Railsale - Bakersfield to Sacramento 8/6/02
by Chris Guenzler
Back on July 5, 2002 I was scanning Amtrak's Railsale page on their
web site and came across Train 701 for $10.80 to Sacramento and Train 704
for $10.80 back to Bakersfield. This was the new set of San Joaquin
trains that give a trip up the San Joaquin Valley in the morning and back
down the valley to Bakersfield in the evening. There is no Thruway bus
from points south of Los Angeles and the evening connection only comes to
Santa Ana. The only way to do this trip was to either take the midnight
bus to Bakersfield and wait for two hours or to drive. I chose the later
deciding to race the bus to Bakersfield. On the morning of August 8th,
the bus left Los Angeles at 3:55 AM and Arrived at Bakersfield at 6:55
AM. I left Santa Ana in my Geo Metro at 4:15 AM, crossed the Grapevine
and passed the Thruway near the Tejon Rest Area and arrived Bakersfield
at 6:30 AM. I went 26 miles further and still easily beat the bus. My day
had started out great. I even had time to get donuts and chocolate milk
on my way to the Bakersfield Amtrak station.
San Joaquin 701
We left Bakersfield on time with me riding in the coach "Pitt River" as I
enjoyed my donuts and milk as the conductor took my ticket. He put up my
hat check which he just slid in. I looked at it and discovered the
Oakland Maintence put this clips in the correct way while LA Maintence
put them in upside down. I learned later that LA Maintence is now a
national joke for this incident. With such as early start after last
night's Orange County Railway Historical Society, I decided to take a nap
and slept almost to Fresno waking up just south of the UP crossing at
Calwa and the passing of the BNSF Calwa yard. I went to the Cafe Car, the
San Joaquin River for a 7 UP to enjoy. Number 701 arrive on time at
Fresno before continuing our journey north. We crossed the San Joaquin
River before meeting Amtrak 702 at Kismet. We ran with no freight train
delays. The train passed Amtrak 712 at Ballico on the fly and outside
Stockton our train ran around a Stack Train causing us no delay. My San
Joaquin rounded the connection at Stockton onto the former SP {UP} to it's
stop in the middle of the street at the ACE {Altamont Commuter
Express} station. We left Stockton on time and went into the siding at
Tomspur to meet UP 2367 East. The train made the new stop of Lodi where
there was a railfan armed with his scanner and note pad. We proceeded the
rest of the way to Sacramento, passing the Siemens Plant with new subway
cars for Mexico City, some loaded onto flat cars for transport before we
reached Elvas Tower to turn west to the Amtrak Station. We arrived ten
minutes early.
Sacramento
I walked into the station to find my brother Bruce, who works as the
Amtrak agent there and we went across the street to Lucy's for lunch. I
enjoyed a French Dip sandwich as Bruce and I got caught up with things.
With Bruce having to go back to work, I went to the Downtown Mall to the
Century Theater where I saw "Austin Powers Goldmember" and laughed my
head off at several scenes. I walked over to Old Sacramento to see the
Railroad Museum had outside. The new arrivals of SP SD-45T-2 6819 and
Amtrak F-40PH 281, an old friend of mine where out where people could
take pictures of. I visited the book store before returning to the depot
where I met Bruce and said my goodbyes to him. I went out to the platform
to watch trains arrive and depot before our train came out of the storage
track crossed over and pushed into the station to load.
San Joaquin 704
I rode in the new cab car, Point Bonita which has Surfliner seats
since this car it was an add on to the Surfliner order for use on the
Capitol and San Joaquin Corridors trains. If one had a choice on a train
of Cal Car seats or these, I would always take the Surfliner style seats.
Riding the Cal Car north just reminded me of how great and comfortable
these seats really are. We headed back south with me enjoying Hot BBQ
Spicy Chicken Wings. We made our stop at Lodi and Stockton before our
train sat on the connector at the BNSF waiting for the westbound Amtrak
715 to pass. Further south we met 717 in the siding at Planda and went
around the BNSF 886 coil steel train at Le Grand. I just enjoyed the
afternoon ride down the San Joaquin Valley. The train ran to Fresno where
we met Amtrak 703 before we continued our dash down the valley. The sun
set nicely in the west and I took a nap down to Sandrini knowing that I
still had to drive back home tonight. The valley was pitch black as the
train sped onto Wasco before arriving Bakersfield ten minutes early. I
was off in my car back over the Ridge Route to Santa Ana arriving home at
11:50 PM. The bus in case you wondered was due into Los Angeles at 12:25
AM and to Santa Ana at 1:25 AM. If you figured that I was already in
dreamland by the time that bus got top Los Angeles, then you are right.
All in all, a great Railsale trip!
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