quick loop report. we got on old wp (i believe) trackage out of oakland. climbed altamont pass. a few railfans out on the pass taking pics of us. wyeing the train at lathrop was fun though took a while. we were then about an hour late but a conductor promised us that "fasten your seatbelts, now we are going to fly" and we pretty much did. we went not on the old sp (the route of the san joaquins) but on the old wp. stopped for a quick crew change in bakersfield. then up into the mountains. beautiful green hills as we climbed the switchbacks. was a little worried it might get dark on us but we had plenty of light. would recommend the early dinner time(5 pm) or just skipping dinner if you want to take pics. the best photo ops, imho, are climbing the east side of the pass. the loop is beyond cool but hard to shoot from the train. lots of railfans at the loop and chasing us down the west side. great ride. yarrow and i spend the day in la today then take the swc to raton tonight. spend the night and start the journey by the coast route back to spk
Apparently you were on the same train as we were.
So here's our take on the trip.
We left Oakland about 20 minutes late and traveled down the usual CS route until past Fremont, where we switched to a short trackage leading to Niles Junction, where we picked up the old Western Pacific route through Niles Canyon, past Pleasanton and Livermore, and then through and over the Altamont Pass into the San Joaquin Valley near Tracy. This route is now used by the ACE commuter trains running between San Jose, Fremont, Pleasanton/Livermore, and Tracy/Stockton. Because of the recent rains, the hills were awash in green with a hint of California poppies (the state flower) along the right-of-way. For those taking the detour next week, the poppies should be out in all of their orange-hued glory. Because the tracks roll twist and turn through rugged terrain, unlike the much newer Interstates, the scenery is still predominantly rural and dotted with oaks through Niles Canyon and Altamont Pass, providing a view into the past when much of California's coastal foothills were yet undeveloped and used mostly for ranching. You still see a few old ranch structures here and there. It's pretty but not spectacular, similar in many ways to the landscape you see on the normal route of the CS particularly between Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo.
Even though Western Pacific was taken over by the old SP three decades ago (and now all of it is UP), there is no direct cut-off from the WP tracks eastbound to the southbound UP/ne SP at Lathrop, where all the tracks intersect. Apparently there is so little traffic in that direction, it's not needed. So we had to switch to the northbound track, then back up onto an eastbound track, then finally move back to the southbound UP track, in a laborious wye operation that took 45 minutes or so.
We then moved fairly consistently at 60-65 down the SP trackage in the San Joaquin Valley, paralleling the old US 99, now California State 99, except where the freeway curved westward around the various cities and we continued through the heart of the downtowns of each valley town. The landscape all the way to Bakersfield was a kaleidoscope of the old and new: rundown migrant farmworker camps, new tract housing, dilapidated downtown areas, strip malls ad nauseum, and farm fields as far as you could see, except in the urban centers, growing an unbelievable number of different crops. They don't call California's Central Valley the nation's vegetable and fruit garden for lack of good reason. The SP landscape is more varied than the BNSF routing that the San Joaquins take, since the SP line runs through all the major valley towns as well as farmland.
In Bakersfield, perhaps because we didn't get there until 4:45 p.m., the smoking break and leg stretch promised by the conducting crew from Oakland to Bakersfield failed to materialized once the new crew boarded, and we took off up to the Tehachapis within 10 minutes. Good thing we did, because sunlight faded at the point where we reached the town of Tehachapi at the summit. But we had spectacular vistas all the way from Bakersfield through the twisting switchbacks and tunnels as we climbed to 4,000 feet and the summit at the town. It is California landscape basically unchanged (i.e. undeveloped and unspoiled) for more than a century. With each twist and turn up the grade eastbound, you are privy to unparalleled vistas, in particular a heart-stopping view of tracks several thousand feet below where you and the train had chugged minutes prior. One of the passengers in the Parlor Car had with him a highly detailed map of the Tehachapi line segment between Bakersfield and Mojave, complete with elevations, mile post data, and speed restrictions, which helped everyone immensely in anticipating photo opportunities. The loop itself is certainly impressive--especially when you take photos of the track directly below you that comes out of the loop tunnel-- but in our opinion, the climb up the west side to the loop and the summit is truly the highlight, and unexpected. You just do not anticipate that the laborious climb up the mountains will provide such awe-inspiring scenery.
While the train passes through Soledad Canyon after dark, there was on Thursday, and may still be next week, a night-time movie remote location shooting in the canyon. Look for sudden bright arc lights and a dozen or more movie trailers down in the canyon from the left side of the train!
The engineer between Bakersfield and LA made up almost an hour and we arrived in LAUS at 9:35 p.m. The Amtrak website train status had us, at various points in the day, arriving in LA at 9:16 p.m., then 10:14 p.m., and even in a final update at 8:51 p.m. The on-board supervisor laughed at all the estimates, saying that Amtrak operations couldn't possibly have an idea because the engineer and conductor had no idea of the time it was going to take!
All in all, a ride worth taking.
One note about the train itself. The Parlor Car attendant was a bit fussy about not having passengers sit in the dining area to sightsee. That eliminates a lot of seats for sightseeing, and while the train was not crowded, some sleeping car passengers ended up using the SSL as a result. Maybe it just depends on the particular attendant on a given trip?
