Nascar Express Train (Sacramento to Sonoma, CA)

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Hi all, I have a shop up here at Sonoma Raceway and am also a certified train geek! I am told there will be a "Boardwalk" built opposite the main entrance to the track side to allow access to the trains and as of today have sold 400 tickets for the train! As for track usage right now there are regular runs of a freight past the track up to at least Petaluma a few times a week.
 
Minimans said:
Hi all, I have a shop up here at Sonoma Raceway and am also a certified train geek! I am told there will be a "Boardwalk" built opposite the main entrance to the track side to allow access to the trains and as of today have sold 400 tickets for the train! As for track usage right now there are regular runs of a freight past the track up to at least Petaluma a few times a week.
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Cool! Thanks for the info.

400 tickets for the train sounds solid, anyone have an idea of what the capacity is?
 
Capitol Corridor now has flyers for this event. I didn't see them in any of the normal literature/timetable racks, but saw several that were left where there was table seating. The flyer has an image of that a photoshopped Capitol Corridor train with a number on the side and racing stripes down the first car. I asked a conductor who was going to work this event, and she said it would probably be whoever is on call that Sunday.
 
OMS, Ontario motor speedway has been gone for many many years, the new speedway is located in Fontana, and was built after 1992
 
As a die-hard NASCAR fan I have heard that by all accounts the train to Fontana is always a big success with the fans. Hopefully the same will happen to Sonoma. Hopefully they can expand it to many more race weekends to make improvements more worthwhile. While NASCAR Sprint Cup only visits once a year, many other series visit throughout the season.
 
I live in Sonoma and it seems like the route will take it right through the park behind the historic area. I can try to shoot some pictures if anyone can tell me what time it should be coming through Sonoma.

I'm not a railfan but this is pretty cool! There are *never* trains on those tracks.

Anyhow, please email me if possible as I don't usually read this site. joshua - at - theWeinbergs.com
 
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roadman3313 said:
Did we have an idea for the consist for this yet?
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I'm pretty sure that it's going to be like Capitol Corridor since this is a partnership with the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority. Probably an EMD F59PHI pulling five or six California Cars including a cafe car.

I asked a conductor who's going to be working this train, and she said probably just whoever is on call for that day.
 
2 cafes, 5 coaches, 1 coach/bag, 2 cabs facing each other in the middle, and a P42 on each end.

All leaving the Oakland yard tomorrow afternoon to layover in SAC for Sunday morning.
 
X said:
2 cafes, 5 coaches, 1 coach/bag, 2 cabs facing each other in the middle, and a P42 on each end.

All leaving the Oakland yard tomorrow afternoon to layover in SAC for Sunday morning.
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OK. So there's no truth in advertising.

The logo they're using for the service is clearly showing an F59PHI.

NASCAR-EXPRESS-FINAL-COLOR-md.png
 
So I'm assuming "Wye" one train in Oakland and hook them together similar to the consist that ran during the Thanksgiving rush (though I think that one was only 9 cars with F59PHI's on each end. If that train is sold out it will be quite the load :)
 
Sounds like this train was a great success... and hopefully opened the door to more partnerships in the future! They hope next year to be bigger and better (and possibly have multiple trains). All and all kudos to those who helped put this train together and help contribute to the sell out and event!
 
roadman3313 said:
Sounds like this train was a great success... and hopefully opened the door to more partnerships in the future! They hope next year to be bigger and better (and possibly have multiple trains). All and all kudos to those who helped put this train together and help contribute to the sell out and event!
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I was thinking the event might be rained out. I'm wondering how this would have gone down had that happened. Maybe a reschedule with the tickets but no repeat of the train ride? And if they had called the race, then when would the train have left?
 
roadman3313 said:
I'm glad we didn't have to find out! :p
Though I assume if they did have to reschedule they would have tried to reschedule the train as well with someone footing the bill...
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I was in San Francisco with my family around race time. For a few hours before the race was to start I was looking at the clouds all through the Bay Area as well as a light drizzle where we were, and I was thinking that the race could be postponed. I wouldn't have been too happy if I'd paid $199 to get to an event that got postponed.

I thought that a lot of rained-out races postpone to the next day. That might work on a Saturday race, but moving to Monday and who wants to come? I'm thinking they were also working the race train around reduced Capitol Corridor traffic on a weekend.
 
I don't think they would have been able to pull it off on a weekday... not enough equipment for that. The consist was a 10-car train so given the struggle of maintaining 4-5 car trains during the week (4 with coach seating) they would be very hard pressed to be able to operate anything above what is scheduled.

Plus I'm sure many of the fans would have work or other plans during the week. I know I once had tickets to a Giants game that was postponed... it was moved from July to the end of the season in September/October... happened to be the time of the whole Barry Bonds Home Run craze so I actually got to see him make the then-record instead of seeing a mid-season game but I know some people who weren't able to go with the date change to mid-week from the weekend.

Event trains would work well on weekends but with the existing commuter rush and hard press for equipment it would be difficult to add the capacity during the week.
 
roadman3313 said:
I don't think they would have been able to pull it off on a weekday... not enough equipment for that. The consist was a 10-car train so given the struggle of maintaining 4-5 car trains during the week (4 with coach seating) they would be very hard pressed to be able to operate anything above what is scheduled.
Plus I'm sure many of the fans would have work or other plans during the week. I know I once had tickets to a Giants game that was postponed... it was moved from July to the end of the season in September/October... happened to be the time of the whole Barry Bonds Home Run craze so I actually got to see him make the then-record instead of seeing a mid-season game but I know some people who weren't able to go with the date change to mid-week from the weekend.

Event trains would work well on weekends but with the existing commuter rush and hard press for equipment it would be difficult to add the capacity during the week.
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I'm not a Giants fan, but I was a baseball fan who had a ticket to a game there that rained out and was delayed until late September. I really remember that day too. I went straight from the USC at Cal 3OT game via BART of Pac Bell Park. However, that game was postponed (I looked it up) from April 13, 2003 to September 27. They were both Saturdays though. The remarkable thing is that it was still almost full and that after 3-1/3 months people still had the same tickets. I remember at the initial game day I wrote down the announced makeup date/time immediately.

And it was really odd too with TV. Both games were broadcast on the local Fox Sports cable channel and I'd recorded the football game with lots of extra time. As the football game ended they immediately switched over to the baseball game barely in progress (I got there at about the 4th inning). The announcers made a "welcome to those of you joining us" message where they actually had one of their outfield cameras pointing at the stadium in Berkeley with an extreme telephoto shot.
 
Sounds like the train got out of the Sonoma Race Track on time after the race. The same can not be said for those who arrived at the race track in their personal autos. I heard on radio that it took mucho hours for fans to get back on the main highways after the race ended.
 
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