Just moment earlier, another of OC Streetcar's new LRVs, OCTA 104, has just been rolled off the trailer that brought it here from Sacramento and onto the carrier's rails on Santa Ana Boulevard at 1:13 am. This is the sixth of eight cars for this new light rail line, slated to open in 2026, but with testing and training to begin in September. A Herzog hi-rail pickup truck, equipped with a special coupler (I'm not sure if it is a Scharfenberg, a Dellner or some other coupler type), is backing down the track to couple on and haul this into the nearby carbarn, where the pilots and pantographs will be installed.
This new streetcar line will be operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), serving ten stops in each direction along its 4.15-mile (6.68 km) route. The streetcar will operate between the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center (Amtrak, Metrolink and buses) to a new Harbor Transit Center in Garden Grove, linking the Metrolink station and downtown Santa Ana. (Santa Ana, California – July 9, 2025)