Sunset Limited Trip Report - Take II

Sorry for th repetition, but as I explained in my 2015 Amtrak Cross-Country trip report, Dan Akroyd's private car was attached to the back of Amtrak's Sunset Limited ruining my efforts at surveying the route.  This year I found significantly better luck and was even treated to a rare mileage detour outside of Houston.  Also included in this report are various things I found in San Diego and the Pacific Surfliner route. 

So I covered the San Diego Trolley's Green and Orange lines and to my delight I confirmed that the original Orange Line trunk was populated by US&S N3 Elephant Ear ABS signals

On the Surfliner route the ATS is still in service, but more and more of the target signals are being replaced with traffic lights as improvements are made to the line (new sidings, crossovers, etc).

At LAUPT, the Safetrain UniLens signals have been phased out.  The two-head variety have been replaced with LED searchlights of the type seen at Chicago and Albany and most single head ones being retrofitted with a single red LED light that can display Stop and *R* Restricting.

On the Sunset route SP target color lights are still in place on areas that have not been upgraded, so that means the new double track main line in New Mexico is largely devoid of them.  Also, there is a surviving SP cantilever mast with modern signals located just east of Tuscon.

I was looking forward to taking some better photos of TOWER 169 in El Paso, but to my dismay I discovered that it had been demolished :-( 

The detour involved traveling down the BNSF Galveston Sub to Alvin and unfortunately the 80's vintage searchlights were undergoing replacement.  Heading back into Houston on the Houston West Belt Sub there were a number of NYC style G-heads north of the yard complexes.

The searchlights and oddball signals were still in service in the Beaumont area.

And the searchlights were still in place at the Drawbridge and diamond in Lake St. Charles.

Finally East and West Bridge Jct towers are still hard at work talking trains over the Huey C. Long Bridge,