4K - San Diego Coaster Train Doubleheaders in Late 2018

The Coast Express Rail, commonly known as the Coaster, has been San Diego's Commuter Railroad since early 1995. From the start, the Morrison Knudsen F40PH-2C has been powering trains, 5 of them to be exact. In the early 2000's, 2 EMD F59PHI locomotives were also brought, bringing the engine total to 7 for the Coaster. Age and deferred maintenance has taken a toll on these locomotives, and breakdowns are now more common than ever. Instead of properly taking care of their equipment, NCTD has been recently running "doubleheaders" to minimize the impact to the busy Surfline rail corridor.

The F59 locomotives have been the major culprits lately, along with F40's 2102 and 2104. 6 car sets have been used in the Summer due to high rider capacity, but this was quickly cut back recently, with 4 car sets becoming the norm since the locomotives can't pull 5+ cars without dying it seems! Even the doubleheader set broke down, as witnessed passing CP Shell, crippling along to the Stuart Mesa Yard!

NCTD has also been having an extra "emergency rescue" set on standby, consisting of 1 Cabcar and 1 Locomotive. This set rescues broken down trains, and can run at normal track speeds due to the cabcar on the South end.

Also threw in a few bonus clips of various Coaster trains, especially cabcars 2301 and 2309, with their "decent" sounding horns. Sadly, that's the best you're gonna get with Coaster now a days, how the mighty has fallen! I do hope that NCTD and Bombardier get their act together, these breakdowns and lack of maintenance is a complete joke and truly unacceptable and pathetic. With the Charger locomotives for Coaster still 3 years away, I will be shocked if the fleet lasts that long!

All locations listed in video.

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Video and Content © 2018 MichaelLovesTrains