On May 2nd, the northbound Coast Starlight was delayed by a stalled vehicle at a railroad crossing within sight of Oakland's Jack London Square Station for nearly 4 hours. Union Pacific insisted on having the vehicle searched and their track inspected causing the delay. Eyewitnesses stated that the vehicle was removed quickly by it's owner but that bulk of the delay was waiting for the track inspector, who only took a few minutes to declare the track unharmed.
Later, near Davis, the train was again delayed by reports of a broken rail. During this time, both east and westbound UP freights continued to pass the location...guess UP has rails only affected by passenger trains.
The Coast Starlight finally departed Sacramento at about 5 AM which meant taking the detour via UP's Feather River Canyon line to Keddie and on up BNSF's High Line to Klamath Falls, Or. All went well until Omaha decided to put us in a siding at Paxton to wait for a ballast train that was east of Keddie as well as a BNSF bare table that was coming south....down another 50 minutes. We finally crawled to Kiddie only to wait another hour for the BNSF pilot...don't know who called that shot. We departed Keddie at approximately 11:50 am. Another stop was made near Little Valley (in the middle of nowhere or so it seemed) to change Amtrak crews at 3 pm (probably within minutes of their 12 hour limit). Another stop was made outside of Klamath Falls to clear several BNSF trains that were held for us and to get track time on UP. Arrival in Porland was at around 4:30 am on Saturday, May 3rd. Because of the anticipated late arrival in Seattle, the train was terminated in Portland in order to have that day's southbound be on schedule.
The crew did a wonderful job of coping with a bad situation and gave great service, especially the dining car crew faced with a full train of passengers for the Friday evening dinner.
While my wife and I had a romantic evening in Portland ruined by this marathon, we had fun and enjoyed the "rare" mileage, afterall, train trips are an adventure! The customer service rep in Portland did take pity on us and upgraded our accomendations on the southbound Coast Starlight that afternoon.
Overall a fun...but loonnngggg weekend.
Allen
Later, near Davis, the train was again delayed by reports of a broken rail. During this time, both east and westbound UP freights continued to pass the location...guess UP has rails only affected by passenger trains.
The Coast Starlight finally departed Sacramento at about 5 AM which meant taking the detour via UP's Feather River Canyon line to Keddie and on up BNSF's High Line to Klamath Falls, Or. All went well until Omaha decided to put us in a siding at Paxton to wait for a ballast train that was east of Keddie as well as a BNSF bare table that was coming south....down another 50 minutes. We finally crawled to Kiddie only to wait another hour for the BNSF pilot...don't know who called that shot. We departed Keddie at approximately 11:50 am. Another stop was made near Little Valley (in the middle of nowhere or so it seemed) to change Amtrak crews at 3 pm (probably within minutes of their 12 hour limit). Another stop was made outside of Klamath Falls to clear several BNSF trains that were held for us and to get track time on UP. Arrival in Porland was at around 4:30 am on Saturday, May 3rd. Because of the anticipated late arrival in Seattle, the train was terminated in Portland in order to have that day's southbound be on schedule.
The crew did a wonderful job of coping with a bad situation and gave great service, especially the dining car crew faced with a full train of passengers for the Friday evening dinner.
While my wife and I had a romantic evening in Portland ruined by this marathon, we had fun and enjoyed the "rare" mileage, afterall, train trips are an adventure! The customer service rep in Portland did take pity on us and upgraded our accomendations on the southbound Coast Starlight that afternoon.
Overall a fun...but loonnngggg weekend.
Allen
sounds like a neat trip on rare mileage.
