My mom and I have been planning to visit some relatives up in OR for a few months now by taking the train up. We were taking the Coast Starlight, which was awesome, I've ever been on SL's before (Wanted to check out the sight Seers Lounge). Anyway, so the day arrives after much anticipation, we need to leave early to get to L.A. on time, but just as a safety, we left extra early in case something happened on the way there. Good thing, we ended up getting a flat tire. 
The rest of the way up was pretty uneventfull, so I'm gonna stop boring you with the road trip and get to the trains. :lol:
We got to Union Station with only minutes to spare thanks to our little accident, so we had to pretty much run (and not check our bagsh34r: ). But knowing Amtrak, we shouldn't have been worried too much because we ended up leaving about a half hour late anyway. So we get to track 7 and start our way up the ramp. As I'm walking up, I look to my left to find some old single level coaches... :huh: Turns out we had a sub-train up to Oakland, so that was pretty lame. <_< I guess it wasn't all that bad, though. We got the old Santa Fe full length dome car, that was pretty cool.
I guess the trip up the coast before Oakland wouldn't have been too bad if the airconditiong worked. :angry: I think it only worked in 1 or 2 of the cars, that is until about 7-8 PM. (Of course they getting the AC working after dark. ) Also, the intercom wasn't working, but that's not that big of a deal. Two people in the dome car were really kind of getting on my nerves: One lady complained... a lot, it's pretty much the only thing she did the whole trip (Good thing she got off in Oakland); And some other guy, he kept saying he was on the train that was in the accident at a railroad crossing the day before. I didn't really believe him, though (I think he was drunk :blink: ) If that weren't bad enough, about halfway up the coast, they start having an argument about who takes better photographs. Normally I would have put a rolleyes emoticon there, but they were just too frikin' annoying, and to make things worse, they dragged me into it. <_< I should have just told them both to shut up and that it doesn't matter because they're noever going to see eachother ever again after they get off the train.
Oh, btw, I met AmtrakP42 on the train as well. It was pretty useful having him know what was going on every time we stopped. So most of the trip after that I spent up at the front of the car with him just talkin' trains and what not.
So we finally get to Oakland and switch over to the real Coast Starlight, which is very nice if I do say so myself. I guess the consist was backwards, according to AmtrakP42, though, but it didn't really matter, I just wanted the SSL. I didn't see AmtrakP42 from there, though, guess he fell asleep in his sleeper. We were only in the station for an our, which I guess is good timing for having to get people from one train to the other. Not much to see during the night, but I stayed in the Lounge anyway; ended up sleeping there. Te seats aren't great to lay down on, but they worked.
When I woke up, I think we were somewhere around Redding or Dunsmuir, a bit before Mt. Shasta. My mom and I woke up relatively early, so we went and had breakfast in the dining car (which I regret ever doing :blink: ). The eggs were nasty! Not to mention I found a piece of plastic in them. So ya, the rest of the way up was pretty uneventful, just sat and watched scenery go by. Mt. Shasta was pretty nice. Superliners are pretty nice, too. But I don't really have too much say on the coaches because I was in the Lounge the whole trip. :lol:
We took a butt load of pics on the way up, like 150, and when we were in OR, we tried to take some more pics, but the camera said the memory card needed to be reformatted, so ya, we lost all out pics from the trip up.
All I'm going to say for the trip down is some guys were taken off the train by the police. :lol: I guess they were drunk off their a**es or something.
(PS: I guess I used to many emoticons.) *I would put a lol emoticon here, but I've already used too many.*
The rest of the way up was pretty uneventfull, so I'm gonna stop boring you with the road trip and get to the trains. :lol:We got to Union Station with only minutes to spare thanks to our little accident, so we had to pretty much run (and not check our bags
h34r: ). But knowing Amtrak, we shouldn't have been worried too much because we ended up leaving about a half hour late anyway. So we get to track 7 and start our way up the ramp. As I'm walking up, I look to my left to find some old single level coaches... :huh: Turns out we had a sub-train up to Oakland, so that was pretty lame. <_< I guess it wasn't all that bad, though. We got the old Santa Fe full length dome car, that was pretty cool.I guess the trip up the coast before Oakland wouldn't have been too bad if the airconditiong worked. :angry: I think it only worked in 1 or 2 of the cars, that is until about 7-8 PM. (Of course they getting the AC working after dark.
) Also, the intercom wasn't working, but that's not that big of a deal. Two people in the dome car were really kind of getting on my nerves: One lady complained... a lot, it's pretty much the only thing she did the whole trip (Good thing she got off in Oakland); And some other guy, he kept saying he was on the train that was in the accident at a railroad crossing the day before. I didn't really believe him, though (I think he was drunk :blink: ) If that weren't bad enough, about halfway up the coast, they start having an argument about who takes better photographs. Normally I would have put a rolleyes emoticon there, but they were just too frikin' annoying, and to make things worse, they dragged me into it. <_< I should have just told them both to shut up and that it doesn't matter because they're noever going to see eachother ever again after they get off the train.Oh, btw, I met AmtrakP42 on the train as well. It was pretty useful having him know what was going on every time we stopped.
So most of the trip after that I spent up at the front of the car with him just talkin' trains and what not.So we finally get to Oakland and switch over to the real Coast Starlight, which is very nice if I do say so myself. I guess the consist was backwards, according to AmtrakP42, though, but it didn't really matter, I just wanted the SSL.
I didn't see AmtrakP42 from there, though, guess he fell asleep in his sleeper. We were only in the station for an our, which I guess is good timing for having to get people from one train to the other. Not much to see during the night, but I stayed in the Lounge anyway; ended up sleeping there. Te seats aren't great to lay down on, but they worked.When I woke up, I think we were somewhere around Redding or Dunsmuir, a bit before Mt. Shasta. My mom and I woke up relatively early, so we went and had breakfast in the dining car (which I regret ever doing :blink: ). The eggs were nasty! Not to mention I found a piece of plastic in them.
So ya, the rest of the way up was pretty uneventful, just sat and watched scenery go by. Mt. Shasta was pretty nice. Superliners are pretty nice, too. But I don't really have too much say on the coaches because I was in the Lounge the whole trip. :lol:We took a butt load of pics on the way up, like 150, and when we were in OR, we tried to take some more pics, but the camera said the memory card needed to be reformatted, so ya, we lost all out pics from the trip up.
All I'm going to say for the trip down is some guys were taken off the train by the police. :lol: I guess they were drunk off their a**es or something.
(PS: I guess I used to many emoticons.) *I would put a lol emoticon here, but I've already used too many.*
