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An Unexpected Trip to Oakland 2/16/2008 to 2/18/2008

My brother Bruce called the house on Thursday night, 2/14/2008, while I was on a train in San Diego to let me know that I could not visit them in Sacramento as their water bed had leaked and the house was in shambles. I returned his call after my mother informed me of what had happened and tried I to convince him to let me come up but had no luck. I then called Marty, my excellent night-time Amtrak agent and had her try to book me on the Friday's stub Coast Starlight, which was only going as far as Sacramento rather than all the way to Seattle. Unfortunately, no reservation could be found because the Coast Starlight was sold out. With that, I decided on a San Joaquin roundtrip to Oakland and reserved a room at the Jack London Inn.

Arising early on Saturday morning and after doing some household chores, I finished early enough to go to Irvine on Pacific Surfliner 564. I drove to the Santa Ana station, parked and a few minutes later, here came the train and I boarded the lower level for the 9.8 mile trip. While underway, I noticed that the road shoofly at Jeffrey Road was still not open. The train arrived at Irvine early and I crossed over the pedestrian bridge to Track One.

The train rolled in on time, I boarded the cab car and watched my Million Mile DVD on the way to Los Angeles as we stopped at Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim and Fullerton before the final sprint to LAUPT where I detrained and walked down the platform for a picture.

The Coast Starlight stub train awaiting its departure time for the trip only as far as Sacramento. I walked down into the tunnel then out to the North Bus Plaza to wait for the boarding of the Thruway Bus to Bakersfield. At 10:20 AM, they started loading the buses and I called Let's Talk Trains, the Internet Radio Show, and gave my current rail mileage and the miles needed for a Million Mile Amtrak trip. Our bus left first and went via Glendale as I read Passenger Train Journal, which took me halfway up the Grapevine. Next I listened to Elton John's "Cariboo" CD that took me the rest of the way to Bakersfield, where we arrived early and I made note of the consist and a picture of the train before the doors were opened.

San Joaquin 715 2/16/2008

This train had F59PHI 2002, California coach/baggage 8206, coach 8028 "Mad River", café 8803 "San Gabriel Valley" and cab car 8302 "Mount Shasta". I chose a seat in the "Mad River" and watched Disc 2 of my Led Zeppelin DVD as we departed Bakersfield on time and just west of the Kern River, met San Joaquin 712 then had a quick run to Wasco.

You could see the distant Sierra Nevada Mountains on the way to Corcoran, our first fresh air stop.

The Axion DVD player, which was available for passengers to rent, worked well. I tried Chef Mario's Southern fried chicken which was the worst Amtrak meal that I had ever eaten. The portions were small and any Southern cook would have been ashamed of the quality of this meal! The train stopped in Hanford then Fresno, where I took a second fresh air break before we departed on time.

Our crossing of the San Joaquin River on the way to Madera then we raced to Merced and went into the siding at East Merced to let San Joaquin 716 pass. After that, we reversed onto the mainline and proceeded to Merced station.

We passed the Castle Air Museum as we continued north.

The Merced River on the way to Turlock/Denair.

The Tuolumne River on the way to Modesto, as I watched a Jethro Tull DVD.

The Stanislaus River as we made our way to Stockton.

At Keddie Junction in Stockton, San Joaquin 704 from Sacramento waited for us to clear before we entered Stockton station.

The fresh air stop before our on-time departure and crossing of the California Delta.

Mount Diablo was seen in the last rays of daylight. I was watching a Queen DVD as the train headed west into the night, stopping at Antioch, Martinez and Richmond before reaching Emeryville. Most of our passengers detrained there before we made the final eight-minute run past the West Oakland Amtrak yard then down the middle of the street, through Jack London Square to the Oakland Jack London station, where we arrived early.

I detrained and walked to the Jack London Inn, checked in and checked my e-mail in the lobby before going up the elevator to Room 306. I watched a little of the film "Night at the Museum", had bath and made a few phone calls then called it an early night and slept very well.

2/18/2008 After a continental breakfast and checking out of the Jack London Inn, I walked to the Oakland Jack London station and on the way, Capitol Corridor Train 520 passed in front of the hotel. At the station I made note of the interesting consist of this train which was California cab car 8304 "Mount Wilson", café/coach 6361 "Angel Island" {Surfliner style}, coach 8008 "Stanislaus River", state-owned Superliner coach 34953 "Pacific Grove" and F59PHI 2007.

California state-owned Superliner coach 34953, nee Amtrak 34053 built by Pullman-Standard. I waited for my San Joaquin train to arrive from the yard and at 7:05 AM the train pulled in.

This train had the same consist as yesterday: California cab car 8302 "Mount Shasta", café 8803 "San Gabriel Valley", coach 8028 "Mad River", coach/baggage 8206 and F59PHI 2002. I watched the Chinese Steam DVD that Joe Harper had sent me a few months ago and we departed Oakland on time and soon stopped at Emeryville and Richmond before reaching San Pablo Bay.

The view as we rounded the curve at Pinole. A few minutes later we passed through the tunnel that led us to Crockett at the Carquinez Straits.

The train passed the old railroad dock ferry pilings at Port Costa.

I saw the Martinez drawbridge before we stopped at Martinez then continued on to Antioch before we proceeded to the California Delta, paralleling the Middle River area of the San Joaquin Delta. We met San Joaquin 711 at Holt before arriving at Stockton as I watched the film "Kangaroo Jack", then took fresh air at Modesto before we continued to Turlock/Denair. At Atwater, we passed San Joaquin 701 on its way to Sacramento then ran to Madera as I switched to "Monty Python Episdoes 7-9" and bought some lunch. The train ran to Fresno, where I took advantage of that station's fresh air break before we made our way Hanford.

After we crossed a dry Kings River, we ran to Hanford, Corcoran and Wasco.

I spotted Savage Rail GP7u 8611, nee Santa Fe 2797 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1952 as we left Wasco for an on-time arrival in Bakersfield, meeting San Joaquin 715 on the way. I boarded the Thruway Bus and we departed on time. Chris Parker called to let me know about a major mess on the Surfline then I listened to Elton John's "Cariboo" and the Partridge Family's "Greatest Hits". This bus driver took Interstate 210 to the California Highway 2 so we arrived at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal at 3:42 PM, the earliest I had ever arrived there on a Thruway Bus.

I knew Pacific Surfliner 577 would be late, but did not know just how late it would become Pacific Surfliner 582. The station board had it arriving at 4:45 PM and Pacific Surfliner 775 arriving at 4:15 PM. However, with my Amtrak monthly pass, I did not have to wait for Amtrak 582 since Metrolink 658 left LAUPT at 4:30 PM, so I would take that home.

The train from Oceanside arrived at 4:08 PM, I boarded the cab car and we departed on time and proceeded south to Norwalk-Santa Fe Springs and just before there, we passed Pacific Surfliner 577 heading to LAUPT, to turn into Pacific Surfliner 582. Our train paused at Buena Park before stopping at Fullerton and I called home, deciding to stay on to Irvine, the advantage of having an Amtrak monthly pass. We stopped at Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana and Tustin and I noticed that at Jeffrey Road, the new road shoofly was now open. We soon arrived at Irvine, I went up and over the bridge again and saw Pacific Surfliner 785 approaching so took the stairs fast to get a picture of it arriving.

I boarded this train just to get 9.8 miles towards my one million Amtrak rail miles. Very quickly, the train returned me to Santa Ana where I ended this Amtrak adventure.