As seen from the then-staffed Mission Tower that I was staffing, here's a photo I took on September 18, 1981, FORTY-THREE YEARS AGO, of Amtrak's train 1, the westbound SUNSET LIMITED, coming off Espee's State Street Line and crossing the Los Angeles River. The train is just minutes away from its terminus of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal. This was back in the days when Amtrak was still using General Electric P30CH locomotives and I believe all of them have since been scrapped. You will also note there are a couple of ex-ATSF Hi-Level cars that were built in the mid-1950s for their EL CAPITAN. Amtrak has since retired these cars.

Today the State Street Line is now part of Metrolink's San Gabriel Subdivision and this bridge is used by Metrolink 300 and 400-series trains that operate on the San Bernardino and Riverside lines. Amtrak's SUNSET LIMITED now operates over the UP's Alhambra Subdivision, which gained some national attention not too long ago when thieves were breaking into freight trains near the UP's Los Angeles Transportation Center and leaving their litter along the track (see additional photo), to the point where you practically couldn't see the track anymore. I believe this problem has since been largely corrected with some additional fortified fencing and monitoring by railroad police. I doubt if the photo of the UP train along the litter-strewn track will appear in the UP calendar, even though it is otherwise a well-composed photo.


.