My friends Bart and Sarah Jennings from Illinois decided to travel to California to ride the Race Train from Sacramento to Sears Point this year. Bart had never ridden this and since he is a big race fan, I knew we would have a blast. I decided to do ride the train with them so purchased my tickets and was assigned to a seat right behind. I then reserved two nights at the Vagabond Inn then purchased my Amtrak tickets via Martinez going, but straight back to Santa Ana on the return as the Train Travel Meetup Group get-together was in Fullerton the evening I was to return.
7/25/2016 I drove to the Santa Ana station and parked in the northeast parking lot then walked over to Track 1 to wait for Pacific Surfliner 565 to arrive, which it did so on time.
Pacific Surfliner 565 at Santa Ana. CJ welcomed me aboard and after she scanned my ticket I was off on Phase 1 of this trip and upon arrival at LAUPT, I walked to the Thruway Bus Plaza. My Thruway Bus 5815 arrived at 10:20 AM and once everyone boarded, Phase 2 of the trip started to Bakersfield via Glendale.
I had a United States Navy veteran sitting beside me going to Merced and the bus ride was easy, soon arriving at Bakersfield where the train was opened and I boarded the cab car on San Joaquin 715 and went to the cafe car to get a hot dog, pretzels and a chocolate chip cookie. I watched my Kalmbach Publishing DVD of "Colorado Railroads" followed by Yard Goat Images' "Steam on the Norfolk Southern of Norfolk & Western 611, Nickel Plate 765 and Southern 630" which lasted to Merced and I followed that with Ronnie James Dio's "Holy Diver Live" which lasted until Stockton, when I detrained for a quick picture.
San Joaquin 715 at Stockton. That took me to Antioch where a screw from my glasses fell out and was not having much luck today since I had forgotten my ear plugs and now had no sunglasses. We arrived at Martinez and I detrained where a nice breeze and a low-level San Joaquin 718 helped pass the time. Capitol Corridor Train 642 arrived and I chose a seat in the cab car for Phase 4 to Sacramento. The ear plug problem was solved when I asked my conductor and he gave me three sets. I detrained at Sacramento and walked to the Vagabond Inn where Dave Arthur was also staying so we met and walked over to Perko's for a late dinner, then returned to my room for the night.
NASCAR Race Train to Sears Point 6/26/2016I arose at 5:15 AM and prepared for my day then walked over to the Amtrak station, took the long walk to the tunnel where I had my bag inspected, checked in and received my wrist band as my train ticket then walked up to the platform.
This train had Amtrak P42DC 139 on the west end, Superliner coach 34943, coach 6461 "Pebble Beach", coach 8028 "Mad River", dining car 8808 "Coachella Valley", coach 8024 "Cosumnes River", coach 8019 "Eel River", cab car 8301 "Mt. Whitney", coach 8012 "San Lorenzo River", dining car 8806 "Salinas Valley", coach 8203 "Bodega Bay", coach 8004 "San Gabriel River" and Amtrak 14 on the east end. I found Bart Jennings on the platform and followed him to his seat in the "Eel River" and when Sarah Jennings saw me and I received a hug. I sat across from two of my favourite people in the whole world and knew this was going to be a fun train trip.
Sacramento station from the train.
Bart Jennings.
Bart and Sarah Jennings. Dave Arthur then joined me at my seat and our train departed late and as a result, would follow the Coast Starlight out of town.
We crossed the Yolo Bypass before stopping in Davis for more passengers.
Rolled hay stacks on the way to Suisan-Fairfield.
Fields of sunflowers.
We passed by many kinds of fields on the way to Suisan-Fairfield, our final passenger embarkation point.
This modified boxcar has seen many different uses through its career.
We left the mainline with its 79 miles an hour track speed and from here to the Smart Track, we would be moving at steady speed of ten miles per hour because no passenger train had been on these tracks for a year.
Old passenger car bodies inside the wye at Suisan-Fairfield.
The Union Pacific still owns the first mile of this line so it can handle the freight business.
We ran by the solar mirror farm then before the Cordello Tunnel, we spotted a former Southern Pacific section house, two box car bodies and an old outhouse which we would more closely see on the return trip.
The inside of the Cordello Tunnel.
There was both a Marilyn Monroe and an Elvis Presley aboard.
The pond at Cordello.
We will leave the Sacramento Valley then climb American Canyon to reach the Napa Valley.
Our descent in American Canyon.
I had the Download our App! in my program and Marilyn gave me the prize of a 2016 Nascar Fun Train Souvenir $25 Gift Certificate to use.
The wye at Napa Junction.
Freight cars on the California Northern Railroad.
The Napa River as seen from the train.
We crossed the Brazo Drawbridge across the Napa River.
Train chasers and bicyclists were here to see our train cross the Napa River.
Water is always seen on the south side of our train while grape vines are on the north side.
Rounding a curve.
Another slough.
Now we had vineyards on the south side.
Rounding the large curve at Schellville.
We crossed Railroad Slough.
We passed through Wingo and crossed a drawbridge the train shares with a local road.
The Sears Point Race Track was just ahead and we arrived at our final stop at the Sears Point Race Track where we detrained.
Our train at the Sears Point Race Track before we walked to the race track itself up a short hill.
We walked to this gate, had our tickets scanned then I stopped at a store and used the gift certificate to acquire a pair of sunglasses so the final problem was now solved. I walked down on to the track.
Danica Patrick pit. I found my seat and it did not take too long for the program to start.
The Patriot Jet Air Team Show.