enjoyed chasing trains in the LA area over the last 20 years since marrying my wife, I am glad when we go home as the traffic is soul sucking.  Love the picture, and that paint scheme.  I don't think I ever saw that scheme in person, by the time I started making it to Southern California for work, or later visiting my wife's famliy, pretty sure all the locos were white.  I do think the original was the best paint job, it's disappointing they didn't keep it.  Your photo is excellent!

I used the Burbank train station a few years ago on my last work trip to LA.  Think the building in the background of your photo is now the parking garage that I had to go through to get to the train station.  The signage to get to the train station led me through that maze, it would have been so much faster to just walk the sidewalk from the terminal to Empire Ave!  I was able to catch a late Surfliner to Union Station and then the Subway over to Pershing Square before walking up Bunker Hill to check on the Angels Flight funicular for my meetings.  The next day I took the Subway from 7th St downtown to North Hollywood and then caught a bus that took me to the airport.  Burbank is so much easier to use than LAX, wish they would improve the public transit options there for getting to downtown LA.

Nathan

Definitely the best Metrolink paint scheme!

atsf121 Wrote:
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>  Burbank is so much easier to use than LAX, wish
> they would improve the public transit options
> there for getting to downtown LA.
>


Shhhhhh, that's a secret only us locals are supposed to know.

Nice shot that captures the first Metrolink paint scheme, for better or worse.
GK 

Nice photo and memories but I am sad that the sense of local history with the name Lockheed is gone.
Before NBC and Disney, Burbank was famous for Lockheed aircraft.  Hudsons, Vegas, P-38s, Constallations, Neptunes, P-80s, T-33s, and the Skunk Works U-2s and SR-71s.  All concieved within a mile of that location.
While at Metrolink I helped pick that name but obviously a politician trumps an engineer so Richard Katz gets his fame.
They did me no favor naming CP McGinley after me when I retired.  I tried to explain that nothing good ever happens at a CP.
You get burned out signals, switches out of correspondence, instructions to flag by and take the switch in hand throw, broken switch points and frogs. slow orders, and at the worst derailments.
So I hope mine goes away with future double track extensions.