Set Sail for Adventure!
The Pacific Surfliner is a 350 mile passenger train the serves coastal communities in Southern California between San Luis Obispo and San Diego, with notable stops in Los Angeles and Anaheim. The locomotive and cab car run in a “push and pull” service, so there’s no need for the locomotive to turn around for return trips.
The route acts as the successor to the Santa Fe’s San Diegan route which was operating from 1938 to 2000. This was one of the premier routes for the Santa Fe railroad. After the collapse of passenger rail in The United States, privately owned railroads gave up their passenger routes as they became unprofitable. The San Diegan route served a dense corridor and had strong ridership. In 1988 the service was extended to Santa Barbara, and in 1995 the line was extended to San Luis Obispo. The line was officially rebranded as Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner in the year 2000.
The trainsets used for regular service are composed from a fleet of 52 Bi-Level Surfliner coaches, and 9 Amtrak Superliners modified for push-pull Operation. First introduced in 2000 the Surfliner coaches were designed specifically to handle the demand for the rail corridor by including 2 sets of doors on each coach. The Pacific Surfliner runs with a dedicated fleet of SC-44 Siemens Charger locomotives with a unique cowl to streamline the locomotives and coaches. Unique to the Pacific Surfliner is a special blue and silver livery resembling its namesake of the Pacific Ocean.
Model Features:
- DCC friendly mechanism with a speaker housing space in the fuel tank.
- Directional Golden White LED headlights and illuminated preprinted number boards.
- Directional cab car lighting for Push & Pull operation.
- Smooth rolling blackened metal wheels on all Bi-level cars with all-wheel electrical pickup.
- DCC compatible with the use of the Kato FL12 Tail Light DCC Decoder installed into the Cab-Coach.
- SC-44 Charger is upgradable with an interior lighting kit (11-211).
Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 4 Car Base Set
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Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 4 Car Add-On Set
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N Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Starter Set
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KATO’s SC-44 “Charger” model accurately represents the Siemens locomotive as seen on the Pacific Surfliner.
This model differs from other variations of the “Charger” model with a shorted nose section, a cowl, a destination marking that lights up. All of these details have been carefully replicated on this model, which features unique tooling.
The smooth curves of the engine are precisely modeled to match the prototype, with a visible engine compartment beneath the engine’s distinctive large grill on the side. In order to duplicate the illuminated engine compartment from the prototype model, an interior lighting kit is capable of being installed into the rear of the engine, allowing modelers to enjoy this extra lighting feature.
The Pacific Surfliner Cars
Brand New Tooling from Kato
Important Information
Officially licensed by Amtrak
Amtrak, Surfliner and Superliner are registered service marks of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.