The Pacific Sands travels south linked to the Pacific Surfliner train #564 on this Los Angeles - San Diego Trip.  It leaves LAUS at 7:20 a.m. on Saturday and reaches Fullerton, our boarding station, at 7:52 a.m.   Because of a bad engine, it arrived about an hour late.  However,  with nothing but fun ahead of us for two days, time and schedules were not a factor for this weekend.

The Fullerton station agent had announced that Surfliner #564 was arriving  and we peered down the train looking for the Pacific Sands.  Owner Doug Spinn had told us he would open the door for us, and all we had to do was identify ourselves and he'd help us board and show us to our room. 

Doug carried our luggage and told us to go ahead to rooms E and F.  I knew that lettered rooms ( A - F ) were the larger rooms, so on the way through the car, past the numbered single rooms, I asked why we had been upgraded to a larger room.  Doug mentioned the trip was sold out, but for the first time he had a large group cancel and there would be only 6 passengers in his car on this trip!  I thought, "This is really going to be a private car adventure."

We entered the vestibule (on the right end of the car in the diagram below) and walked down the center aisle between the numbered, single rooms.  When we arrived at E and F, I noticed that the wall between the two rooms had been folded back and we had a large suite! 

Diagram of the Pacific Sands, (above) courtesy of Owner Doug Spinn,` at http://www.pullmanadventures.com/charter.htm

There was a removable table (above left), that could be taken down at night, which we used for the refreshments that Porter Doug brought us soon after our departure from Fullerton.  The table was also convenient for my computers to deal with the photos I took and on which to write this report.  There is one plug in the bathroom of each room, and I'd suggest bringing a power bar if you have more than one thing to plug in.  I used my power bar to charge my phone, camera batteries, and for my computers.  Lest I forget to mention it later, there is free Wi-Fi at the San Diego Santa Fe station and I was able to pick up the signal inside our rail car parked outside on both my Macintosh and PC computers.  That means that if you have Skype, you can actually talk with folks far away on the internet connection...free!

Room "F," one of six, below left, has a comfortable chair by the window, that makes into a single bed at night, and there is a second bed that rolls down as an upper bunk.  There is also a moveable chair.  The back of the chair folds down at night and the lower bed is over it. 

The in-room bathroom (below, right) has a fold-down sink above the commode.  There is no drain in the bottom of the sink, so it takes some thought to see where the water goes when you fold it up!