Because I won't be joining the Fest until Sunday I hadn't done more than glance at the prior portion of the itinerary. On taking a closer look today, however, I see that the outbound Metrolink ride on the Ventura County Line is aboard train 111. This is the train that was involved in the cornfield meet with a UP freight on 9-12-08.
Festers (?) will be able to get a good look at the same situation, perhaps under the same weather conditions (clear skies), albeit earlier in the year than the wreck occurred (sun higher).
Outbound the train will be pulling. Unlike San Diego's Coasters, Metrolink has not (at least yet) blacked out the end windows, so riding in the last car and looking astern as the train departs Chatsworth will afford an excellent view of the wreck scene as the train rolls through what I call the Metrolink Death Curve.
With Metrolink 118 in push mode on the return from Moorpark, Festers can revisit the scene from the UP freight's viewpoint as it rolled out of the Santa Susanna Pass. This will be a little more difficult, because since the wreck Metrolink uses red ropes to block off the forward ends of cab cars when trains are pushing (What difference a rope woulda made on 9-12-08 is beyond me). You can still look forward, just can't get right up to the window.
Edited by WhoozOn1st, 17 June 2009 - 12:46 PM.