Following the delivery of a large number of South Korean-built cars from Hyundai-Rotem, Metrolink trains became, visually, a jumbled mess. Locomotives could be painted in one of three paint schemes (with a fourth added when the F125s were delivered) and cars are not only in a variety of shapes (at least two different Bombardier versions, all with sloping car ends, and the non-sloped H-R cars) painted in two different schemes (along with two variations of this scheme on the H-R cars – the horizontal stripe was relocated on some cars – plus a variety of wrapped cars and one SNC-Lavalin car painted which with the flowing ribbons found on the H-R cars). Yecch! Recently a few cars (five, by my count, at this point) have been rebuilt in the Midwest, and also repainted silver with the ribbons.
As northbound train 663, a weekend service train operating on the carrier's Orange County Line (ostensibly from Oceanside to Los Angeles, but due to a massive ground stabilization project along the mainline through San Clemente, it was actually operating from Oceanside by bus to the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo station, at which point passengers were transferred to the train to get to LA), I got my first look at one of these refurbished cars, SCAX 605, and I was pleased to see that they blend in with the newer Korean cars very nicely. Of course, there are still a large number of these SNC-Lavalin-built cars to be rebuilt, but it's a start! Running fifteen minutes late, SCAX F125 916 is shoving on the rear, operating in "push mode." (Orange, California – December 18, 2022)
