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SoCal Fest: Post-Fest thoughts


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 26 July 2009 - 02:17 AM

Well, except for a few who are still in travel, the majority of the OTOL SoCal Fest 2009 participants are back home after what was almost 2 weeks together on the rails. During our 13 day extravaganza, we rode Amtrak's Crescent, Sunset Limited, Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, and Lake Shore Limited. We rode rail transit and commuter rail lines in New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Chicago. We also did the heritage streetcar line in San Pedro.

We broke a few records on this Fest, such as the total number of participants, as well as the most people travelling together at any one time. As always we met some new friends along the way, and learned much about transportation systems outside of those we are used to riding.

The group experienced great weather, with no significant rain except while we were aboard long distance trains. We did endure temperatures over 100 degrees a couple of days while in California.

It will take a few days to crunch the actual numbers and give a total count of participants for each segment of the Fest. And the web pages associated with the Fest and our group's accomplishments will be updated within the next week. As the after-fest online housekeeping is done, I will update you here and the particpants via e-mail. And then comes the trip report, which I always vow to do right away but then always break that vow.

Meanwhile, the during-fest updates have been brought up to date following our being away from the Internet while we travelled home. Check this thread for the final few days of what has been certainly one of our most memorable journeys.

To all the people who participated in our annual summer travel event, thanks to you for making it the success it was. You certainly had a choice of activities and locations where you could have spent your summer vacation, and it was great to have you all along for the ride. The comeraderie is always a blast and we're always sad to see it come to an end.

As we close the book on this event, we of course look forward to getting together next time. Those days cannot come soon enough! :)


Kevin Korell


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#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 26 July 2009 - 02:59 PM

Those Fest participants who are also registered OTOL members, please don't forget to report your Amtrak mileage to Bill. You can do so in the July Mileage Tally Submissions topic.

This includes any Amtrak long distance trains you rode either with the group or on your own, as well as the Pacific Surfliners.


Kevin Korell


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#3 KevinKorell

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Posted 31 July 2009 - 11:25 PM

As August rolls in, it's time to look back on our annual July RailFest and remember what we accomplished.

The after-fest online housekeeping I believe is complete. Please check out the following:

Actual participant list (includes people who rode AND participated with the group during the 13-day period of the fest).

The Itinerary, now showing planned times vs. actual times. The Amtrak arrival and departure times are based on my going back through about 200 "Tweets" I did during the fest, however once those who are doing the hard research to get the actual times have made their results public, those times may change slightly.

The Fest Homepage has been rewritten in the past tense.

Fest History page, which reflects all of our events since 2001, has been updated to include our recent journey.

The Fest Scorecard feature has been updated to show what transit and commuter lines (and the Waterfront Red Car) we as a group rode together. Click on all the entries for Los Angeles and San Diego.

Note that we aced Metro. For Metrolink, we did cover almost every possible segment of the system. While we did not ride the 91 Line, we covered it all on either the Orange County Line, Inland Empire-Orange County (IEOC) Line, and Pacific Surfliners. The segments between Fullerton and West Corona, and between Riverside and San Bernardino, we got when we rode the Southwest Chief. The only segment of Metrolink not covered is the rush hour-only stretch between Moorpark and Montalvo. Most of it can be covered by riding the Coast Starlight or Pacific Surfliners in the future, although the Montalvo station is actually off the mainline.

In San Diego County, we aced Sprinter, Coaster, and MTS San Diego Trolley (despite what became a "moonlight" run on the Orange Line and some opting out of it due to the late hour).

Our total count is at 28 participants. As I begin the arduous task of compiling a trip report, I will let you know how many people were on each segment of the Fest. It appears right now that the modern day record for the number of participants at any one time was broken when we had 18 people on Sunday 7/19 when we piled onto the "motorcoach" to and from San Pedro and rode the heritage streetcar. (They must have loved us!)

Edited by KevinKorell, 31 July 2009 - 11:53 PM.


Kevin Korell


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#4 GG-1

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Posted 03 August 2009 - 08:23 PM

Aloha According to the Tsunami Warning Center SoCAL was hit by 2 Quakes about 5, so these were felt, about 9 this morning, a few minutes ago the reported no Tsunami was generated. I have yet to talk to Christine but where she works she was half way between the other 2 quakes in the Ba Ha Peninsula. As She says "The land of Shake and Bake"




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