My friends Bart and Sarah Jennings from Illinois decided to come to ride the Race Train from Sacramento to Sears Point this year. Bart had never ridden this so I decided to do it with them. I purchased my tickets and was assigned to a seat right below them. Bart is a big race fan so I knew we would have a blast. I reserved two nights at the Vagabond Inn then got my Amtrak tickets via Martinez going and straight back home. I had a Train Travel Meetup Group get-together in Fullerton the night I return. It should be a good trip!
7/25/2016 I got up, 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 this morning. 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. Upon arrival at LAUPT, I walked to the Thruway Bus Plaza. My 5815 bus arrived at 10:20 AM and once we we loaded, Phase 2 of the trip started to Bakersfield via Glendale.
I had a United States Navy veteran sitting beside me going to Merced. The bus ride was easy and soon we arrived 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 chocalate chip cookie. I watched my Kalmbach Publishing DVD of "Colorado Railroads" followed by Yard Goat Images' DVD "Steam on the Norfolk Southern of Norfolk & Western 611, Nickel Plate 765 and Southern 630". That took me to Merced and I followed that with Ronnie James Dio's DVD of "Holy Diver Live" which lasted until Stockton when I detrained for a quick picture of the rear of our train.
San Joaquin 715 at Stockton. That took me to Antioch where a screw from my glasses fell out. I had forgotten my ear plugs and now had no sunglasses. What will happen next? We arrived in Martinez and I detrained where a nice breeze and a low-level San Joaquin train 718 helped pass the time. Capitol Corridor Train 642 arrived and I took a seat in the cab car for Phase 4 to Sacramento. The ear plug problem was solved when I asked my conductor on this train and he gave me three sets. I caught up on the story by Suisan-Fairfield and surfed the web to Davis then packed up and rode the rest of the way to Sacramento. I detrained 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. I 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. I 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 to get a picture of my train for today's ride to the Nascar Race at Sears Point.
This train had Amtrak 139 on the west end, Superliner coach 34943, coach 6461 "Pebble Beach", coach 8028 "Mad River", dining car 8808 "Cochella 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 I received a hug. I sat across from two of my favorite people in the whole world and knew this was going to be a fun train trip.
The view of the Sacramento station from the train.
Bart Jennings.
Bart and Sarah Jennings. Dave Arthur then joined me at my seat. Our train departed late and we would follow the Coast Starlight out of town.
We crossed the Yolo Bypass before we stopped in Davis for more passengers.
Rolled hay stacks on the way to Suisan-Fairfield.
We ran by fields of sunflowers.
We passed by many kinds of fields on the way to Suisan-Fairfield, our final passenger pick-up stop of this trip.
This old freight car has seen many different uses through its career.
We left the mainline with its 79 miles an hour track speed. 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 along our route. Before the Cordello Tunnel we spotted an old Southern Pacific section house, two box car bodies and an old outhouse. We would take a closer look on the return trip.
The inside of the Cordello Tunnel.
We had a Marilyn Monroe aboard and an Elvis Presley too on our Nascar Race Train.
The pond at Cordello.
We will leave the Sacramento Valley then climb American Canyon to reach the Napa Valley.
Views of 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 today.
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 of the train.
The train took a curve on this line.
We ran by another slough along our route.
Now we have vineyards on the south side of the train.
The train took the big curve at Schellville.
We crossed Railroad Slough.
We ran through Wingo and crossed a drawbridge the train shares with a local road.
The Sears Point Race Track is just ahead of our train. We then arrived at our final stop at the Sears Point Race Track where we detrained for a picture of our train.
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 would head to my seat to wait for the fun to begin which did not take too long. Now it was time for the Patriot Jet Team Air Show.
This was the Patriot Jet Air Team Show.
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