Coast Starlight northbound - views from the train?

[user 6862]

We are travelling the Coast Starlight northbound from Emeryville to Seattle on the 21 February 2018, what are the best daylight views on this route please? And is there anywhere on the route that Redwoods can be seen from the train again in daylight?

Thanks

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Here are 2 of my favorite photos that were taken from the same northbound trip last year.

Wake up early in the morning to see Mt. Shasta right outside the trains window.

The second photo is climbing the Cascades in Oregon.

I'll let others chime in as well but lots of great scenery.

 

[Bob Dylan]

In addition go what crescent-zephyr posted Jamie, the Water North of Klamath Falls along side the ttacks (on the left side of the train) has lots of birds of all types.

As you roll along the Willamette into Portland you'll see downtown across the River and Cross the Steel Bridge into Union Station.

The Crossing leaving Union Station heading to Vancouver,Washington is also worth a look.

Now that the Starlight is rerouted into Tacoma, you won't see the Narrows, but the approach into Seattle from The South has some nice views.

Also unless you're riding on a weekend there wont be a PPC on the Starlight, just a Sightseer Lounge or a CCC.

Charley Hamilton of Seattle is the Pro from Dover on this Route, Im sure he has lots of good tips.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

If the train is late, wake up early to enjoy views of the Sacramento River between Redding & Dunsmuir, and a little north of it. You have to be really late though.

Mt. Shasta should be visible in the early mornings if you're a little late.

North of Klamath Falls is Klamath Lake, with the above mentioned birds.

In the winter, the trees will probably be less of a problem, allowing for better views.

Redwoods aren't visible, sorry. They are only in some patches closer to the coast in Northern California, and some really small patches around Santa Cruz & Big Sur.

Crossing the two rivers around Portland, as mentioned above.

If you have the time, check out Portland station. It's a pretty nice station.

Lastly, Feb. 18 2018 is a Sunday.... and I thought the PPC days were Thursday/Friday northbound, so most likely no PPC

The annual PPC hiatus is coming. No PPCs January 8, 2018 to mid-March except northbound Thursdays/Fridays and southbound Saturdays/Sundays.

 

[KmH]

I would say railing along beside the Pacific Ocean from Ventura to Vandenburg AFB would be worth a look.

 

[KmH]

Here are 2 of my favorite photos that were taken from the same northbound trip last year.

Wake up early in the morning to see Mt. Shasta right outside the trains window.

The second photo is climbing the Cascades in Oregon.

I'll let others chime in as well but lots of great scenery.

Very nice images.

The light at Mt. Shasta was sweet.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Yeah I got extremely lucky on that trip. I would have totally missed Shasta if my Roomette was on the other side of the train. What a view to wake up to!

 

[fairviewroad]

Now that the Starlight is rerouted into Tacoma, you won't see the Narrows, but the approach into Seattle from The South has some nice views.

Actually, Amtrak trains are back on the shoreline route heading into Tacoma due to the crash of 501. Since Washington DOT is saying they won't return to the new bypass route until after PTC is installed, there's a very good chance the old routing will still be in effect in late February, when the OP is traveling.

However, it's somewhat of a moot point, since in late February, even an on-time train would pass through the area well after sunset.

I would say railing along beside the Pacific Ocean from Ventura to Vandenburg AFB would be worth a look.

The OP is traveling EMY-SEA, so they won't be on the train during that stretch.

 

[user 6862]

Couple of great photos crescent-zephyr, what month did you make that journey? Take it Mt Shasta is on the right when travelling north?

Our problem will be are we too tired to get up at dawn? to see it as we'll have travelled for 29 hours continuous before we board the CS at 10:00pm. The sequence will be Essex UK - cab - train - Tube - plane - bus - Emeryville.

Got all that Bob Dylan, we'll be boarding on Wednesday so no PPC, be in contact soon.

maxbuskirk, that's an excellent list to look out for. We were at Portland station just over a year ago and think it's in my top 3 of USA rail stations, just felt so comfortable there.

fairviewroad, did wonder whether we would travel the same route as that tragedy, we're quite comfortable whichever route we take.

KmH, we are travelling south from SLO to Van Nuys on the Surfliner later on in the journey, along with the Zephyr it's the rail ride we most wanted to do twice, so agree completely with you it's a fabulous 2 or 3 hours.

Thanks everybody yet again, couldn't do it without your generous input

 

[niemi24s]

While I've never traveled this section of track, it looks interesting on Google Earth and various maps. It's located about 44 miles north of the Chemult OR station:



From Cruzatte to McCredie Springs, the track drops almost 2000 feet in a distance of about 24 miles and goes through 15 tunnels along the way. The area is heavily forested, so I don't know what can be seen from the train. It could be one of the sections that looks more interesting on a map than from the train. Maybe someone here knows if it's worth looking for.

 

[zephyr17]

I have ridden that stretch many times and the views are great. The train rides the ridge for a long way and it is slow trackage (think the speed restrictrion is 23 for much of it). It is the highlight of the northbound trip and is mid-late morning.

 

[oregon pioneer]

While I've never traveled this section of track, it looks interesting on Google Earth and various maps. It's located about 44 miles north of the Chemult OR station:

DoubleLoopOakridgeORFRA.jpg

From Cruzatte to McCredie Springs, the track drops almost 2000 feet in a distance of about 24 miles and goes through 15 tunnels along the way. The area is heavily forested, so I don't know what can be seen from the train. It could be one of the sections that looks more interesting on a map than from the train. Maybe someone here knows if it's worth looking for.

I believe that is the area of the 2008 landslide that closed the tracks for two months, and forced us to cancel our trip that winter. Probably lots of open space, and good views, still there.

 

[the_traveler]

It is that area.

Shortly after entering the area, on the left side headed northbound you will see a large barren area. (It has been a few years since I went thru, so it may be different now.) This was the main area of the landslide. But it actually continued downhill, and because the tracks loop around the hill, it covered the tracks again at another location also!

 

[Maglev]

I have a lot of pictures of misty trees from this section--this picture is not very good quality, but note the terracing on the hillside above the locomotives (from 2006):

 

[caravanman]

Say hello to Romford, my old home, if you are setting off from Brentwood again. I guess you may not be going from SFO all the way to Emeryville by bus? Gosh, you guys have much more fortitude than me, I would be asleep long before getting on the Coast Starlight!

Have a great trip!

Ed.

 

[user 6862]

Thanks for the map niemi24s, that made that stretch easy to locate and now noted, more so now with the encouragement from Zephyr17

Hello Jennifer, you ready for your upcoming trip?

Easy to see what can happen at the mudslide the_traveller and Maglev

Hello Ed, Romford/Rumford was my childhood home town too. Used to love to be able to go to Romford market when the square was entirely cobbled and there were still cattle and sheep pens. Think you could buy anything under the sun there. Not too far from the East End and the London docks and all sorts were available or was that a child's imagination?

It's an 11 1/2 hour flight so sleep should be possible, hope so anyway. Haven't worked out how to do it yet but going directly from SFO to the Transbay Terminal to check bags, then off out to find some dinner maybe slightly away from downtown. Across the bay and if it all works meet up with a friend who 'should' be coming in on the same train having boarded in LAX. If we've all got it right we'll travel together through to Kansas City, stopping off for 24 hours at the Izaak Walton in Essex, Mt. It was mainly Jennifer that ordered us to stop there and to snow shoe. Now it's all booked we are so excited, imagine two oiks from Essex snow shoeing in Glacier, bloody amazing pardon my French.

Not sure if I'll make Shasta, Rosie said she wont even try to wake up but I'll give it a go, then it's all down hill isn't it?

 

[TiBike]

The Hyatt Regency/Financial district bus stop (the one just before Trans Bay Terminal) is half a block from the Embarcadero BART station, which is on the direct line from the BART station at the International terminal at SFO airport.

If you're looking to maximize your rail time, though, you can take BART to the Millbrae station, either direct from SFO or via the San Bruno station, depending on time of day. At the Millbrae station, you can take Caltrain into the City and Uber to Transbay, or if you want the real deal and have time, take Caltrain south to San Jose and then the Capitol Corridor train up the other side of the bay to Emeryville. Or just catch the Starlight in San Jose.

That's if you're into trains. Personally, I'd recommend BART to the Hyatt, and enjoy the City -- my childhood home .

Safe travels!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Amtrak Forum mobile app

 

[niemi24s]

There are 3 tunnels between Chemult and Cruzatte in addition to the 15 tunnels between Cruzatte and McCredie Springs, . The first tunnel is at MP 538 and is at the NW end of 5 mile long Lake Odell and 35 miles north of Chemult. Cruzatte itself is merely a named place on the USGS topographical maps and, like many other trackside named places in the American West, its only noticeable feature is a railroad siding. The siding at Cruzatte begins just after the third tunnel after Chemult. So there's a total of 18 tunnels between Chemult and McCredie Springs.

Most if not all of the 8 railroad sidings located between the first tunnel north of Chemult and McCredie Springs have place names recorded by the USGS. Here's a link to the USA Topographical map... http://www.mytopo.com/maps/ ...and if you enter "Chemult" in the search box, you can scroll along the route to see (topographically) what's along the route - including the names of all those sidings.

In addition to all the tunnels, there's a good number of snow sheds in that area according to the Topo Maps.

 

[chakk]

Uber or Lyft direct from SFO airport (they board on the upper [departures] level) takes about 30 minutes to the Temporary Transbay Terminal. BART is about 40 minutes, and includes an 8 minute walk from the nearest BART station (Embarcadero) to the terminal.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[user 6862]

Having a bit of trouble completely understanding the SanFran BART ticket system. Is it possible to buy a single ride ticket from SFO to Embarcadero or must we each buy one of the colour tickets for example I could buy a Green for senior and Rosie a High Value Blue?

Like to ride the BART system at least once TiBike, but the minimum value cards as far as I read the ticket information (the standard fare for this journey is about $9.50 each) makes it a lot more expensive than the standard fares.

We are only making the single public transport journey on this visit to SF so looking at the bus options for the same journey it looks easier and less money (#292 SamTrans covers the same journey about 10-15 minutes longer). In previous visits to SF we have always used the bus system which we have praised around the world as the easiest to use with the most tolerant and helpful drivers by a mile.

When we have dropped our bags at the Trans Bay Terminal we'll walk into Chinatown looking for dinner. We enjoy Thai and Vietnamese meals, are there any recommendations for either of those in the Chinatown area?

niemi24s, that really is a detailed topography map, thank you

 

[user 6862]

chakk, what sort of cost is an Uber ride on this journey, don't have an account with either at the moment but may need a couple of cabs at different points of the journey. Trouble is with any cab you don't get to meet many people in the back of a cab compared to a train or bus, we travel to see how the world works and mainly that's down to local people.

Thanks

 

[TiBike]

You can use a ticket machine at the station to buy a ticket with a value that you set, using a credit/ATM card or bills/coins:

https://www.bart.gov/tickets/sales/machines

So you can buy a ticket for the specific price of a particularly journey, $9.50 in this case.

 

[GiantsFan]

You can just buy single tickets, theres a fare chart on the ticket vending machine that shows how much the fare is to a particular stop.

The high value/senior/etc tickets arent available from a ticket machine... you have to buy them at a customer service center or online, and have to be loaded onto a clipper card (And you have to buy them at a high value, so way more than what youre going to use for one trip)

 

[oregon pioneer]

Hello Jennifer, you ready for your upcoming trip?

Not sure if I'll make Shasta, Rosie said she wont even try to wake up but I'll give it a go, then it's all down hill isn't it?

Mentally ready for my trip, but there is a long, long "to-do" list first!

It's not quite all downhill past Shasta. Klamath Falls is on a high plateau (and BTW, if you missed Mt. Shasta close-up, but are awake at the train station in KFS, you can see Shasta in the distance by looking straight south from the platform). After KFS, you are still going uphill as you head for the headwaters of the Klamath River, high in the Cascades. The country at KFS is east-side open pine forest and sagebrush/grass plains.As you climb into the mountains, the forest closes in. As you pass Chemult, throw a wave in a general easterly direction -- I'm out there, about 150 miles away in the Middle of Nowhere!

 

[TiBike]

The cost of an Uber or Lyft from SFO to downtown varies by supply/demand. Right now it's in the $30 to $40 range, but that changes constantly:

https://www.uber.com/fare-estimate/

Longer trips, like SFO to downtown, can vary pretty widely. But going from Embarcadero BART to Transbay, for example, is going to cost less than $10 under pretty much any circumstances, probably less than $5.

BTW, if you want to do some extra riding on the BART system, you can do so for up to three hours at no extra cost (unless you exit a pay gate). You can transfer between lines, go back and forth, whatever. Once you enter a pay gate, you have access to the entire system, with the exception of the connector segment at the Oakland Airport (but if you're at OAK, you can ride it back and forth for free). You'll be charged the cost of the trip between your entry and exit points.

EDIT: forgot to add -- if you're on BART more than three hours, it's not a disaster, you just need to throw yourself on the mercy of the station agent. A halfway decent excuse will probably work ("we're not from around here and we got lost") but worst case is you'd have to pay an additional "excursion" fare, which is about $6 these days.