# Bay Area EveryRail ‘Pilgrimage’, May 24-27: Part 1, May 24



## chuljin (May 28, 2008)

_*Bay Area EveryRail ‘Pilgrimage’, May 24-27*_

From May 24 to May 27, I took an Amtrak trip from LA to the Bay Area and back, with a goal of exploring every one of the rail systems found there. I managed all except ACE, which wasn't operating any day I was there.

This post is part 1 of 4, one for each day, which I will be posting over the next couple of days. Pictures taken this day can be found here.


*May 24: AmBus to Bakersfield, thence San Joaquins to Martinez; Capitol Corridor to Sacramento; CSRM and its Excursion Train; SACRT Light Rail; Capitol Corridor back to East Bay; BART to SF (**pics**)*

May 25: Exploring MUNI and BART, including South Beach, Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf, Ocean Beach, Balboa Park, SFO, and Obligatory Token Cable Car Rides (pics)

May 26: BART to East Bay, Capitol Corridor to San Jose; Exploring VTALR including Paseo de S.A., Japantown, etc.; Google and Apple; Caltrain to SF (pics)

May 27: Alamada/Oakland Ferry to Oakland; Coast Starlight to LA (pics)



I might have missed the first leg of my trip, and every one that followed, were it not for a hasty and well-organized equipment substitution. At around 12:30am, Mr. chuljin and I set out from home in his car, and had not been on the freeway 5 minutes when the car started making an awful racket and threatened to die. We limped home (the car actually dying at a couple stoplights before we discovered we could keep it going by double-pedalling so it had ‘extra’ gas while idling), where we made an equipment substitution for my own car, and got to LAX with still a half-hour or more to spare. It turns out, I found out later, that it was simply a broken spark plug. Whew.

Surprisingly, given the hour, there were many buses in the lot, but at first none of them for 5811, a realization delayed by the fact that none of them displayed a destination. 5811’s two buses arrived some 5 minutes after their scheduled departure of 1:25am, and I boarded:

*Amtrak 5811, LAX to BFD*

The ‘consist’ for this segment was two Coach America buses, in Coach America livery rather than the Amtrak California livery I see every day. Mr. chuljin waited just outside my bus window until it left around 1:45am. I had intended to sleep on the bus, but was so overwrought with excitement that I was awake most of the time. Despite being awake, or thinking I was, I only hazily remember stopping at VNF. A typical, uneventful, featureless bus trip. The only issue I had was that the seat pitch was uncomfortably small (I am 6’1”). We arrived at BFD a little before 4am.

My next train, Amtrak 711, was not due to depart until 4:55am, but fortunately the station was already open when we arrived. So I checked my bag through to MTZ and spent some time exploring and taking pictures of the station, until I boarded:

*Amtrak 711, BFD to MTZ*

_Consist_

_2015 F59PHI_

_6464 ‘Stinson Beach’ Surfliner/AmCal Coach_

_*8020 ‘Feather River’ AmCal Coach __**Seat 12*_

_8811 ‘Antelope Valley’ AmCal Diner_

_6961 ‘Point Arguello’ Surfliner/AmCal Cabbage_

Perhaps because it was the first northbound San Joaquin of a holiday weekend, this train was extraordinarily crowded. I shared a four-seater with two nice young ladies going slightly further than me. I intended to sleep here, too, but every time I managed to doze off, I was woken by a station announcement or the like. Around 8am I went to the café, where I had the breakfast croissant and coffee. The croissant is quite good for nuked food, but my addition of mayonnaise made it keep messily falling apart. I then went back to my seat and read and re-read the CC timetable. I didn’t spend a lot of time looking out the window, as there are fewer compelling natural or man-made features on this route than on, say, the CC or PS or CS. I have to admit a much prefer the Amtrak California to the Pacific Surfliners (which I ride as often as daily) in every respect (equipment, food service [except the lack of the jalapeno burger], etc.). We arrived in BFD on-time shortly after 10am.

I was next to go to SAC on 728, for which I had to wait a little under two hours, so I spent the time exploring MTZ and the surrounding area. Aside from just riding trains, another of my hobbies, if you can call it that, is collecting printed material about Amtrak and transit (maps, timetables, etc.). MTZ certainly has the largest and most varied array I’ve seen on offer at any station, so I picked up a bunch. One interesting thing I saw at MTZ was this sign, which says all one needs to know about the relationship between Amtrak and UP. Some 5-10 minutes late, just after noon, I boarded:

*Amtrak 728, MTZ to SAC*

_Consist_

_8309 ‘Mount San Jacinto’ AmCal Cab_

_6362 ‘Treasure Island’ Surfliner/AmCal Café_

_6454 ‘Unknown’ Surfliner/AmCal Coach *I could swear this was the number, but OTOL’s roster denies the existence of such a car._

_6462 ‘Moss Beach’ Surfliner/AmCal Coach_

_2002 F59PHI_

Not yet fully awake, I don’t even remember where I sat in this train. Shortly after departure, I made a lunch of the Cheeseburger combo. The cheeseburger was the usual better-than-adequate Amtrak cheeseburger. It came with fries, not chips, fries. These were the first nuked fries I’ve ever enjoyed, because of the special shiny box used to reheat them, and the fact that the attendant, in his own words, ‘knows how to heat them correctly’. I chatted with him a while, and told him of my grand plans for the next few days, which he found ambitious but likely tiring. I asked him if they had never had the jalapeno cheeseburger, and he was intrigued when I described it to him. I went back to my seat and watched the scenery go by, with a few occasional snapshots, then went back to the café for my famous cheese and crackers. This differs slightly from the Surfliner one in that one of the two Tillamook Mild Cheddars is replaced by an uncolored (white) sharp cheddar (I can’t remember the company). We arrived just before 1pm, only a couple minutes late, at SAC.

I explored the station, which is slightly run-down but still gives the impression of a busy and once grand station, then walked (by the strange afterthought-looking route under a freeway) to Old Sacramento, where, following p&sr’s advice, I temporarily bypassed the California State Rail Museum (CSRM) and went straight over to get my (first class [El Dorado]) ticket for the Excursion Train. It was around 1:20, and they told me to be back at 1:45 for my 2pm trip, so I temporarily delayed my CSRM visit still further and explored Old Sac, taking pictures and short videos. It was Sac Jazz Jubilee weekend, so there were jazz acts all over the place.

I queued up for the excursion train, which left promptly at 2pm, with me on the El Dorado. There were about 10 people in that car: a large group, all members of a single family, and me. One of the members of this family apparently led the group that helped decorate the interior of the El Dorado and reupholster its furniture. On the way back to Old Sac, two members of that group, a man and his young son, went out onto the open-air platform. Soon the conductor beckoned me out there and was trying to offer to use my camera to take a picture of them. It took the three of us quite a while to get him to understand that I was not in their party, whereupon he at last took a picture of me on the platform.

Back in Old Sac, I spent about an hour exploring the CSRM, then walked back to SAC, where I got an SACRT day pass, and took the light rail Gold Line a couple stops to 7th and Capitol, where I explored the CA State Capitol Area. I then got back on the Gold Line and continued on to the end of the line, Folsom. The morning’s lack of sleep having caught up with me, I was actually fast asleep for the last third of this nearly-an-hour trip, and the driver had to wake me up to get off the train before turning back. I saw an interesting station name on the way there: 'Watt/Manlove', which seems like it should be in SF!  I found the light rail here fairly similar to LA’s…clean and efficient, but unlike LA’s, goes to what seem to be useful places. Two interesting things I saw: no full-length high-level platforms; one must step up into the train (though at most stations there are high-level mini-platforms that align with a single door); strollers must be folded, a rule I saw brusquely verbally enforced once. In the over-researched pig-in-a-poke itinerary I’d devised for myself, I’d set aside a full hour for ‘Historic Downtown Folsom’, but it was less impressive than I thought, so I cut it short and headed back only after half an hour, during which I took a few pictures of Folsom, including an old turntable, the tracks leading to which seemed to have all been removed. I also had a Thai iced coffee from a restaurant close to the Folsom station, which had menu prices only possible with a lack of competition. I headed back to SAC, where I explored the station a little more, while I waited to board:

*Amtrak 749, SAC to RIC*

_Consist_

_157 P42_

_8021 ‘Kings River’ AmCal Coach_

_*8013 ‘Klamath River’ AmCal Coach __**Seat 1, one of the AmCal coaches’ famous single seats behind the glass*_

_8813 ‘San Fernando Valley’ AmCal Dining *w00t, I, like, live there, like, for sure _ 

_8026 ‘Petaluma River’ AmCal Coach_

_8311 ‘Mount Palomar’ AmCal Cab *I neglected to record this car’s number, but when I took Amtrak 727 two days later (and recorded the __whole__ consist), the engine and other four cars were the same as this consist, so I have to guess so was thie one._

This was what I’ve discovered is a typical enjoyable uneventful undelayed Capitol Corridor trip. I had another cheese and crackers, of course.  I also took advantage of the $10-for-$8 BART ticket, which I’d use on the next leg of the trip. We arrived on time at RIC, where I’d be transferring to:

*BART Fremont, Richmond to MacArthur; BART SFO, MacArthur to Powell*

Non-Amtrak trips will usually not get a separate bolded section in my trip report(s), but I made an exception here, as this was my first trip on BART. I found it terribly efficient, down to the useful cross-platform transfers between lines, and ‘futuristic’ (the reason for the quotes: as I said to my host: ‘BART is futuristic in a “this is what people in the late 60s and early 70s thought the 21st century would look like” sort of way. Imagine the movie 2001.') The synthesized-speech (using, it seems, 80s technology) train announcements at platforms add to this 'retro-futurism'.  I understand BART is in the middle of refurbishing its cars; that effort did not seem to have yet reached the car I was in, whose large and otherwise extraordinarily comfortable-for-mass-transit seats were beginning to show their age. Arriving at Market/Powell, I went up to the surface, and took a MUNI trolley bus to the day’s final destination, my host’s place in the Western Addition.

After catching up a bit, we started watching The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, but I dozed off in my chair, and soon my host and hostess woke me up and suggested I go to bed, thus ending the first day of this trip.


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## jackal (May 29, 2008)

Well-written report, and I'm glad you're posting this--our time on the Starlight seemed too short and we weren't really able to cover the details of your trip!

Looking forward to the next three days of posting from you!


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## RTOlson (May 30, 2008)

I enjoyed reading about your trip. I don't know if you took advantage of this, but Capitol Corridor's Transit Transfer would have let you ride Sacramento Regional Transit for free (once in each direction).


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## jackal (May 31, 2008)

Well, I was hoping to beat you to posting the story of our return trip, but as I'm heading to bed soon and I'll be busy all day, I doubt I'll get it done before you. Happy writing, and I promise not to steal too much of your material for my report! :lol:


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## jackal (May 31, 2008)

OK, scratch that last post--I buckled down and threw my part 2 together. Then you can't accuse me of stealing your material! 

Seriously, I look forward to reading yours and comparing our experiences. Great to meet you!


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## p&sr (Jun 1, 2008)

chuljin said:


> I queued up for the excursion train, which left promptly at 2pm, with me on the El Dorado.


Glad the Steam Train worked out! I'm looking forward to giving it a try in connection with my upcoming Trip to "Galesburg"!


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