Clutter
A westbound Van train rolls through downtown Pomona, CA on March 24, 1978. Up front are the usual suspects, for the period, a pair of DDA40X's and a high-speed geared SD40-2 (6933/6939/8038). The open land in the foreground was once occupied by UP's Pomona passenger depot, unused since Amtrak's start-up. It stood empty for quite a few years and had only recently been raised, with some of the left-overs still cluttering the scene. Tracks behind belong to the SP and their mission-style depot is just to the left, still in use today, by a couple of local bus lines, the Pomona PD and some Metrolink customers. UP's mainline made a jog around their depot, resulting in a permanent speed restriction and after the building and ground was cleared, they straightened out the jog somewhat by easing the s-curves at either end. This allowed the speed restriction to be lifted. Now, there is a Metrolink stop/platform here, along with a gawd-awful overhead pedestrian walkway put up by the City of Pomona so passengers won't have to cross the live tracks to get to the depot on the other side. An improvement for sure in the "scenery", but today's trains don't compare IMHO.
Clutter
A westbound Van train rolls through downtown Pomona, CA on March 24, 1978. Up front are the usual suspects, for the period, a pair of DDA40X's and a high-speed geared SD40-2 (6933/6939/8038). The open land in the foreground was once occupied by UP's Pomona passenger depot, unused since Amtrak's start-up. It stood empty for quite a few years and had only recently been raised, with some of the left-overs still cluttering the scene. Tracks behind belong to the SP and their mission-style depot is just to the left, still in use today, by a couple of local bus lines, the Pomona PD and some Metrolink customers. UP's mainline made a jog around their depot, resulting in a permanent speed restriction and after the building and ground was cleared, they straightened out the jog somewhat by easing the s-curves at either end. This allowed the speed restriction to be lifted. Now, there is a Metrolink stop/platform here, along with a gawd-awful overhead pedestrian walkway put up by the City of Pomona so passengers won't have to cross the live tracks to get to the depot on the other side. An improvement for sure in the "scenery", but today's trains don't compare IMHO.