Gemuser
Service Attendant
Trip Report - Amtrak Coast to Coast & Back
Part 1 San Francisco to Chicago, via Seattle
Arrival into San Francisco
In September & October 2012 my mate Rod and I did a seven week trip across the USA from San Francisco to San Francisco, about 4 weeks of it was on Amtrak. This is a report of that trip.
We left Sydney at 14:45 on Sunday 2 September 2012 on United Airlines flight UA870, arriving San Francisco at 11:32 am, the same day, about 30 minutes late. After taking an hour to
clear Immigration & Customs We picked up our luggage which was waiting for us.
Our exploration of the American rail system started immediately as we boarded BART for the Embarcadero station, where we transferred to Muni's F line to Fishermans Wharf, where
our hotel was. Mistake number one! We did not know that this was Labour Day weekend and the F Line and FW in general was packed with people, which made traveling with luggage an interesting task. After three days in San Francisco, riding all 3 cable car lines, a couple of Muni lines, some ferries and a visit to Amtrak’s Ferry Building Station to exchange our “Amtrak Exchange Voucher” for actual tickets it was time to move on and our first Amtrak train.
The Coast Starlight San Francisco to Seattle
At 9:10 pm on Wednesday 5/9/12 we caught Thruway Bus service 5014 to the Ferry Building and then Emeryville, arriving about 9:50 pm to board Train 14 – The Coast Starlight on
which we had reservations for Roomette 002 in Car 1432. At Emeryville we were informed that the CS was running about half an hour late. Emeryville is ok as a station but there not much to occupy you after 10:00 pm at night so we were happy to see the train about 10:35. It was our first sight of Amtrak’s Genesis Locos, very, very impressive as they are about twice as powerful as and much taller than any passenger locos we see in Sydney.
We quickly found our car and presented our tickets to the CSA at the door, were directed to the baggage racks and our roomette quickly and efficiently. Up the stairs, turn right and we
are the first roomette on the right. We settled in to our roomette and stowed our carry on and the train got underway at 10:45 pm, about 38 minutes late. Very shortly after we left our
CSA was back and briefed us on the roomette, car facilities and the dining car & PPC and made arrangement to come and set the bunks up. He was very friendly, efficient & nothing was too much trouble. Rod remarked that if all CSA were as good at their jobs as he was we were in for a very good trip. As it turned out, they were all very good, although he & the one on the LSL later in the month were the stand outs.
In due course the bunks were made up and we settled in for sleep. I was woken sometime later by the train motion, looked out the window to see us glide out of Sacramento Station, at
1:23 am on 6/9/12, an hour & twenty four minutes late! So back to sleep. We woke up about 6:00 am and looked out the window to see the magnificent bulk of Mt Shasta looming over the train. We watched the mountain for almost half an hour as the train twisted and turned along the track. We arrived into Klamath Falls about 8:45 am (20 min late) as we had breakfast in the PPC. For the rest of the day we ran down the mountains from Klamath Falls, along valleys alongside lakes/rivers or half way up the valley sides. A very pleasant day’s trip was had by all.
We arrived Portland Union Station about 15 min late at 3:55pm, where the cars were watered and engines refuelled/watered with despatch and we left Portland on time at 4:20 pm. We
were 6 mins late at Vancouver WA, 9 mins late at Kelso-Longview, 13 mins late at Centralia, 14 mins late at Tacoma, so we expected to be 15/20 mins late into Seattle. We were
surprised to be in Seattle’s King Street Station at 8:06 pm, 39 mins early! So we made up 53 mins in the 62 km between Tacoma & Seattle! That is some schedule padding! Fortunately
the friends we were visiting in Seattle were already at King St.
The Empire Builder Seattle to East Glacier
After 2 days in Seattle with our friends we left King Street on Train 8 The Empire Builder on time at 4:40 pm in Roomette 002, Car 0831. Another great CSA got us settled in and
explaine about dinner reservations. The first part of the trip north from King Street includes street running along the harbour front, then twisting along the Sound, across the bridge over
the Locks at Ballard and so up the shoreline north, sometimes as little as 1 m from the water. You definitely want to be on the left side of the train for this part.
We reached Everett on time and the sight of the very large US Navy CVN docked at the pier right outside the window was impressive! [What CVN is based in Everett? I didn’t get the name]. From Everett the line turns east and within a few kilometres starts to climb into the Cascade Mountains. The climb up the west side of Stevens Pass was very scenic and a joy to
follow. Unfortunately it was just about dark and we couldn’t see much after we emerged from the Stevens Pass tunnel except for a very large bush/forest fire somewhere around
Wenatchee. We left there at 8:55 pm running 13 minutes late. After about an hour of running thru darkness we got the bunks made up and went to sleep.
Next morning I wake to bright sun shine and the CSA tells me we are a few minutes from Whitefish MT. I slept thru all the switching in Spokane! I can’t complain about the comfort of
the Superliner roomette. We arrived into Whitefish at 7:10 am, sixteen minutes early. Our Whitefish stop is extended by 16 minutes to allow the timetable catch up with us, so we are out
of there at 7:46 am, on the dot. We now climb the west side of Marias Pass to the continental divide. The country side is more open than Stevens Pass with the mountains further away the train, still spectacular country side however. We make a flag stop at Essex, for the Izaak Walton Inn and I snap some of the rolling stock. After Essex we gather our day bags and bits and pieces and prepare to de-train at East Glacier, which we reach at 10:09, 15:00 minutes down.
The Empire Builder East Glacier to Chicago
On 9/9/13 after two days in the park we re-join number 8 at East Glacier and depart on time at 9:54 am in Roomette 3/ Car0830. We now spend the next 7:15 running down the east
side of the Rockies and across the Great Plains to Wolf Point, the last station in daylight, which we left 5:09 pm some 36 minutes down. It’s easy to see why Montana uses the slogan
“Big Sky Country”. I reminded me of the more eastern part of the western slopes of my home state of New South Wales, Montana had more water however. Arrival in Minot was at 10:00 pm and departure at 10:18 pm, still 36 minutes down. At this point, after a hard day doing nothing except staring out the window we went to bed. I woke up the next day (12/9) to see St Cloud MN outside the window which we left at 6:17 am, 1:03 down. Still tired from the day before I rolled over and next thing I know I’m getting shaken by Rod and told to get my ass into gear if I wanted breakfast, it was after 9:00 am! I had completely slept thru the 45 minute stop in St Paul!
Breakfast completed we slid thru Winona MN at 10:35, only 24 minutes down. This mornings travel alongside the upper reaches of the Mississippi River was very scenic and interesting. We left La Crosse WI at 11:22 am 35 minutes down and went for our last meal in the EBs dining car. Leaving Milwaukee at 2:38, half an hour late we arrived at Chicago Union Station at 4:37, 42 minutes late. 42 minutes late on a 44:40 trip [sEA-CHI] that’s not too bad at all.
After arrival in Chicago we were doing other things [ including a weeks tour of Colorado's narrow gauge & historic rail lines] and would not set foot on Amtrak again for 10 days until 23/9 when we catch the LSL to NYP. That story I’ll pick up again in Part 2 of this report.
Thanks for reading
Part 1 San Francisco to Chicago, via Seattle
Arrival into San Francisco
In September & October 2012 my mate Rod and I did a seven week trip across the USA from San Francisco to San Francisco, about 4 weeks of it was on Amtrak. This is a report of that trip.
We left Sydney at 14:45 on Sunday 2 September 2012 on United Airlines flight UA870, arriving San Francisco at 11:32 am, the same day, about 30 minutes late. After taking an hour to
clear Immigration & Customs We picked up our luggage which was waiting for us.
Our exploration of the American rail system started immediately as we boarded BART for the Embarcadero station, where we transferred to Muni's F line to Fishermans Wharf, where
our hotel was. Mistake number one! We did not know that this was Labour Day weekend and the F Line and FW in general was packed with people, which made traveling with luggage an interesting task. After three days in San Francisco, riding all 3 cable car lines, a couple of Muni lines, some ferries and a visit to Amtrak’s Ferry Building Station to exchange our “Amtrak Exchange Voucher” for actual tickets it was time to move on and our first Amtrak train.
The Coast Starlight San Francisco to Seattle
At 9:10 pm on Wednesday 5/9/12 we caught Thruway Bus service 5014 to the Ferry Building and then Emeryville, arriving about 9:50 pm to board Train 14 – The Coast Starlight on
which we had reservations for Roomette 002 in Car 1432. At Emeryville we were informed that the CS was running about half an hour late. Emeryville is ok as a station but there not much to occupy you after 10:00 pm at night so we were happy to see the train about 10:35. It was our first sight of Amtrak’s Genesis Locos, very, very impressive as they are about twice as powerful as and much taller than any passenger locos we see in Sydney.
We quickly found our car and presented our tickets to the CSA at the door, were directed to the baggage racks and our roomette quickly and efficiently. Up the stairs, turn right and we
are the first roomette on the right. We settled in to our roomette and stowed our carry on and the train got underway at 10:45 pm, about 38 minutes late. Very shortly after we left our
CSA was back and briefed us on the roomette, car facilities and the dining car & PPC and made arrangement to come and set the bunks up. He was very friendly, efficient & nothing was too much trouble. Rod remarked that if all CSA were as good at their jobs as he was we were in for a very good trip. As it turned out, they were all very good, although he & the one on the LSL later in the month were the stand outs.
In due course the bunks were made up and we settled in for sleep. I was woken sometime later by the train motion, looked out the window to see us glide out of Sacramento Station, at
1:23 am on 6/9/12, an hour & twenty four minutes late! So back to sleep. We woke up about 6:00 am and looked out the window to see the magnificent bulk of Mt Shasta looming over the train. We watched the mountain for almost half an hour as the train twisted and turned along the track. We arrived into Klamath Falls about 8:45 am (20 min late) as we had breakfast in the PPC. For the rest of the day we ran down the mountains from Klamath Falls, along valleys alongside lakes/rivers or half way up the valley sides. A very pleasant day’s trip was had by all.
We arrived Portland Union Station about 15 min late at 3:55pm, where the cars were watered and engines refuelled/watered with despatch and we left Portland on time at 4:20 pm. We
were 6 mins late at Vancouver WA, 9 mins late at Kelso-Longview, 13 mins late at Centralia, 14 mins late at Tacoma, so we expected to be 15/20 mins late into Seattle. We were
surprised to be in Seattle’s King Street Station at 8:06 pm, 39 mins early! So we made up 53 mins in the 62 km between Tacoma & Seattle! That is some schedule padding! Fortunately
the friends we were visiting in Seattle were already at King St.
The Empire Builder Seattle to East Glacier
After 2 days in Seattle with our friends we left King Street on Train 8 The Empire Builder on time at 4:40 pm in Roomette 002, Car 0831. Another great CSA got us settled in and
explaine about dinner reservations. The first part of the trip north from King Street includes street running along the harbour front, then twisting along the Sound, across the bridge over
the Locks at Ballard and so up the shoreline north, sometimes as little as 1 m from the water. You definitely want to be on the left side of the train for this part.
We reached Everett on time and the sight of the very large US Navy CVN docked at the pier right outside the window was impressive! [What CVN is based in Everett? I didn’t get the name]. From Everett the line turns east and within a few kilometres starts to climb into the Cascade Mountains. The climb up the west side of Stevens Pass was very scenic and a joy to
follow. Unfortunately it was just about dark and we couldn’t see much after we emerged from the Stevens Pass tunnel except for a very large bush/forest fire somewhere around
Wenatchee. We left there at 8:55 pm running 13 minutes late. After about an hour of running thru darkness we got the bunks made up and went to sleep.
Next morning I wake to bright sun shine and the CSA tells me we are a few minutes from Whitefish MT. I slept thru all the switching in Spokane! I can’t complain about the comfort of
the Superliner roomette. We arrived into Whitefish at 7:10 am, sixteen minutes early. Our Whitefish stop is extended by 16 minutes to allow the timetable catch up with us, so we are out
of there at 7:46 am, on the dot. We now climb the west side of Marias Pass to the continental divide. The country side is more open than Stevens Pass with the mountains further away the train, still spectacular country side however. We make a flag stop at Essex, for the Izaak Walton Inn and I snap some of the rolling stock. After Essex we gather our day bags and bits and pieces and prepare to de-train at East Glacier, which we reach at 10:09, 15:00 minutes down.
The Empire Builder East Glacier to Chicago
On 9/9/13 after two days in the park we re-join number 8 at East Glacier and depart on time at 9:54 am in Roomette 3/ Car0830. We now spend the next 7:15 running down the east
side of the Rockies and across the Great Plains to Wolf Point, the last station in daylight, which we left 5:09 pm some 36 minutes down. It’s easy to see why Montana uses the slogan
“Big Sky Country”. I reminded me of the more eastern part of the western slopes of my home state of New South Wales, Montana had more water however. Arrival in Minot was at 10:00 pm and departure at 10:18 pm, still 36 minutes down. At this point, after a hard day doing nothing except staring out the window we went to bed. I woke up the next day (12/9) to see St Cloud MN outside the window which we left at 6:17 am, 1:03 down. Still tired from the day before I rolled over and next thing I know I’m getting shaken by Rod and told to get my ass into gear if I wanted breakfast, it was after 9:00 am! I had completely slept thru the 45 minute stop in St Paul!
Breakfast completed we slid thru Winona MN at 10:35, only 24 minutes down. This mornings travel alongside the upper reaches of the Mississippi River was very scenic and interesting. We left La Crosse WI at 11:22 am 35 minutes down and went for our last meal in the EBs dining car. Leaving Milwaukee at 2:38, half an hour late we arrived at Chicago Union Station at 4:37, 42 minutes late. 42 minutes late on a 44:40 trip [sEA-CHI] that’s not too bad at all.
After arrival in Chicago we were doing other things [ including a weeks tour of Colorado's narrow gauge & historic rail lines] and would not set foot on Amtrak again for 10 days until 23/9 when we catch the LSL to NYP. That story I’ll pick up again in Part 2 of this report.
Thanks for reading
