Sacramento Station

[ora32]

Travelling From Chicago to Scracmento on the California Zephyr September 16, arriving September 18 at 2:13 P.M. My next train will be to Seattle on Sept 18 at 11:59 P.M. I will have several hours to kill, and I am interested in seeing the Sacramento Railroad Museum. Does anyone know how far away the museum is from the train station? What else is there is see near the trail station? The few times I have make inquiries, forum members have been responsive with great advise. THANKS!

 

[johnny.menhennet]

Travelling From Chicago to Scracmento on the California Zephyr September 16, arriving September 18 at 2:13 P.M. My next train will be to Seattle on Sept 18 at 11:59 P.M. I will have several hours to kill, and I am interested in seeing the Sacramento Railroad Museum. Does anyone know how far away the museum is from the train station? What else is there is see near the trail station? The few times I have make inquiries, forum members have been responsive with great advise. THANKS!

Old Town Sacramento is neat for a few hours, before you begin to get over it. It is right adjacent to the railroad museum. The candy store is amazing IMO. Good luck

 

[WhoozOn1st]

I am interested in seeing the Sacramento Railroad Museum. Does anyone know how far away the museum is from the train station? What else is there is see near the trail station?

You're almost cetainly referring to the California State Railroad Museum, which is an easy walk from the Sacramento Amtrak station. This link gives simple directions on how to get there from the station: Arriving Aboard Amtrak, and this link tells about other interesting stuff nearby, in Old Sacramento.

 

[Bierboy]

Old town Sacramento is a blast...good eating places (particularly one right on the river, but I can't remember the name offhand -- maybe Rio City Cafe?), and you could easily spend several hours in the RR museum itself.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

When you exit your train, turn right and walk to the far end of the parking lot and under the freeway. You will then be facing a big brick wall which is the east side of the museum. The adjacent Old Sac is pretty interesting,too. Last month, Sunchaser and I met during her layover between the CZ and the CS and had drinks on the upper deck of the Delta King riverboat while watching the river traffic float by. Before your trip, research the history of Old Sac. Very fascinating!

 

[daniel3197]

BEWARE of the NEW and very LONG WALK from the NEW SAC depot platforms to the Depot Headhouse as of last weekend 8-12-12. I am very very very worried that this ill-advised new platform configuration could easily DESTROY the Amtrak Capitol Corridor ENTIRELY and do a major HARM to Amtrak California - statewide ! This is because this is the ONLY TERMINAL station for the entire Sacramento area and ALL SAC bound passenger must NOW go thru this LONG RUNAROUND hassle. Any platform waiting in the EXTREME Summer HEAT in Sacramento can be very HARMFUL - DANGEROUS to physically FRAGILE people. Heck , as a strong teenager, I was wiped out railfanning on a HOT Day at the OLD Sacramento platform about 25 years ago. I can NOT imagine how anyone remotely close to senior citizen age could physically tolerate even a short platform wait on a 100 degree SUMMER Day in Sacramento. You can NOT wait just at the bottom of the ramp in the tunnel or you risk MISSING your departing train.

This new reality can only have very BAD fallout implications for the future of passenger rail in California - politically and financially. Our poor and hurting country (USA) needs to be a LOT MORE than an amusement park and PLAYGROUND for Billionaires and their “investments” !! We ordinary folks need and deserve for our needs to come FIRST !!

Here is an EXCELLENT Youtube video showing the NEW CONFIGURATION at the SAC depot and platform cutover:

 

[conductor_sac]

I am tired of hearing everybody complain and moan. Its no longer walk than at LA union station, or countless others. Its a much better platform design than the old ones, and once finished will be much more user friendly. There are new fuel islands to eliminate the expense of a fuel truck, a center, non-passenger service platform for baggage and mechanical services. The platforms are well lit, have a better pa system, and have very clean signage. It also means that Sacramento will be offering dedicated red cap service and will finally offer pre-boarding for passengers with special needs. It is a change from the old method but once the station renovations are complete will be very user friendly, just means those who wait until the last second to show up will be learning the hard way what on-time is.

 

[Trogdor]

Oh my, how did the people in the olden days ever survive without sure conditioning and such if you people can't even physically tolerate being outside in hot weather.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

Thank you for posting that video Daniel. I watched it and enjoyed it. A few comments:

There is a consist with a Dash 8 and a P42DC behind it. There is an engine shortage in California, particularly SoCal. Why was nothing done to remove the defective P42 and get it repaired to go to work for real? I'm not quite sure, unless there's a backup at the maintenance facilities, but even then I wouldn't want it deadheading back and forth so that it takes up extra energy to lug along.

Judging off what I saw in the video, the platforms look like a completely normal distance away for me, but maybe that is just because I'm used to LAUS as one of my home stations. I imagined them being much further.

I am not sure where the tunnel starts, but I imagine it's near the current platforms, which kinda just makes it awkward to walk in a tunnel under bare ground, but life could be worse.

I definitely do not think that this project was worth the money for all components involved, but I don't think it's worth complaining about either. I think that the people on here and elsewhere saying that this will axe SAC ridership are making completely unfounded claims, because not only will the light rail platforms get moved closer in the future pending funding, but you also gotta look at the better things that came out of this. You now have Red Cap services. You now have four platforms instead of three, with two outside tracks for freights so they don't disrupt the pax as well. You now have better refueling. You now have good signage (not sure if it was adequate before - had never detrained at this station), and you now have supposedly increased safety. Not great, but not a horrible project by any means.

PS looking at the distance between the tracks and the station, there is no way you could fit a nice stadium/arena in there. Once you account for two light-rail tracks and a platform, plus a station that they say they'll move over and then you demolish everything that's there currently, I see no way even then that a nice arena with adequate parking could be built.

 

[tp49]

I definitely do not think that this project was worth the money for all components involved, but I don't think it's worth complaining about either. I think that the people on here and elsewhere saying that this will axe SAC ridership are making completely unfounded claims, because not only will the light rail platforms get moved closer in the future pending funding, but you also gotta look at the better things that came out of this. You now have Red Cap services. You now have four platforms instead of three, with two outside tracks for freights so they don't disrupt the pax as well. You now have better refueling. You now have good signage (not sure if it was adequate before - had never detrained at this station), and you now have supposedly increased safety. Not great, but not a horrible project by any means.

I think you pretty much nailed it here. I definitely do not think that this will have an adverse impact on SAC ridership. Though I will miss being able to almost literally walk a few blocks down the street and be right on the platform. There is/was already a tunnel from the station to the old platforms which wasn't all that heavily used and the signage looks to be a bit better in the new passageway.

PS looking at the distance between the tracks and the station, there is no way you could fit a nice stadium/arena in there. Once you account for two light-rail tracks and a platform, plus a station that they say they'll move over and then you demolish everything that's there currently, I see no way even then that a nice arena with adequate parking could be built.

The arena was to be built on the SW portion of the parcel. The arena would not have been nearly as large as something in a NY, LA or Chicago but would have been bigger than the existing arena with a larger seating capacity and would have fit within the proscribed footprint. Parking was to be spread between several city owned garages within a several block area along with figuring that any available street parking would also be used for the purpose. One of the arguments was in fact that there wouldn't be enough parking. However, there are other cities where arenas/stadiums were constructed where the parking was not immediately on site but did require some walking to get to. That was to be the case with the Sacramento arena.