Passenger Trains > Recent San Diego Trolley Action

My partner and I have been railfanning in San Diego pretty much every time I've come down there for the last month as exploring the MTS system around San Diego with them has been a super fun and rewarding experience. Teaching someone how to railfan while getting an entirely new set of trains to play around with is a pretty rare privilege and I've been super jazzed about getting light rail of all things, which I didn't expect to be in the slightest. Regardless, here are the photos from a few recent trips.

-The Blue Line extension to UTC in La Jolla was recently opened at regularly sees solid sets of S70 and S700 cars. A southbound run to San Ysidro parallels the I5 as it races down to the junction with the Surfline.
-An Orange Line train bisects Commercial Street on its way East to El Cajon
-Another Orange Line train heads East a few minutes later

---

---

---

-A northbound Blue Line train to UTC passes over the I5 in La Jolla after dark
-At Baltimore Junction, the Orange and Green lines come together. A Green line train for downtown races through the interlocking
-MTS is in the process of retiring their Siemens SD-100 fleet, so when my partner and I were coming home from a hike yesterday morning and saw a solid set of these on the Blue Line we stopped at Balboa Street station to catch them on their return trip.

Take it easy,

-Zacc

---

---

---

Love shots #1 & #5, both epic trolley material.
—Mac

Those are nice looking trolleys...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

And the UTC is what???

UTC stands for University Towne Center.  It is a "district" of La Jolla, which is a suburb of San Diego.  UTC is mostly known for its upscale mall where the the trolley extension ends.

Your first photo makes it look like a roller coaster.  Looking forward to  March when I'm up there and can ride the new UTC extension.   Bridges everywhere.

masterphots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Your first photo makes it look like a roller
> coaster.  Looking forward to  March when I'm up
> there and can ride the new UTC extension. 
>  Bridges everywhere.

It really is, the elevation change between the tracks in Rose Canyon and the top of the hill there is pretty severe. If you need angle ideas I've been covering the line pretty extensively on my YouTube. Most of the elevated stations have barriers at the end of them that make shooting at them difficult but there are multiple parking structures both at UTC and Nobel Drive connected to each station that make shooting the viaducts there a pretty easy experience.

-Zacc

Some serious infrastructure shots there!