June 7 flew into San Francisco and took BART up to Richmond, CA. Wound up spending nearly two hours on the platform in the gathering dusk and fending off panhandlers looking for BART fare. My Capitol Corridor train finally arrives one hour late (having been held near Hayward for an hour while police searched for the culprit who fired rifle shots at an earlier UP freight train). It was a pleasant and mostly empty train which finally pulled in about 8:15pm. I enjoyed my ride to Sacramento and made my way over to the Vagabond Inn. This hotel is reasonably priced (for a downtown hotel), staffed by pleasant people, and located within just blocks of most anything an arriving rail passenger might need. Anyone who is planning a rail trip to Sacramento would be advised to look into this hotel.

June 8......visited the California State Railroad Museum.....one of the best anywhere....and the only place to experience an SP articulated cab-forward locomotive.

June 9......boarded Amtrak's eastbound California Zephyr. I'm in standard room 12 (that's downstairs) of the 0632 sleeper. We're right behind the transition sleeper and I note that there are now some revenue passengers with space in the transition car. First class space is mostly full upon departure from Sacramento.

Here's what wasn't so good........duct tape covering a protuding screw of some sort on the stairwell of my sleeper.......and that darned corrugated metal wall board that has turned up in some of the Superliner I sleepers.

Service in the diner.....there were only two waiters.....one for each end....working this trip. Seems like I've seen four on previous trips. The guy working the end nearest the sleepers was particularly gruff.....not to mention slower than molasses and forgetful too.

Menu cycle #5 or whatever......the T-Bone steak was thin and tough. The vegetables were cold and the french toast the next morning arrived partially frozen in the middle.......microwave issues? Fortunately my second night they had a boneless beef rib special which was actually better than the steak.

Smokers hiding in the bathrooms. It has been forecast here folks. Doing away with the little smoking rooms has driven the smokers into the closet.....er....the bathrooms. Some crews are sympathetic and look the other way, others will put a smoker off the train if caught. One pair of bathroom smokers got the heave-ho somewhere in rural Wyoming (this was one of the detoured Zephyrs) before UP allowed an unscheduled smoking stop at the old Laramie station where a platform is still in place.

I don't smoke but I do feel that there ought to be a self-contained space for those who do. Keeping the trains near on-time is hard enough without making smoking stops and I am sure that most Amtrak crews would just as soon not have to patrol the bathrooms on the western long-haul trains.

Here's what was good.......the trip over the Sierra Nevadas, the stretch stop in Reno...with the shoofly in place the Reno stop is now made where passengers can get off and stretch (or smoke) without having to tresspass on UP's platform and active yard in Sparks.

Weber Canyon by daylight. SNOW (on June 10) in Evanston, WY. Meeting strangers in the diner. Dodging freights on Sherman Hill. Seeing the remains of the infamous Borie (outpost) station. Getting off the train in Denver and making my way to the hotel.

June 11.....caught the bus to the airport and rented a car. Drove to Georgetown and rode the Georgetown Loop Railroad. This is a great little excursion. It's less than an hour from the city and the ride can be done in under two hours.....add one for the mine tour. I hope that the contractual disagreements are resolved and that this historic piece of railroad continues to operate beyond this summer. It is a gem. Dress warmly though....it's usually surprisingly chilly in Silver Plume.

I left Silver Plume and drove west for 30 miles, left the interstate, and drove down to Leadville. The scenic railroad there looks really interesting but I've missed the train for today and, besides, if I wait then I have an excuse to come back to Colorado.

I continue driving down US 24 and check out the gathering rust on the parallel UP Tennessee Pass line. For a route that has essentially been out-of-service for 7 years it looks surprisingly good.

I continue straight south on 285 at Poncha Springs and even spot remnants of the old DRG&W narrow gauge grade toward Marshall Pass. That night I sleep in a dumpy hotel in Alamosa......it's a national chain but I'll leave it nameless here.

June 12.....up early for the drive to Antonito. I catch the bus to Chama and spend another day on the Cumbres & Toltec. The first 90 minutes alone climbing Cumbres Pass out of Chama is worth the price of admission. If I only had a single day left to be a railfan, my first choice would always be to spend that day on the C&TS! We made it back to Antonito by 5pm and I poured my sunburned self back into the rental car for a three hour or so drive to Canon City. A shower, some lotion, and a bed at the Super 8 and I feel much better.

June 13......the grand finale.....a cab ride in an F7, my favorite diesel, at the Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad. Railfans.....check this out before someone bumps their head on the cab door and threatens to sue. With luck the engineer might even invite you to blow the horn! Worth the price of admission!!!!!

Off the train.....lunch at a sub shop.....and drive to Denver for the anticlimatic flight home. It was an airplane. It landed and I'm alive to tell about it!

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David Pressley

Thanks for providing the details. Glad to see your trip went ok without any major blips.

Did you know that the UP (former SP) junction in Sacramento, a couple miles east of the station, is called Elvas? At least one railfan magazine used to refer to "Elvas Sightings" when rare engines passed through the area. Sacramento also has a light rail line, which partly uses an old SP branch and parallels part of the UP (WP) main.

Denver also has a light rail line (RTD) which parallels part of the Joint Line. It is also building a new transit system (T-REX) in some freeway medians so if you return to Denver in a couple years you might be able to ride that, before heading up to Leadville.

Ooooops......I intended to mention Sacramento's light rail. That's one of those things within blocks of the Vagabond Inn which make Sacramento so 'visitable'. I made extensive use of the light rail on a trip to Sacramento a couple of years ago.

quote:

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Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman:
Great to note, Mr. Pressley, that you found redeeming values with the detour of your #6 via the Overland Route.

From one who has "been there done that", I knew you would!!!

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ACTUALLY, the now rare (and usually not announced in advance) opportunity to ride Amtrak over Sherman Hill was the primary reason for my trip. Everything else was added later to embellish the 'main course'.