April West Coast Swing

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WabashMike

Train Attendant
Joined
Jan 24, 2016
Messages
20
Location
Ohio
I am looking to swing around the West Coast in the last week of April. Particularly I really want to ride the Coast Starlight through the complete journey. I will be starting from Chicago. My question is whether I should go to Seattle and ride down to Los Angeles or take the Southwest Chief to LAX and go north to Seattle and return on the Empire Builder.

In 2015, I took the Empire Builder to Seattle and then took the Coast Starlight to Sacramento and returned on the California Zephyr. I heard from many people that going to LAX to SEA to CHI is a more scenic ride. The main point of the journey is to ride the Coast Starlight the complete way.

My question is which way is the most scenic, or you have rode and prefer?

My second question is, will the Pacific Parlor Cars be ready to run by last full week of April?

I had a blast on the Coast Starlight and want to re experience the memories I had to some degree. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated!
 
I have ridden the Starlight both directions end to end and prefer going north from Los Angeles. To me it is more scenic as the Oregon Cascades between Chemult and Eugene will be in daylight. As for the Empire Builder, I would go eastbound. You should be in daylight for most of the Washington Cascades eastbound and see Glacier Park in the daylight. Westbound you would see some but not all of Glacier Park....but only if it is on time or close to it. If it is running late you would miss a good chunk if not all of it. A long winded way to say I'd go north from LA to Seattle then to Chicago. :)

As for the Pacific Parlor cars, I know usually they are rolled out the first week of March. I took the Starlight from Seattle to LA and back the third week of March and they were available then. Of course that could all be subject to change!!!!!
 
I'd go from LAX north on the CS. You are guaranteed to go along the Pacific coastline in daylight, heading south it may be in darkness. (In October, my CS was 4 hours late and did not arrive into LAX until 1 am!)

The PPC is only scheduled to be off for a couple of months. That's not to say it will be on your train that day. (It could be bad ordered.)
 
I too vote for south to north since you will do the ocean side in daylight. Southbound the ocean will be in dark if the train is late plus your view of the ocean southbound will be toward the setting sun--not good for your eyes or photography.

As for the PPC, Amtrak has taken the PPC 's off January and February the last couple of years. They do come back on in March. One possibility in regular PPC available season, there is an occasional substitution of a sightseer lounge for the PPC mainly due to availability. There is only 4 or 5 of those PPC cars and they are OLD so they are a maintenance problem. They were on the very long ago Santa Fe Super Chief.
 
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I agree with those that say take the Starlight North from LAX to Seattle ( or Portland if you want same day Connections and to ride along the Columbia River remembering it gets dark fairly early on the way to Spokane where the Portland Section (#28)joins the Seattle Section(#8).
 
I've ridden the CS many times, with several of them starting or ending in LA. I personally prefer the Northbound (as compared to southbound, which is hit-or-miss, although the worst case was ocean view at sunset, but the two other times were in daylight), because you get the ocean view in daylight. As for the EB, I'd say spend a night in Seattle (a good place to visit) and then take #8 to Chicago (you get the Puget Sound shoreline assuming no mud slides for the previous two days, and the longest rail tunnel in the US). Taking the #28 out of Portland is also a good idea, as you get the Columbia River Gorge (whether you get to see that in daylight is a hit or miss, so be careful), not to mention that Portland is a great place to visit. But I'd give Seattle a try because the scenic ride along the Puget Sound shores between Tacoma and Olympia is going away soon. If you can afford both time and money to do it, I'd make this recommendation: CHI-> SW #3-> LAX (night or two)-> CS #14-> SEA (night or two)-> Cascades-> PDX (night or two)-> EB #28-> CHI. You should get a roomette if you can afford it. It's worth the upgrade from coach, because meals are included (except alcohol and cafe car purchases), access to Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, and access to the Pacific Parlour Car (you get cocktail bar and wine tasting with it, but you need to pay for bar drinks and wine tasting, but sometimes can be a hit or miss). So this should give you 9 to 12 days of a getaway. If you can't spend extra nights, you can go CHI-> SW #3-> LAX-> CS #14-> SEA (night or two)-> EB #8-> CHI, which should give you 6 or 7 days of a getaway. As for same day connections for #3-> #14, it can be a hit or miss (it usually is early or on time; when I took it, it was early into LAX), so it might be a good idea to spend the night in LA if you can just in case, also LA is a nice place to visit (especially Hollywood, Wilshire/Korea Town, Little Tokyo, Historic Downtown, and Beverly Hills) when you have the time. If you want a night or two in LA, try the Metro Plaza, it's right across from the station and relatively affordable (provided if there are vacancies). Sounds like a fun trip. Good luck and have fun.
 
This is almost exactly the trip my son and I are doing in early April:

CS - LA to Portland (2-night layover)

EB - Portland to Chicago (1-night layover)

SWC - Chicago to LA

We also decided to do the CS first to get the Northbound trip since we have already done southbound Seattle to LA.
 
Last summer I took my 15 year old grand daughter on a similar route in a roomette. She absolutely loved the trip, especially having 6 nights on the train.

TE/SL & CS AUS - SEA (4 1/2 hour layover in LA - then two nights in Seattle)

EB SEA - CHI (2 nights in Chicago)

TE CHI - AUS
 
tomfuller said:
I've taken the CS both ways. I agree with the others - northbound from LAX.

trainfanmom think about 1 night in Portland and then take a Cascades train to Seattle the next day. Portland and Seattle each have a HI hostel within walking distance of the station.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the suggestion :) We actually have the two nights in Portland so my son can go to the rail museum to see the 4449. He is a huge fan of that engine and spending two nights allows us to see the museum (plus some other sights) before heading out on the EB.
 

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