Amtrak San Diegans boarding on Track #3 in Fullerton? Oops! That has never happened before in the 18 months that TrainWeb has been at the Fullerton Santa Fe Depot.

There are 3 tracks through the Fullerton Santa Fe Depot. Track #1 is next to the platform that is closest to the depot building and is normally used for northbound and westbound trains. Track #2 is the furthest track from the station and has its own platform on that side of the station. Southbound and eastbound trains normally use Track #2. The Amtrak Southwest Chief almost always uses Track #1 regardless of which way it is going.

Track #3 is the center track between the other two tracks and is NEVER used by passenger trains. There is no platform for Track #3. Freight trains pass through the station all day long on all three tracks in any direction. Thus, it is very unsafe to board passengers on Track #3 and that is why it is not used for passengers and why there is no platform for Track #3.

Something must have gone wrong today and it immediately caught my eye as I saw the Amtrak Central Coast San Diegan slowly pulling into the station on Track #3 ! The Conductor only opened one half of one door and stepped out. He had to make it clear to the passengers that they were not to step off the train yet.

For safety, they made several stops and did all the boarding through just one door in the entire train. I guess they figured that would give them a lot more control if anything unexpected happened. The Dispatcher was aware of the situation and would probably hold any train before it headed down Track #1. But, just in case there was a problem, it would be a lot easier for the Conductor to look after the safety of the passengers boarding at one door across than having passengers boarding all up and down the station across a live track!

From listening to the radio communication, it was obvious that the Engineer and Conductor were just as surprised as anyone else that the train ended up on the center track! It is the Dispatcher, and not any of the crew on the train, that controls which way the switches are set. Usually the Engineer and Conductor know which track they are going to end up on before they cross a switch. Northbound passenger trains will normally end up on Track #1, the closest track to the station, when they cross the switch just before the station. So you can imagine the surprise to the crew when they ended up on the center track!

As a side note, the BNSF has recently changed the numbering of the tracks through the Fullerton Santa Fe Depot. The track closest to the station will be called Track #1, same as it is now. The track in the middle will be called Track #2 and the track furthest from the station will be called Track #3. Thus, the BNSF is calling Tracks #2 and #3 the reverse of what Amtrak has been calling them and the reverse of the way they have been labeled at the station. My comments above are based on the old track numbering system. Hopefully, someone in charge of the numbering of the tracks for Amtrak and Metrolink can get the track numbers and signs changed to match the nationwide system being instituted by the BNSF!