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"It's all about the trains"
ph: 06-3230003
erin
Blog - Day 3
Day 3
I rise early, and head down the road for the morning walk, we are opposite the motorway, its 5.50am and the sound is just a continual roar. I stop and look on the front lawn of a property and think,no it ain't a cat, it certainly ain't a dog, its a bloody Raccoon, it looks at me as if to say "whats your bloody problem" Oh well time for breakfast.We have decided that we will ride the PCC cars and take a trip out N Judah line to Ocean beach on the "Uni", we will take the car down to the South San Francisco station and catch a "Caltrain" service into San Fran. We secure a park, and find that we need to place a park-ing ticket in window, while we sort that out a service heads through, fortunately its an outbound service.We purchase a return ticket from the vending machine, a return trip costing us $5.00. Our sevice arrives with the control car leading, we jump aboard the double deck car, and there is plenty of room.Arriving at the "Caltrain" we elect to walk to the Information centre near Market steet so we can purchase an all day pass for riding the transport system. It costs us $13.00 well worth it for the amount of riding we will do.We head under to the "Uni" and didnt have long to wait, before a two unit service arrived. To really explore a city the only real way is to take the public transport systems, and San Francisco can boast one of the best in the world.
We exit the underground section, and commence the street running, here you can sit back and watch the world pass by. Making frequent stops along the way you observe the humanity entering and alighting, and the language will tell what type of neighbourhood you are passing through, the architecture of the buildings I find facinating, some churches really magnificent. You wont see all this on a tour bus.We jump off a stop before the end of the line so we can photograph the units turning on the ballon loop, and spend some time there watching different services arriving and departing, then climb aboud a service heading back, and we will alight further along for some lunch.
After a good lunch it is decided to head back into the city and catch the next service, we dont get far and stop. Interesting we are between stops the operator tells us that a unit has failed up in front somewhere, and there will be a delay. Oh well lets walk up the road.
We find the disabled unit at the corner of Irving and Carl streets, Hell! look at all the "Uni's standing there, I think we will stay on corner and watch the action, okay lets go up the street a little. 
Here we find the entrance to the West Portal of the Sunset tunnel, so we spend some time here, watching the bottle neck build up After the line has been cleared and things return to normal we catch a service back into town and work our way to the top of Market street where we will catch a PCC car around to near "Justin Herman Plaza' then we can walk the short distance to the station.
Bad Move! we forget it is school holidays still, and as our PCC car got closer to Fishermans Wharf we were packed in like sardines, it reminded me of a trip on the London underground in 1973 where we were packed that tight, my nose was in between a womans boob's and someones umbrella sharp end was making me feel very uncomfortable, in a certain part of my anatomy in the rear.Still we make it to our stop. How far to the station from here Peter ask's, not far I reply, 500 metres! Well we will say no more, a mile later.
We alight at South San Francisco station, and watch the afternoon rush, an added bonus is the Local working the sidings, and like our last trip, one of the units is a patched Rio Grande SD60.
Time to get car as rush is over,and hunger pangs are telling us time to go.
ph: 06-3230003
erin
