# Coast Starlight trip



## socalsteve (Jun 22, 2004)

My wife and I rode the Coast Starlight, leaving Saturday (6/19) from Seattle to LA. It was a fine trip, with a few glitches.

The first was that there was no Parlour Car. The interesting thing was that the crew members were the last to know! While waiting to board, I saw the train being moved around and noticed there was no Parlour Car. I asked a station agent about it and he said something about it being the one consist without the car. That was odd, because I'd checked in LA the previous Wednesday and was told there would be one. It turned out that the agent was wrong (he was also a butthead, it turned out, as he made several snippy-sounding announcements to those waiting).

My wife and I boarded and found our Deluxe compartment. While getting settled, the car attendant started his usual announcement. He talked about the usual stuff, then went into the information on how the Parlour Car was two cars back, etc. Clearly, he had no idea there wasn't a Parlour Car. I went down to tell him and he didn't believe me; only after getting out and looking did he see there was no PC.

It turned out that the car had made the trip up, but was taken off in the middle of the night because of a spring problem. The sleeper attendant (Terry Ray) didn't know it was off. It turned out that the Parlour Car attendant (Tony, who apparently is usually a sleeper attendant or diner attendant) didn't find out until late in the game either. Since it went out in Seattle, they had no extra equipment to put on, so we didn't even get an extra Sightseer.

So, I was a little upset, this being an anniversary trip for my wife and me, and the main reason we'd taken this trip was because we'd had such a great time before on the Starlight. But we settled in to our sleeper and enjoyed the trip out. I consoled myself with the fact that since we had a Deluxe, we had plenty of room to stretch out; we'd just miss stuff like the socializing and the wine tasting. We left pretty close to on time.

When we went to lunch, I bought a couple bottles of wine to take back to the sleeper. I figured we'd have our own private wine-tasting. It turned out this was unnecessary. Terry Ray announced about 2 p.m. that there would indeed be a wine-tasting, in the Dining Car. It seemed that Tony had hustled and gotten the wine and snacks off the Parlour Car and put them on the train. We were a little more rushed than usual, but we had a fine time meeting the other passengers.

After the wine tasting, we went back to our sleeper and watched the scenery go by before dinner. We did get off in Portland to stretch our legs. Then, more scenery-watching until dinner. I had the T-bone and my wife had the special, brazed beef. Both were very good, complimented by a bottle of wine I'd bought at the tasting. We both passed on the movie in the Sightseer, which was pretty crowded. Instead we played cards in the room until about 9 p.m., when we turned in.

We woke up just outside Sacramento. We went to the diner for breakfast, then resumed the scenery watching. I should say that although I brought several books on this trip, I got NO reading done, as usual. There was another wine tasting, this one while we were rolling through San Luis Obispo County. This one was more hurried than the earlier one, since dinner was going to be served early.

Have I mentioned that we'd been very close to on-time the entire trip? I think the only train we'd had to wait for was the northbound Starlight on Sunday. This was the reason for the early dinner. My wife had the pasta (in an Alfredo sauce) and I had chicken Montrechet (sp?). Both were good. Unfortunately, they were out of ALL the desserts. Oh, well.

We got out to stretch our legs in Santa Barbara. Because we were on-time, we got there ahead of the southbound Surfliner. So we had many confused people trying to board our train. Anyway, we reboarded and began the run into LA. I made sure to tip Terry Ray well, as he'd been very helpful throughout the trip. We actually pulled into Union Station 15 minutes early. Woo-hoo!

It was a fine trip, although not having the Parlour Car did put a bit of a damper on it.


----------



## AlanB (Jun 22, 2004)

Steve,

Sounds like the trip wasn't all that bad, especially since it ran on time, albiet without the parlour car.

Thanks for the report!


----------



## EmpireBuilderFan (Jun 23, 2004)

Sounds like the Parlour car attendant was pretty creative. It seems like it would take a bit of creativity to figure out how to use the Dining car to fill in for the missing Parlour car.


----------



## Anthony (Jun 23, 2004)

socalsteve said:


> It turned out that the agent was wrong (he was also a butthead, it turned out, as he made several snippy-sounding announcements to those waiting).


I wonder if we are thinking of the same agent! :lol: There is a guy at LAX that I always somehow get stuck with at the ticket window (EVERY TIME), who cannot for the life of him process a business class Surfliner upgrade properly. He is rude and makes me feel like I am bothering him by approaching the window. :angry:

I won't repeat his name here, but it is a common, short four-letter abbreviation of a longer, common name, both starting with "M". :lol:


----------



## battalion51 (Jun 23, 2004)

There are two I can think of Anthony.  :huh:


----------



## socalsteve (Jun 25, 2004)

> I wonder if we are thinking of the same agent


No, this guy was in Seattle. I forget his name. Basically, he seemed pretty annoyed that he had to work and that customer service was part of his job. If I'd been his boss and heard the way he talked to passengers, he'd be loading baggage in Havre, Montana!


----------



## EmpireBuilderFan (Jun 25, 2004)

socalsteve said:


> If I'd been his boss and heard the way he talked to passengers, he'd be loading baggage in Havre, Montana!


I hope not! The agents are pretty good in Havre (besides, I would have to deal with him, and I don't want that.  )


----------



## frank (Jun 28, 2004)

Havre? Not Havre! If you're going to punish the guy send him to Wolf Point or Williston in January!

That time of the year, the temp reaches absolute zero, the point at which molecules themselves stop whining. Any human out of doors for more than 3.3 seconds develops Seasonal Turret Syndrome, a little known affliction where folks involuntarily spew long strings of profanities with no commas or breaks between them whatsoever.

That'll teach him!

Frank

PS.

About to head out on the Empire once again. Deluxes R/T to the coast. No wine tastings as on the Coast Starlight, but a six pack in a cooler in the room will suffice.


----------

