Railfanning Amtrak At Emeryville, CA

After checking out of the hotel and heading over to the San Francisco Airport to pick up my rental car from Enterprise (a 2011 Chevrolet Impala LT), I drove over to the Golden Gate Bridge having not known that the routing I would take to get there would have me driving up a bunch of city streets! If it weren't for VZ Navigator, I would have been completely lost! After getting to the bridge and taking a few photos there (you'll see some of them later), I drove over to the Emeryville Amtrak Station since I figured I got here a day earlier than I planned which would make it possible for me to see the train I was originally supposed to be on in the first place!!! After lunch at a nearby Subway restaurant and parking my car at the lot adjacent to the station (cost $7.50 to park for 3 hours), I went over to the pedestrian overpass at the station and got in some good railfanning. Emeryville hosts the California Zephyr (which is also that train's western terminus), Coast Starlight, Capital Corridor, as well as San Joaquin trains. Included here are photos taken while visiting, enjoy...

First up is an eastbound (Los Angeles is geographically east of San Francisco), is this Union Pacific auto rack train.
Those signal lights remind me of New York Central's 3 light signals that were once everywhere on the Water Level
Route from Buffalo to Chicago.

The first passenger train today would be Capital Corridor Train #738 with F59PHI #2008 pushing (note no headlights on).
Capital Corridor and San Joaquin trains operate in "push-pull" mode on their routes.

Next up is San Joaquin Train #713 with P42DC #162 as the power today. P42's will sometimes substitute for
F59PHI's on these routes whenever there may be a power shortage.

The beautiful Emeryville Station grounds. I wouldn't mind living in that apartment complex
to the right of the station with those nice trackside views!

Capital Corridor Train #743 is next with P32-8BWH #2051 for power. This unit started as Amtrak #501 and was sold to the
State of California, repainted, renumbered and is used on these trains.

And now here's the train I was supposed to be on in the first place, Train #5 - The California Zephyr
now arriving at Emeryville with P42DC #193 on the lead.

I had to see this one up close, so I walked down to the adjoining platform to get this photo. I'll title this one
"Emeryville Welcomes All Amtrak California Zephyr Passengers".

Train #5 shortly before departing Emeryville to head into the yard in Oakland for servicing
and turning as this train set will go back east tomorrow as Train #6.

Superliner I Sleeping Car #32028 which was the last car on the Zephyr, also known as the "0532" car which was supposed to
be the car I was ticketed for originally, in Roomette #4! There's no doubt it felt really weird being here before the train arrived!

Here we have a westbound (northbound) BNSF freight. More than likely, this was a UP freight with BNSF power.

Heading out of Emeryville is Capital Corridor Train #742 with P42DC #55 pushing.

Next up is San Joaquin Train #718 departing Emeryville with F59PHI #2014 pushing.

Finally, Capital Corridor Train #745 arrives at Emeryville with F59PHI #2007 on the lead.

I decided around 6:30pm that it was time to leave since my parking pass was set to expire at 6:44pm anyway. It was also getting dark by then anyway so I picked up a Diet Pepsi in the station and programmed the VZ Navigator to get me to Vacaville where my hotel for the next 4 nights would be located, the Courtyard By Marriott. Once I checked in the hotel, I walked over to a nearby Popeye's restaurant for dinner then walked back to the hotel and eventually called it a day. Tomorrow, I would be heading out to Napa, CA to ride the Napa Valley Wine Train. I would end up having a BEYOND WORLD CLASS experience on of the absolute FINEST trains in the entire country. TRUST ME, you won't want to miss this! Check out the link below!!!