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A Journey to Seattle on the Coast Starlight, Amtrak Cascades and Tacoma Link Light Rail 11/7-11/2003

Veterans Day fell on a Tuesday this year and I decided to use two of my annual earned vacation days for a train trip to Washington. Tacoma had just opened their Link light rail system and I wanted to ride it. If I left on Friday, I could arrive in Seattle on Saturday, then ride Amtrak Cascades to Tacoma on Sunday to ride the new service. Then, I could leave Seattle on Monday for Martinez, where on Tuesday, the train would travel down the valley and have me home by dinner time, if all worked out as it should.

Karen, the Amtrak agent at Solana Beach, booked me onto a sleeper for the Coast Starlight segments, then Marty, the Amtrak agent at Santa Ana, reserved the Amtrak Cascades round trip. I called the Sixth Avenue Inn and made a reservation for two nights and then checked the Tacoma Link schedule on their website. With everything ticketed and set, I just enjoyed life until the day of departure.

I was up early and ran a couple of errands then after breakfast, packed before my mother drove me to the Santa Ana station where two Metrolink trains came through before my train arrived.

Pacific Surfliner 763 arrived eight minutes late and I boarded the café car for the journey to Los Angeles. At Fullerton, I listened on Chicago 13's "Run Away" which was perfect for my mood. We encountered the first of the many yellow signals at La Mirada until we reached Los Nietos, where we had a yellow-over-green to cross over at DT Junction. We received no further delays and arrived only eight minutes late.

The Sunset Limited's passengers had been bussed from Palm Springs to Santa Barbara and after we arrived, the Southwest Chief arrived from Chicago an hour late. .

The Coast Starlight reversed into Track 9. Our consist was P42DC's 118 and 115, baggage 1235, transition sleeper 39021, sleepers 32076 "Delaware", 32083 "Iowa" and 32081 "Illinois", Pacific Parlour Car 39973, diner 38059, lounge 33027, coaches 34114, 34512 kiddie car, 34103 and 34049 along with Union Pacific business car 140 "Stanford" and business car 150 "Sunset", both of which were removed in Oakland. I was greeted by the most excellent sleeping car attendant Darren Gonsalvo, who had been my attendant on previous trips, and the ever-smiling Bobbie Lee was our conductor from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo. We departed on time with me in Room 5 of "Iowa" in relax mode.

We made our way across the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Susana tunnel, then I ventured to the Pacific Parlour Car and saw the destruction from last week's Simi Valley fires; our firefighters did such an excellent job containing them. It was easy to see where, last Sunday, the fire jumped the tracks, causing both the Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliners to be cancelled.

I enjoyed an Angus beef burger and chocolate cake for dessert prior to our run along the Pacific Ocean and started to listen to Rush's "Rush in Rio" then at Santa Barbara, took a fresh air break before we departed on time and proceeded west into a wall of clouds which held the storm that was forecast to reach Orange County over the weekend. It was a beautiful trip along the coast.

The clouds and shadows added to the character of the journey. After Point Conception, we stayed in the direct rays of the sun the rest of the way to San Luis Obispo, where I detrained for another fresh air break. The southbound Coast Starlight was in the station when we arrived and we had to wait for it to depart before we could do our station work, then our train departed on time at 3:43 PM.

We climbed Cuesta Grade and our train looked really impressive on the horseshoe curve. I watched a bit of "Charlie's Angels II" and wondered if there was a plot. I had a twelve ounce T-bone steak and ice cream for dessert and during the meal, we entered the siding at Bradley and were delayed twenty minutes for a Union Pacific baretable train. By that point, the night fully took hold and on the way back to my room, I explained the clickety-clack the train makes to a couple in the Pacific Parlour Car.

After finishing Rush, I listened to "Honeymoon Suite". We arrived at Salinas for a fresh air break and departed there over an hour late. I was very tired, so turned in at Moss Landing as the Coast Starlight passed through the evening's fog.

11/08/2003 Waking up to a rainy world outside is always a highlight of rail travels as it is all viewed from the warmth of the train. I went to the dining car for French Toast as we passed through Castle Crag and I was having a shower during our Dunsmuir stop. I rode in the Pacific Parlour Car as we left the Sacramento River Canyon, passing the forests in late autumn colours under very cloudy skies and seriously doubted that Mount Shasta would be making an appearance on this northbound trip.

I returned to my room for the remainder of the journey to Klamath Falls after we met a freight at Andesite. The reason for our tardiness since Redding and Dunsmuir this morning was freight train interference and signal failure and as a result, passengers who were taking the Empire Builder would be bussed from Klamath Falls to their train. Since I had to be bussed myself last summer, I always recommend that you plan a layover in Portland if you are connecting to the Empire Builder in that city, so you are assured of having an all-rail experience. We went into the siding at Mount Hebron for Union Pacific 9435 and were delayed an additional fifteen minutes. With no further delays, we finally reached Klamath Falls and a fresh air break.

After being out in the cool air on a dry morning to this point, we departed at 10:19 AM {8:25 AM}, just under two hours late and it was nap time until just before Chemult. I arose refreshed and ready for our ride over Cascade Summit, known as Pegra Pass on the highway. From Chemult to Cascade Summit, it was a pre-winter wonderland as I enjoyed the climb on the roller-coaster grade to the Cascade Summit Tunnel.

After we passed through the tunnel, we started our descent.

Rolling through Abernathy.

Next the Coast Starlight came out of a tunnel and onto a bridge across Noisy Creek.

We made the trip down to the bridge over the Salt Creek and the highway, on which I once rode the bus to Portland. I sat in the Pacific Parlour Car waiting to be called for lunch. The crew lost my meal ticket but I received a hot-off-the-grill Angus beef burger followed by chocolate cake, which lasted along Lookout Reservoir. We paused at Springfield in the siding to let another southbound Union Pacific freight to pass then had another fresh air stop at Eugene.

Pacific Parlour Car 39973 "Santa Lucia Highlands", ex. Amtrak 9973, nee Santa Fe 578 built by Budd Company in 1956. We departed, still two hours down, and proceeded to Alford, where we held the mainline for yet another southbound Union Pacific freight then continued to the next siding, where we again held the main with Union Pacific 4756 clearing late into the siding at Shedd. Continuing north to Hallawell, it was a repeat while a freight cleared the Albany depot. We departed Albany at 3:40 PM {1:30 PM}, met the on-time southbound Coast Starlight 11, which was waiting for us in the siding at Marion, as we sped to Salem, leaving there at 4:07 PM {2:23 PM}. We arrived at Portland Union Station at 5:12 PM just before Amtrak Cascades 507 arrived from Seattle. After our station work was done, we departed for Seattle at 5:27 PM {4:05 PM}.

Since there was a lunar eclipse tonight, I was on moon watch but unfortunately, clouds filled the sky so I hoped for them to clear as we went north. Our engineer Doug really had our train moving as we stopped only briefly at Vancouver and Kelso-Longview, departing there at 6:22 PM {5:09 PM}. I went to the dining car with a 6:30 dinner reservation for a repeat of last night's dinner and near the end of the meal, we departed Centralia at 7:27 PM {6:17 PM}. Before we arrived at Olympia-Lacey, I saw the end of the eclipse prior to departing that station after the double spot at 7:27 PM {6:17 PM}. I enjoyed my waterside run along Puget Sound from my darkened room and we arrived at Tacoma, from which we departed at 8:14 PM {7:05 PM} to start our final sprint to Seattle, the Emerald City, which we arrived into at 9:05 PM {8:30 PM}, ending a very restful trip on Amtrak.

I was first off the train and walked through King Street Station to a waiting taxi that quickly took me to the Sixth Avenue Inn for a restful night.

Following a restful night, I taxied back to King Street Station for my Amtrak Cascades train to Tacoma and found Sound Transit F59PHI 901, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1999, on my way out to the train.

The restoration of King Street Station had started and from what the workers have already uncovered, it will be one truly beautiful building when completed. Harry Patterson, an excellent station announcer over the years here, was having to yell his train announcements this morning as only one public address system microphone was working since the line above the bathroom was severed by the construction party earlier in the week. At 7:30 AM, I received my car assignment of Car 3 Seat 15, with boarding commencing once the Mount Baker International/Amtrak Cascades departed for Vancouver, British Columbia.

Following a picture of our train and once on board, I visited the bistro car for a large chocolate chip cookie. We departed Seattle on time bound for Portland and once we reached track speed, I remembered just how much I enjoyed riding the Talgo equipment of this train. We zipped by Boeing Field and went through Black River before arriving at Tukwila, a new station since my last ride, then sped south through the Sounder commuter stop of Kent, where the former Northern Pacific station still stands. The Cascade Mountains came into view briefly on this mostly cloudy day then we reached Auburn, with its Sounder stop, before the line over Stampede Pass took off and we passed the site of former Northern Pacific roundhouse. We made a broad turn to the west, passing through the Sounder stops of Summer and Puyallup, where we slowed to 40 MPH before resuming track speed then tilted our way through the last few curves which led us to Tacoma, where I detrained on time.

Public transit service in Tacoma began with the opening of the city's first horse-drawn streetcar line on May 30, 1888, running on Pacific Avenue between Downtown and Old Town. The city's streetcar system was expanded and electrified, growing to 125 miles by 1912 and serving outlying areas while feeding into the Seattle–Tacoma Interurban. The streetcar and cable car network was gradually replaced with motor buses, with the final streetcar leaving service on June 11, 1938. Bus service in Tacoma was gradually consolidated under the Tacoma Transit Company, which was acquired by the city in 1961 and folded into Pierce Transit in 1980.

A regional transit system, later named Sound Transit, was formed in the early 1990's to address traffic congestion in the region and proposed several projects for the Tacoma area. Route planning for the Downtown Tacoma line, named "Tacoma Link", began in early 1998 with the intent to create a new transportation connection to downtown retail and cultural attractions. The service opened on August 22nd, 2003 and runs seven days a week, operating fourteen hour Monday through Saturday and ten hours on Sundays. There are five stations on the 1.8 mile line at the Tacoma Dome Station, South 25th, Union Station/South 19th, Convention Center/ South 19th and the Theater District.

The cars were built by the Skoda Dopravani Technica based in the Czech Republic, the same company built the cars used on the Portland Streetcar. They are quiet and fuel-efficient with low-floor boarding; a bridge plate will slide out to help passengers with wheelchairs or strollers. The cars have space for bicycles and feature cloth seats and are air-conditioned, each being able to hold 56 passengers (30 seated and 26 standing). All trains operate as a single car and the operator changes ends at the end of the line.

Walking a block to the south, I found the Tacoma Link's car barn then walked up the hill along the location of the former Milwaukee Road freight house, now Freighthouse Square, although the shops were closed as it was still early Sunday morning.

I found the Link stop then went behind the freighthouse and saw the new Sounder station with a train ready for the Monday morning commuter rush. Inside the west end of the freighthouse was a restaurant with Milwaukee Road pictures from over the years. I returned to Tacoma Dome station to wait for the 10:00 AM train and enjoyed the passing of BNSF and Union Pacific freights at the base of the hill two blocks away. The train came up the hill with a transit vehicle and a Tacoma police car running behind it, testing the line for the day's operation. The operator announced he would be back in twenty minutes to pick up me and a beautiful woman who was also waiting to ride.

A banner-sized photograph of the first light rail car from Skoda. The car returned twenty minutes later at 10:06 AM and I was off for my first ride, proceeding west down 25th Street from the Tacoma Dome station to 25th Street station, after which we turned right onto Pacific Avenue. A brief view of the BNSF yard was visible down the side streets of 23rd and 22nd Avenues. The line became double-tracked on the way to the next stop at Union Station, home to the a federal courthouse. To the east of there is the Washington State History Museum and across the street to the west was the University of Washington-Tacoma. We turned off Pacific Avenue to the northwest and climbed a short hill to reach the Convention Center stop on Commerce Street.

We then continued down Commerce Street six blocks past the Convention Center, where the line returned to single track, then to a stub-end track station at the Theater District.

Our northward journey ended here.

The operator switched ends and we returned to the Tacoma Dome station.

It was a great way to enjoy my first on-the-ground visit to Tacoma.

I returned to the Amtrak station via the car barn, where the second streetcar was waiting to start the day's service. Back at Amtrak, I watched the southbound Coast Starlight arrive and talked with Darren, my excellent sleeping car attendant on my trip from yesterday. After the Starlight departe, I called Steve Grande of Trainweb, who was in Klamath Falls, waiting for this same Starlight to arrive there tonight, since I would be riding home on the train he came up on tomorrow. We swapped information about our trainsets and crews, so each of us knew what to expect for our respective journeys home home.

I was inside the station when the train arrived from Eugene and sat back and relaxed all the way to Seattle, arriving a few minutes early.

Our train at rest. I rode the Waterfront Streetcar from 5th Avenue/Jackson Street to the Bell Harbor stop then climbed the hill to the hotel and just relaxed the rest of the afternoon, watching the New York Jets beat the Oakland Raiders 27-24 in overtime. After the game, I went to the AMC Theatres at Pacific Center to see "Beyond Borders" then went to the hotel's Six Avenue Bar and Grill for dinner before relaxing for the rest of the evening.

11/10/2003 I was up early and went to McDonald's for hot cakes and sausage then two blocks to Ralph's for batteries before taking a taxi to Pier 70 and boarding the Waterfront Streetcar back to the International District. On the way back to King Street Station, I stopped was able to enter Union Station's Grand Hall, where all of those Union Pacific and Milwaukee Road passengers waited to board their trains of yesteryear.

I returned to the rather dismal King Street Station, which may one day be returned to its former glory. I cannot wait to see it in the future.

The sleeping car passengers were checked in in at the check-in stand starting at 9:25 AM then ten minutes later, they were allowed to board. My new attendant, Roger Keilbach, welcomed me to room 5 in sleeping car "Texas". After I stored my bags, I photographed our train before noting its consist of P42DCs 117 and 113, baggage 1164, dormitory-sleeper 39018, sleepers 32091 "Minnesota", 32098 "New Jersey" and 32111 "Texas", Pacific Parlour Car 39972, diner 38056, lounge 33041, coaches 34093, 34504 kiddie car, 34116 and 34113. We departed on time.

A few slow orders for track gangs delayed us slightly to Tacoma, before we ran along a rough Puget Sound accented with whitecaps. I napped to beyond Kelso then enjoyed passing many freight trains going in the same direction as us, and a few more slow orders, before we reached Vancouver. We departed there on a yellow signal and proceeded out across the Columbia River into Oregon on this mostly cloudy day. Despite all of the delays this morning, we still arrived at Portland Union Station three minutes early, which was plenty of time for a fresh air break. During the layover, I met fellow Amtrak rider Howard Dean, who had room 11 in my sleeping car and was bound for Los Angeles.

We departed on time and met Union Pacific 5779 at Clackamas with a Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive in the consist, then met the northbound Coast Starlight running three hours late at Millersburg just outside of Albany. I had a 5:00 PM dinner reservation and ate a T-bone steak that was left over from the northbound trip stock. It was an excellent meal and ice cream was the perfect dessert. I enjoyed the views from my darkened room until the showing of tonight's film in the Pacific Parlour Car was announced, which was the very enjoyable "Bruce Almighty". Following a series of nice conversations, we arrived at Klamath Falls for a fresh air break before we left twenty-five minutes late and I called it a night.

11/11/2003 I was up for the day about ten miles outside Sacramento on the former Western Pacific and we arrived at Sacramento seven minutes before the scheduled departure time of 6:37 AM. The P42DC's were refuelled and I was in the dining car waiting for my French Toast breakfast then returned to my room before we reached Davis at 7:13 AM {6:50 AM}. I relaxed the rest of the way to Martinez on a beautiful clear morning with a nearly full moon in the Western sky. We arrived at 7:52 AM, a mere eighteen minutes late, but with plenty of time to make my connection at 8:23 AM for Bakersfield. This ended a very relaxing and restful trip on the Coast Starlight.

A westbound Union Pacific freight passed through just before my southbound San Joaquin arrived, bound for Bakersfield. I boarded California Car 8022, "Pitt River" and chose a left hand seat on the shady side of the train for the trip down the valley. We departed and I went to the café car for a large chocolate chip cookie then met the on-time westbound San Joaquin at Trull in the middle of the California Delta country. I noted that the former Amtrak stop at the Santa Fe depot in Riverbank was gone as it burned a few months ago. After passing several BNSF freights in sidings, we met Amtrak 701, bound for Sacramento, at Atwater, as we passed the Castle Air Museum.

I had an early lunch of spicy chicken wings before we arrived at Fresno for another fresh air break then departed on time. Just south of Thorpe, BNSF was adding miles of second mainline to improve operations on this busy section of their railroad. We met sister northbound San Joaquin 713 at Shirley just north of Hanford where I took my last fresh air break of this trip. Then, after we left Corcoran on time, we met BNSF 5397 West at Sandrini as we held the main and pulled up to the rear of BNSF 504 East, who then ran ahead of us to Elmo, entering Elmo siding behind BNSF 4957 East. We ran by both trains at track speed.

As we neared Wasco, we encountered more freight train interference, then upon our departure from Wasco at 1:29 PM {12:55 PM}, we had lost over thirty minutes since Corcoran. We then met Amtrak San Joaquin 715 at Shafter on the fly and with no further delays, we arrived at Bakersfield at 2:00 PM {1:46 PM} and I was off to the Thruway bus at Spot 1.

We departed Bakersfield at 2:23 PM as the last bus of the trio after the driver gave a very lengthy speech about bus safety and the coach's features. We reached Tejon Summit at 3:07 PM and Castaic at 3:30 PM then just as it seemed that we would arrive at Los Angeles in time to connect with Pacific Surfliner 582 at 4:10, since we were on Interstate 5 just south of California Highway 134, someone rang the emergency bell. The driver pulled to the side of the freeway before he had to ask every passenger if they were all right, since no one would admit to ringing the bell. We arrived at Los Angeles Union Station at 4:12 PM and after I retrieved my bag from under the bus, I called home to ask to be picked up at 6:00 PM at Santa Ana, before I went up to Track 12 to wait for Pacific Surfliner 784. As I waited, the Roadrailers of US Mail for the Southwest Chief were delivered to Track 11, with none other than the ever- smiling Lawrence Dixon guiding them to a proper spot. We exchanged greetings before he had to return to the yard.

This train arrived at 4:52 PM with F59PHI 451, business class 6805, café 6352, coaches 6403 and 6411 and cab car 6953, with Marti-Ann Draper as the inbound conductor and Hutch as the assistant conductor. I talked briefly with Marti-Ann before she had to leave and we departed on time at 5:10 PM. Shorty thereafter, Conductor Woody Lamberth took my ticket as he always does. Downtown Los Angeles was beautifully lit up as we passed the idle subway yard with all the cars sitting outside due to the continuing MTA strike with no end in sight.

We had a red signal at Commerce as we waited for Pacific Surfliner 581 to clear before we raced to Fullerton then departed both Fullerton and Anaheim on time, before coming upon a yellow signal at CP Maple in Orange, then a red at CP La Veta before Pacific Surfliner 785 zipped by on its way to Goleta. We arrived at Santa Ana on time, ending a very relaxing round trip to both Seattle and Tacoma aboard Amtrak.

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