printman2000
Engineer
We caught the Thru bus from Fisherman's Wharf to Emeryville at 5:55am on July 4th. The bus was right on time and got us right on time into Emeryville. The train was not there but pulled up shortly after we arrived and we were able to board right away.
We were in rooms D & E in 631 (closest to the dining car) and we were able to open the door to make a suite. The sleepers were on the rear of the train which is new for me. I really like being able to look out the window and see the front of the train on cruves. I asked the conductor if that was going to stay and he said at least through the summer. Our attendant did bring up one thing about this arrangement. People from coach are constantly trying to get into the transition sleeper to use the restrooms.
I peeked in the sleeper window and saw wood paneling so I thought we had a refurbished sleeper. However, it seems the wood paneling is the only refurbished part of the sleeper. We also had a very old lounge car. Looks like nothing much had been done to it since it was built. It has a Beech Grove plaque for a 1995 refurb. I also noticed one of the coaches was an old cafe club. It had the snack bar downstairs where the lower level seating normally is. Obviously, it was not being used on this trip.
We left right on time at 7:10. Less than an hour into the trip, they announced breakfast was being served. We had not expected this, but I guess because of the new early schedule, they had to add that meal. After we ate, we got stopped on a bridge just west of Sacramento's station. The southbound Coast Starlight and a Amtrak California commuter train were both in the station and we had to wait. The commuter pulled out past us on the bridge and we pulled into the station about 5 minutes late. During our stop on the bridge, the conductor was standing on the bridge outside the lounge door. I snapped a shot down the train towards the station.
In the station, we pulled up to the Coast Starlight. It also had the sleepers (and Pacific Parlor Car) on the rear. I snapped a picture of the back end of our CZ and the front end of the CS.
After the delay in Sacremento, we were running late by 20 minutes into the next stop of Roseville.
Coming close to Truckee, we got caught behind a freight. They were originally going to let us pass, but it was too long for the siding. It went on through some 2 mile long tunnel ahead of us and went into emergency stop. Then they had to spend time figuring out why it went into emergency stop. So owe sat still for over 1.5 hours.
So, when we finally got to Truckee, we were 2.5 hours behind.
We woke up pulling into Salt Lake City at 6:37 (schedule was 4:15). I did not write down what time we pulled out, but it was announced we were 2.5 hours behind.
Couple of disappointing things about this trip, in the dining car, we had two guys. One was nice enough, did not say much. Then there was an older gentleman who is just mean. He seemed put out by everything people did, like asking for more water. The other thing is the fact that when the conductor uses the PA from the crew car, you can just barely hear him. You can only make it out if you stand up and put your ear right up to the speaker in our room. All other PA locations work fine, but our attendant (Edwardo) said the conductor was too lazy to make his announcements from another car. Some of the things I did pick up were very interesting comments about things we were passing. Too bad we could not really hear much of it.
It was midday on July 4th when I remembered my Microsoft Streets & Maps with a GPS. I hooked it up and it worked great. I laid the GPS received next to the window and it picks up great. All of the tracks we were on were shown on my MST maps, which is cool. Well, all until close to Denver. There was a gap.
We got slow orders starting before Grand Junction, CO limiting us to 50 mph due to heat.
During our last meal, I spoke to a gentleman who had a roomette in the transition sleeper. He said there was some problem with some of the roomettes in one of the sleepers and they put some people up in the transition sleeper. We also had an extra server in the dining car for dinner the second night so things seemed a little less hectic. Turns out the more quiet nicer guy was the Dining Car Stewart. He was not serving during our last meal before Denver.
The Moffet tunnel was interesting. The Rails and Trails guy said the original route over the mountains was 33 miles and took 5 hours. The tunnel is 6.2 miles and take about 12 minutes. Pretty cool.
Edwardo, said he had two other couples moving into our rooms, so we moved all our stuff into one room so he could prepare the other room before we arrived and then moved to the other room when he finished that. He said most people would never do that, so he was grateful.
We arrived into Denver at 10:00, two hours late. We hopped onto a Denver light rail train that took us back to the park and ride where we parked our car.
Overall, a real fun trip.
If you are interested, I blogged about my families entire week long vacation which can be seen at http://www.craigmashburn.com and includes lots of pictures.
We were in rooms D & E in 631 (closest to the dining car) and we were able to open the door to make a suite. The sleepers were on the rear of the train which is new for me. I really like being able to look out the window and see the front of the train on cruves. I asked the conductor if that was going to stay and he said at least through the summer. Our attendant did bring up one thing about this arrangement. People from coach are constantly trying to get into the transition sleeper to use the restrooms.
I peeked in the sleeper window and saw wood paneling so I thought we had a refurbished sleeper. However, it seems the wood paneling is the only refurbished part of the sleeper. We also had a very old lounge car. Looks like nothing much had been done to it since it was built. It has a Beech Grove plaque for a 1995 refurb. I also noticed one of the coaches was an old cafe club. It had the snack bar downstairs where the lower level seating normally is. Obviously, it was not being used on this trip.
We left right on time at 7:10. Less than an hour into the trip, they announced breakfast was being served. We had not expected this, but I guess because of the new early schedule, they had to add that meal. After we ate, we got stopped on a bridge just west of Sacramento's station. The southbound Coast Starlight and a Amtrak California commuter train were both in the station and we had to wait. The commuter pulled out past us on the bridge and we pulled into the station about 5 minutes late. During our stop on the bridge, the conductor was standing on the bridge outside the lounge door. I snapped a shot down the train towards the station.
In the station, we pulled up to the Coast Starlight. It also had the sleepers (and Pacific Parlor Car) on the rear. I snapped a picture of the back end of our CZ and the front end of the CS.
After the delay in Sacremento, we were running late by 20 minutes into the next stop of Roseville.
Coming close to Truckee, we got caught behind a freight. They were originally going to let us pass, but it was too long for the siding. It went on through some 2 mile long tunnel ahead of us and went into emergency stop. Then they had to spend time figuring out why it went into emergency stop. So owe sat still for over 1.5 hours.
So, when we finally got to Truckee, we were 2.5 hours behind.
We woke up pulling into Salt Lake City at 6:37 (schedule was 4:15). I did not write down what time we pulled out, but it was announced we were 2.5 hours behind.
Couple of disappointing things about this trip, in the dining car, we had two guys. One was nice enough, did not say much. Then there was an older gentleman who is just mean. He seemed put out by everything people did, like asking for more water. The other thing is the fact that when the conductor uses the PA from the crew car, you can just barely hear him. You can only make it out if you stand up and put your ear right up to the speaker in our room. All other PA locations work fine, but our attendant (Edwardo) said the conductor was too lazy to make his announcements from another car. Some of the things I did pick up were very interesting comments about things we were passing. Too bad we could not really hear much of it.
It was midday on July 4th when I remembered my Microsoft Streets & Maps with a GPS. I hooked it up and it worked great. I laid the GPS received next to the window and it picks up great. All of the tracks we were on were shown on my MST maps, which is cool. Well, all until close to Denver. There was a gap.
We got slow orders starting before Grand Junction, CO limiting us to 50 mph due to heat.
During our last meal, I spoke to a gentleman who had a roomette in the transition sleeper. He said there was some problem with some of the roomettes in one of the sleepers and they put some people up in the transition sleeper. We also had an extra server in the dining car for dinner the second night so things seemed a little less hectic. Turns out the more quiet nicer guy was the Dining Car Stewart. He was not serving during our last meal before Denver.
The Moffet tunnel was interesting. The Rails and Trails guy said the original route over the mountains was 33 miles and took 5 hours. The tunnel is 6.2 miles and take about 12 minutes. Pretty cool.
Edwardo, said he had two other couples moving into our rooms, so we moved all our stuff into one room so he could prepare the other room before we arrived and then moved to the other room when he finished that. He said most people would never do that, so he was grateful.
We arrived into Denver at 10:00, two hours late. We hopped onto a Denver light rail train that took us back to the park and ride where we parked our car.
Overall, a real fun trip.
If you are interested, I blogged about my families entire week long vacation which can be seen at http://www.craigmashburn.com and includes lots of pictures.
