2:24PM, January 10, 1998.
Sierra Nevada's, well out of Colfax.
First entry for this portion of the trip, and so far, it's been a really enjoyable trip! Boarded the bus at the ferry building in San Francisco and travelled across the bay into Emeryville. I was slightly disappointed with the view travelling from San Francisco to Oakland on the Oakland Bay Bridge...we were underneath the upper deck or in a tunnel the entire trip through! (Perhaps that's why I didn't see any oncoming traffic when we were crossing the bridge into San Francisco?) The weather left a fair bit to be desired, but so far, I can't complain all that much. Just before we got into Sacramento, I decided that almost three days without a shower was a little too much, and bit the bullet to upgrade to a Standard (Economy) sleeper. I'm believing that it was WELL worth it. Already I feel much more comfortable in this smaller room than in the public coach. Plus the fact that it's quite alright for me to take as much as I want in the dining car as I please!
The scenery here is quite nice to look at, and about fifteen minutes ago, we finally rose to a high enough altitude that we're seeing snow. Who knows whether it'll last all the way out to Chicago, but it's certainly making me think of home. Surprisingly enough, the train is moving at a decent speed, for the grade we're climbing, probably better than 2%. The train is being led by three Genesis Engines, but I'm not sure if we're going to lose one of them once we hit Sparks or Denver. The silver/steel color of the trains seems to match the weather and terrain we're in...
We've got a "tour guide" who makes announcements at the historically significant spots along the route, and he told us that we're now sitting at 1 mile above sea level. Not surprisingly, my ears have popped quite a few times along the trip up into the pass, and we've just passed through Emmigrant Gap. The tour guide joined us in Sacramento, as I later found out...That means I didn't miss anything!...It's not easy hearing PA announcements in coach! Besides, chances are pretty good that I wouldn't have been listening to the announcements with all the fun I was having in Coach! From Emeryville through to Sacramento, I met a few people, one of them being a spanish (?) lady who got off the train in Roseville...If you're reading this, many thanks for the offer of a coffee...Kinda too bad I don't drink coffee. And then there was a group of people going to the casinos in Reno. They were tons of fun to talk with, and also brought a ton of food...Took up a pair of seats just organizing the massive spread they had...I ate a little bit of it, but they were a really fun bunch of people.
2:50pm
Just passed the westbound California Zephyr on our trip up the pass...
2:59pm
Passing by a westbound Union Pacific Freight hauling flatbeds of 18 wheeler trailers...
3:00pm
Definitely into snow country now. Although it looks like the tracks have been cleared a few times this winter already, there's a good amount of snow still sitting between and off to the edges of the tracks. The tracks themselves are clear, but you see quite a few ridges in the snow just on the outside edges of the tracks.
3:08pm
It's almost impossible to see across the pass to see the other side because of the fog/clouds we're in. Visibility is getting very limited, and it's becoming difficult to see the engines at the front of the train...snow is falling, but thankfully, it's not sticking to the window!
3:13pm
It appears we're now headed downhill, after passing through the remains of a town called Norden. Norden was a railroad community for staff responsible for clearing the tracks of snow.
3:16pm
Guess I'm wrong about being at the summit back there.... But we've just passed under a chairlift and gondola run for a ski hill, and just entered a snowshed, and will soon enter a tunnel which will take us about 4 minutes to go through...that is, if we're not in it already!
3:45pm
Just entered the town of Truckee California. This is our last stop in the state, and this town certainly is quite interesting from what I can see. Almost reminds me of Banff (Town in Alberta, about an hour's drive west of Calgary) in a lot of regards. The town has a lot of old houses which appear to have been built back before 1900. Still raining, and now I'm looking out through rather wet windows.
7:13pm
Oi! I'm stuffed to the brim! Just finished dinner on my first night aboard the Zephyr...and already I've started to notice some of the major differences between the Zephyr and the Coast Starlight...the biggest one is the difference in the menus. While the meals are great all around, the desserts leave a lot to be desired on the Zephyr...A fruit and cheese plate, peach pie (which is quite good, but the menu says Apple Pie), and Chocolate Cake...No Ice Cream!! I'm not sure who'd be in charge of this, but I've gotta admit, I'd prefer to see Ice Cream kept on the menu... Ate dinner with a 16 year old girl who lives during the year in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. She's returning from her christmas holiday in California. Quite a quiet girl...was a silent table for quite some time...at least until I found out she lived in Colorado, and then the topic turned to snow and snowboarding...Seems that a lot of people are really turning away from two skis to one snowboard... Not a problem with me though, as I'm white-knuckled no matter how I'm travelling down the hill! Needless to say, a Ski Amtrak vacation for me would be a big waste of money.
Once we arrived in Reno, I made a point of going back to my old coach car just to say goodbye and good luck (anyone getting off in Reno should be wished good luck...there's not much else there to do other than gamble.) to the seniors I met back in Emeryville. One interesting note about Reno's Amtrak station. They placed it in such a confined area that the train is forced to sit on a level crossing for the entire time we were at the station. After listening to the bells at the crossbucks/gates that were going, you could almost tell they were getting tired from dinging so much... One of the car attendants (I think from one of the coach cars) or perhaps even the chief of onboard services said that we are here just long enough to get anyone getting off off, and to get those people who were getting on on. Doesn't surprise me. I also inquired as to the location of the nearest ATM machine, and he said Denver. Yikes! At the current moment, I'm pretty much stuck when it comes to tips at the end of meals...Thank goodness I'm in a sleeper! I'd be going hungry until Denver, where the next ATM machine is. I certainly hope that Michael (my waiter in the dining car) will appreciate this and wait patiently until Denver, where I'll make up for the lack of tips at breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow. Speaking of tips, I've noticed that a few people are leaving two bucks for a tip at dinner tonight. According to the TrainWeb.com website, most, if not all tips are $1, no matter what meal you're at. I left the customary dollar, but kinda wonder if the trend for dinner is $2 west of Chicago.
7:34pm
We should be into Winnemuca, Nevada sometime in the very near future...like, the next four minutes. I think I can see the lights up ahead, but there's some reason for why we're sitting here out in the middle of nowhere stopped on the tracks. Most likely, we're waiting for a freight train to come in the opposite direction...It's kinda disconcerting though, sitting here on a corner, tilted over a fair bit.
7:36pm
We're moving again, and picking up speed quite nicely. And yet another reason why I like the sleepers so much...The curtains can effectively block light out from the hallway, and I can control the lights in the room. Right now, I've got them off, and am drawing light only from the screen of my laptop, and from the CD Player's backlit display. Basically it means I can look out the window and see the scenery by night without any problems. In coach, there's so much light I'd look like a kid fogging up the window by covering up the space around my eyes to see out.
8:09pm
We've just been through Winnemucca, Nevada...we're currently running about 20 minutes late, but thankfully the stop there was probably no more than a minute long. Apparently nobody wanted on or off...Jessie (my Sleeping Car Attendant) didn't even go downstairs to the door! He also asked when I wanted my bed made up...I said in about an hour and a half, close to about 9:30. He kinda hummed and hawed over it, and asked if I've ever put down a bed before and I replied that I didn't. Perhaps he's wanting to hit the hay a little early...We've got a stop in Elko, Nevada, and then it's into Salt Lake City after that. SLC comes at the ungodly hour of 3:45 in the morning...we're scheduled to be there for 50 minutes, but I kinda think that if we don't lose any more time, we'll be running on schedule after leaving there. Changing Conductors and engineers and then fueling up the engines certainly doesn't take 50 minutes! Who knows, there's probably a few other things they need to do, but there weren't any 50 minute stops anywhere on the Coast Starlight route...
4:17am (MST) Salt Lake City, Utah.
Well, here we are, and believe it or not, here I am. I'm wide awake, in desperate need of water, and it's 4:17...well, I suppose my body is still on Pacific Time, and it's only 3:17. We arrived in SLC ahead of schedule, which means we're gonna be here for quite some time. And there's no ATM inside the station, which is, to say the least, annoying. I'm needing cash for drinks, snacks, and most importantly, tips. Maybe Ben (Cafe Car Attendant) was right when he also said the next ATM was in Denver...at least a full waking day away. Also while I was off the train, I had a chance to go and walk almost the entire length of it. Quite a hike to say the least. Three Genesis Engines hooked up which is a little surprising because we lost head end power at Sparks...I would've thought they'd take an engine off once out of the Sierra Nevada, but then, I suppose we still need the power to make it over the continental divide tomorrow when we take a hike from Utah into Colorado. <insert yawn here> I suppose being awake can't last forever...it's now 4:26, and we're scheduled to depart in about 20-25 minutes. At least I got the chance to pull out a blanket from my suitcase, the amount of bedding these guys give you is frightfully thin, but at least I get the chance to actually fully lay down and sleep! A guy is upstairs in the sightseer lounge sprawled across three seats sleeping. I kinda wish I had thought of that when I came down on the Coast Starlight! Y'know, there's something comforting about being alone in a public area...I've got the entire lower level of the cafe car to myself to think and type. I'd type upstairs in my room, but there's realistically no place to type except one's lap when you're sitting up in bed. Not the best of positions if you ask me, so that's why I decided to come down to the tables of the cafe car to type out this entry.
4:35am
I just heard the train horn, and am wondering if the train is planning to make an early departure. Not a commonly accepted practice when you've got people racing for the station, but I figure that if the people can't make it to the station with a little time to spare, that's their fault. And, it does appear we're leaving early. unless that is, 4:35 is our planned departure time. I'll have to check when I get up to my room. And, in true freight train style, we jolted to a start...a rather annoying thing as I know these engines and these trains overall can quite easily start the train moving so gently that you barely notice you're moving until you look out the window and see the land actually moving. Well, Sionarra Salt Lake City, this cowboy is back to bed!
11:54am Past Grand Junction, Colorado
I did end up staying up for a little while after finishing the last entry, but not much left to be seen once the train was up to speed and out of Salt Lake City. The sleep was quite nice actually, and woke up a few times, only to roll over and fall asleep again. Was finally jolted into reality when I heard the dining car steward calling out second call for breakfast...At a rather surprisingly early time of 7:30ish this morning. I could swear that I hadn't heard a first call, or a good morning from the Chief...Although I do remember having a dream or two which may have had an effect on that... (As I found out later on, they typically don't call first call which happens at 6:30 in the morning...Don't want to wake too many people up.)
I did go have breakfast with a mom and son who are on their way back to Chicago...they're returning from their vacation. Topics over breakfast included the ever-popular "where are you from" thing, along with what kind of service we've been experiencing aboard Amtrak...Both the mom and myself are going to be writing letters to Amtrak speaking about our misshaps in the service. Overall, I've been extremely pleased with the service aboard this train...The Coast Starlight however! Well, that's another story. Here's the letter I wrote to Amtrak, sometime after getting back from my vacation.
I also had a chance to go grab some cash while we were in Grand Junction...Surprisingly enough we 20 minutes late getting into Green River, and yet half an hour early getting into Grand Junction...No idea how, but certainly seems like they've padded the schedule a fair bit through here. Not that I'm complaining though as I was able to run to the closest ATM to the station, which was about 2 and a half blocks away. Now I no longer need to worry about money or tips, at least until the last part of the trip.
The scenery through here is absolutely awesome...Reminds me quite a bit of travelling through the Drumheller area in Southern Alberta... The Colorado river churns away, with quite a few rapids. It's kinda pleasing to see that the Americans haven't dammed these rapids up in the name of hydroelectric power like they have down the river such as the Hoover Dam.
11:57am
Strange looking farm, and so close to the tracks...at least 4 horses and half a dozen ducks...
8:56pm - Denver, Colorado
Just left the mile high city, and left behind a friend I made on the trip between Glenwood Spring and Denver. She (and of course, she told me her name all of once, repeated and now I can't remember!) is a white 25 year old girl who's hails from South Africa. Speaks with that kind of accent that I've heard from another friend who's from that part of the world. She and a couple of friends were in Vancouver, and unfortunately, their car broke down and she had to spend the $400 that she planned on spending while travelling back to Denver...So, for the last ten days she's been eating junk food, hot dogs and wine...Not the best of diets, and I figured I'd be nice to at least one person while I'm on this trip out to Chicago and treated her to dinner in the diner. She certainly appreciated it, and I think I got a few brownie points from the waitress...Kinda too bad that I couldn't get her included in my sleeper accomodations. But thankfully she chose the vegetarian dish which meant I wouldn't be spending too much. Ahh, I wouldn't have minded if she ate the steak, but the fact is...She had a decent meal while she was on the train. Its almost criminal to ride on an Amtrak train and not be able to sample the food from the chefs in the dining car.
Also while I was in Denver, I managed to pick up a few necessities...one of them being a set of AA batteries for my camera. Good thing I did too, as there were a few cars from the American Orient Express sitting a couple tracks away from us...And if that wasn't enough, a 50's streamline train from the Southern Pacific and Rio Grande decided to pull into the station as well! I've not seen that kind of train since I was in Via Rail territory quite a few years ago. Snapped off a few shots of that train as well which I believe is operating as a ski train out to the popular ski destinations here in Colorado. Also one thing that was rather bizarre was the weird looking discs on the wheels of the Rio Grande train...Looks like they've retrofitted a large set of disc brakes onto each wheel of the train...what purpose this serves, I have no idea. Snapped off a shot of these so that anyone who visits this web page can take a look and tell me what they are and why they're there...(if I'm right about them being disc brakes, tell me why dynamic braking doesn't do the trick?)
(Note: I'm quite disppointed in how well the photos turned out from that night. I'm posting the pictures on this web page, but all the photos I snapped off didn't turn out anything like what I thought. ARGH!)
I also had the opportunity to be on the lower level when the train was backing into the station...it's a really weird experience for the engineer as there are no decent rearview mirrors on the Genesis engines, plus the fact that the train is so long that even the biggest mirrors allowable wouldn't really give a good estimate...So, he's got a couple people at the back of the train radioing instructions and descriptions of where the train is and how much room he's got before he has to hit the brakes. We also had a few jolts going back and forth getting the train into the right position. We also managed to gain an extra pair of cars at the end...one Amtrak Boxcar for express, as well as a third baggage car (one baggage car at the front, as well as the one baggage car that's been attached to the sleeper I'm in since the beginning of the trip.) Of course, chances are good that these baggage cars are actually carrying express packages...
Also, it appears that all the empty sleepers that we had are now almost full. It appears that when I upgraded to this Standard Bedroom the Conductor wasn't kidding when he said that he had one left...I guess I'm not really that surprised that there would be a lot of people in sleepers boarding in Denver...After all, it's now 16 minutes after 9pm...people who board here for Chicago are bound to want to sleep in beds! And speaking of beds, I think I'm gonna get Jessie to get my bed made up so that when I come back from the cafe, I'll be able to crawl into the sack and sleep until Nebraska. See ya tomorow!
1:33pm CST January 12, 1998, past Galesburg, Illinois.
The trip is finally coming to a close...the snack bar downstairs will be closing in Princeton to do cleanup and inventory, the diner is now done for the day (first, second and last call for lunch came at the same time), and I've enjoyed this trip far more than my time in Coach on the Coast Starlight...But I tell ya, travelling by train still poses jet lag...It's now Central Standard Time, and when I ate lunch I realized that I'd only be getting the day started back home. After breakfast, I went back to my room, pulled the seats together and slept for another hour or so...My sleep last night was quite nice, didn't wake up at all, at least until we started pulling out of Omaha, Nebraska...Not surprisingly I don't think I missed anything by travelling through the entire state without seeing anything...The entire state came and went while I was asleep.
Breakfast this morning was a tad interesting...ended up sitting down at the wrong table, and had breakfast with three others who were already eating. One of them was a teenager who was quite heavily into the piercing thing...eyebrow, three in the right ear, and who knows where else...Also had that trademark "wallet-on-a-chain" chain hanging off the right hand side. Sad thing was, I didn't know and really couldn't tell if the teen was male or female...No clue whatsoever...some things lended themselves to being male, Michael said "let her out" (when "it" was done eating breakfast), but there wasn't enough evidence to really make a distinction...No breasts to speak of...75% chance it was male, 25% it was female. I honestly think I'll leave it at that... Aside from that, it appears I was seated with a couple of grouches...one of them was complaining about the lack of service from Michael (which I suppose is possible...he asked for a glass of water and never got it), and the other sympathized with him. To be honest, things have been slipping a touch over the past day or so...I guess people and equipment can only go so long...I wonder how the crews of the Sunset Limited handle that long haul...This trip is certainly quite a lengthy one, on the road for better part of three days...2 full nights and almost three full days. Long trip indeed! Anyhow, I left a tip but it appears that nobody else did.
Stopping in Galesburg was interesting...Mainly because a good friend of mine hails from the town, and her parents still live there. Her dad is an engineer for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the major railroads in this area. Kinda too bad she never mentioned where in the town, relative to the railroad tracks, she lived. The train station in the town looked kinda nice, snapped a couple shots off there, leaving one picture left, which I'll probably use when we get into Chicago.
It appears that we're running around 20-30 minutes late, and who knows whether or not we'll actually be getting a chance to gain any of that time back...I would certainly like to arrive in Chicago ontime if possible...
3:10pm Past Aurora, Illinois.
(Apparently the home of Wayne in Wayne's World) I now doubt severely that there's any chance that we'll be getting into Chicago ontime...But certainly some interesting sights along the way. Already I've seen a couple Metra trains which handle a lot of the commuter traffic in and out of Chicago...Now comes the question of whether or not I'll be able to get in touch with Jason out in the Grand Rapids area to see if I come out and meet him today, tomorrow or at all?
Hmm...I honestly wonder why I'm feeling so tense and nervous? Another long journey about to come to an end, or a new one about to begin?
3:18pm Naperville, Illinois
Last stop before Chicago! This journey is finally ending...I also suppose that this is my cue to clean up a touch and get ready to get off the California Zephyr...
Of course, a job is never finished until it actually is...which means finishing off this segment of my travelogue after I get home and before I post this to my website!
I stood in the vestibule of the sleeping car for a good segment of our run into Chicago...Most likely running at the full 79mph, as we were literally flying through the commuter stops that the Metra normally takes. And boy, there were a lot of those stops...seemed like every minute we passed another platform.
And, get this...We arrived into Chicago a full half hour EARLY! I suppose the crew decided that it'd be easier to just drive the train straight into the platform and forget about backing in. Kinda left our car to be near the back end of the platform. Man, I was glad to have a suitcase that had wheels in it! After handing a $5 tip to Jessie (or was it ten?), I took my bags and took off. Although trying to take off on a platform that's maybe 8 feet wide didn't make things all that easy. Ended up following a pair of officers escourting a guy around my age (possibly younger) in handcuffs into the station. Once into Union Station, I figured that the best bet would be to try and get in touch with my friend, and that meant getting to the Metropolitan Lounge (One of the other nice touches of upgrading to a sleeper) to find a phone line where I could hook my computer up and drop him an e-mail. I also thought that it'd also be a good idea to give him a call, but I needed to get his phone number first...And that meant giving Directory Assistance a phone call. Must admit, the American Phone system is a tad different (okay, it's night and day different) compared to the Canadian system. All this business of choosing long distance carriers, competition between local carriers, etc. etc. certainly has left a lot of the cool technology to be picked up quite some time after the Canadians implemented it. You've no doubt heard about Caller ID and Call Display...I've had that ability for the last 5 years...The *69 thing? Last 3 years...But then again, our lovely government regulators at the CRTC have said that nobody can enter the local phone market...<shrug> Oh well. Enough of that tangent. I didn't get in touch with Jason after getting his number from DA, so I had to call it a night and take my hotel room at the Quality Inn Downtown...Cheap cab fare (all of 3.50 I think), plus it left me close enough to downtown that I could walk where I needed to. And here's where this segment of the travelogue finishes...To continue on with my Journey, here's the travelogue for the next segment
Train Consist:
36 - P40 Genesis Locomotive
21 - P40 Genesis Locomotive
71 - P40 Genesis Locomotive
1215 - Baggage Car
39026 - Transition Sleeper
34080 - Coach
34057 - Coach
31537 - Coach (Smoking)
33016 - Superliner I Sightseer Lounge Car
38005 - Dining Car
32044 - Superliner I Sleeper
32073 - Superliner II Sleeper (California)
1187 - Baggage
71158 - Express Boxcar added in Denver
1729 - Baggage added in Denver
I was in Room 2 of the Sleeper California (Goin down to the Sleeper California... with apologies to the Eagles...but I couldn't resist. :-) )