The wife and I completed our journey from BFD to EMY and back. Thanks to Mr Amtraxmaniac's for his advice on parking at the BFD station lot. We were concerned about the temptation that our beat up rusted out '88 civic might present to the local thugs so we drove the Ridgeline instead. The trip down was smooth, comfortable, on time and full. The return trip started out 2 hours late due to mechanical problems. We were boarded on to replacement equipment whose air conditioning and toilet facilities began to malfunction soon after the journey began. This train was full as well. The thought of crossing California's central valley without air conditioning or working toilets will keep me in nightmares for a long time. The wife said she may never travel by train again, I'm sure gonna miss her. While waiting for the replacement equipment to show up I had a chance to see both the CZ and the Starlight which had a parlour car, the Napa Valley I believe. I will post a link to the photos I took but be warned the windows were dirty and the photographer was quite the novice with his K100D.
Some interesting pictures. I especially enjoyed your views of the Transamerica Tower. My father worked for Pereira & Luckman and I believe that was a design that knocked around the office for awhile before someone had the bright idea of adding the "wings" for the elevator shafts freeing up usable space on the higher floors. The way my father told the story it was originally supposed to be built in Los Angeles. He also had great tales about the Theme Building at LAX but they may well be apocryphal. To keep this "on track" he also worked on the current Madison Square Garden but was NOT responsible for the demolition of Penn Station!
Frank in dark and cool SBA
Posted by RRRICH (Member # 1418) on :
Great pictures, Cubzo!!! Thanks for sharing them!
Posted by RR4me (Member # 6052) on :
A nice picture album. I've actually been in the Cressey store, and I'm pleased you didn't ignore the Denair/Turlock Amtrak "station" in your photos!