Photo of the Week: 7/29/2011

Today's photo comes from last week in Sacramento. I woke up in the train station at about 5:30 in the morning. Funny thing is, the train isn't due into Sacramento until 6:35am. So the train had some time to kill, and some other trains came and went during that time. I took the time to step off the train, get a few photos, and stretch my legs. Here is this weeks photo:

This is my train, the Coast Starlight, train 11, in Sacramento. This is about the halfway point on the train's trip from Seattle to Los Angeles. I was not riding the train the whole way, I got on in Portland and got off in Davis, one stop past Sacramento.

The Coast Starlight is the only train on Amtrak's system that runs the ex-Santa Fe bilevel cars. These cars were built by Budd in the 1950s for Santa Fe's El Capitan, an all-coach version of the Super Chief (now operated by Amtrak as the Southwest Chief) from Chicago to Los Angeles. Budd built coaches, diners, and lounges with enormous windows for Santa Fe. Amtrak acquired the cars in 1971, and used them as the basis for today's Superliners. The Superliners, which include sleepers, run most of Amtrak's western routes. They are slightly taller than the old Santa Fe cars, most of which have been retired. However, Amtrak held on to the lounge cars, refurbished them, renamed them "Pacific Parlours" and put them in service on the Coast Starlight as first-class-only lounge cars. Features on these cars include free WiFi, wine tasting, and of course, exclusivity on a usually sold out train. I, however, rode coach and didn't have the opportunity of riding a Pacific Parlour. There is, however, a standard Superliner lounge car for the coach passengers, so I didn't miss out completely.