Railroads

The Pendular Talgo, the low-slung Spanish train being tested by Amtrak for possible use in California, could be seen as a blend of the Orient Express and Metrolink: European rail technology mated to the economical American style of commuting. Amtrak has been using the sleek Talgo on its Los Angeles to San Diego route since Monday, and this weekend it will make a special run from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, a possible forerunner to increasing Amtrak service between the two cities.

N.Y. Group Buys Brazil Rail Line: Brazil sold a 600-mile stretch of railroad to a consortium that includes Chemical Banking Corp. and New York-based holding company Noel Group Inc. for $63 million. The sale--the first of six such rail lines the government plans to auction--fetched 3.6% more than the government sought. It is the first privatized company to be purchased exclusively by foreign investors.

A ghost has materialized in the county's oldest park, tooting and steaming its way past lakes, historic buildings and heritage oak groves. For the first time in decades, a miniature locomotive will take the public for a ride in Irvine Regional Park, giving people another reason to visit what is already the county's busiest park, which draws as many as 800,000 visitors annually.

Want to build an aerial tramway to the top of Los Angeles' biggest landmark? Then you better be prepared to hang in there for the long haul. That's what Chuck Welch is discovering as he struggles to persuade city officials to let cable-hugging gondolas carry tourists to the famed HOLLYWOOD sign. Such a tram would be a major moneymaker for the cash-strapped city, Welch is convinced.

When Laurie Greenquist volunteered to help out at the California State Railroad Museum here, she thought she'd probably just be showing visitors around, or maybe lending a hand with the paperwork. "Then they said I could work on the train," the 38-year-old government purchasing agent recalled with a grin. "It suddenly hit me: 'Wow! I can work on a real steam locomotive! I can learn to run that thing!'

Union Pacific Corp. agreed Thursday to acquire Southern Pacific Rail Corp., a century-old fixture in California transportation circles that has fallen on hard times, in a $4-billion deal that would create the nation's largest railroad. The marriage would give Union Pacific annual revenues of more than $10 billion and 34,000 miles of track across 25 states and in Mexico and Canada. But it would leave California with just two railroads, raising fears of reduced competition.

Three Artesia Boulevard railroad crossings that residents say have been menacing the undercarriages of their cars for years are about to be rehabilitated. Southern Pacific Lines next month will begin hauling in asphalt and rubber pads to level off the crossings, which have been a source of motorist complaints to the City Council. "Those of us who have been on [the council] for a long time are very thankful," Councilman Arthur C. Brown said Monday.

Seven years after the transcontinental railroad spike was driven in Utah, another Golden Spike was driven at Lang, signaling the completion of a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco route. In the late 1930s, the train traveling those tracks through the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys was known as the San Joaquin Daylight. The Palmdale-Colton cutoff was established in 1967, taking trains through the Cajon Pass.

Devon Allen, who is 9 years old and had been waiting for this day for two long years, pronounced judgment as the first Coaster rolled into Santa Fe Depot at 6:32 a.m. Monday: "It feels like you're airborne." Hailed as a great leap forward in the effort to persuade Southern Californians to forsake their cars for mass transit, the Coaster rail commute line was 10 years in the planning and building and has cost $150 million.