DSC_0271_Bieber-water-tank
Feather River and Inside Gateway Excursion, 10-12 Oct 2015
Anne, Elizabeth and I rode the Feather River and Inside Gateway Excursion on 10 and 11 October. We had to catch the Starlight back from Klamath Falls on the night on 11-12 Oct, as some of the family had to get back to work, but the train made the return Klamath Falls-Emeryville trip via the former SP on 12 Oct.
Our train had a P40, P42 and 9 private cars. We were in ex-Burlington dome Silver Splendor, although we were riding downstairs in coach. I spent a fair bit of the trip enjoying the breeze in the vestibule.
We boarded in Sacramento. The train had taken the ex-SP Martinez Sub from Emeryville to Sacramento. After leaving Sacramento station, we turned north on the ex-WP Sacraento Sub for a quick run up the valley to Marysville and Oroville.
After Oroville, we were in the Feather River Canyon, the scenic highlight of the WP's California Zephyr.
At Keddie, we turned north onto the Inside Gateway or Hi Line, now owned by BNSF. WE climbed out of the canyon and contined north through Greenville and by Lake Almanor to Westwood, where the train spent the night. Westwood was having a craft fair and BBQ at the station and half the town seemed to have turned out to welcome the train. We had dinner at a pizza restaurant before toaking buses to Susanville, where we spent the night.
We awoke before dawn on Sunday, 11 Oct and were on buses from Susanvile to Westwood as the sky brightened. Leaving Westwood, the railroad runs through remote country with only a few crossroads in the forest. Eventually, the countryside opens up as the line nears Pit River and Lassen and Shasta become visible.
Not much is left at the old WP-GN junction of Bieber, but I shot the water tower and wye. North of Bieber, we encountered farmland as we crossed the ex-SP Modoc line at Stronghold and crossed into Oregon.
We had a bit of a delay getting onto the UP at Klamath Falls, then had a fast run north to Chemult, where the power was run around and the train towed back to K Falls. We took a bus to Crater Lake, which was a high point of the trip, an utterly beautiful mountain lake in the collapsed caldera of a volcano.
We had dinner at the Klamath Basin Brewery in K Falls before boarding the Starlight back to Sacramento. Elizabeth had work on Monday, so we rode overnight the route the excursion would take by day. I went to work for a few hours to work on a problem, then shot the train coming into Sacramento at West El Camino Ave. and then leaving across the I Street bridge.
If this train is run again in a few years, I want to ride it again!
DSC_0271_Bieber-water-tank
Feather River and Inside Gateway Excursion, 10-12 Oct 2015
Anne, Elizabeth and I rode the Feather River and Inside Gateway Excursion on 10 and 11 October. We had to catch the Starlight back from Klamath Falls on the night on 11-12 Oct, as some of the family had to get back to work, but the train made the return Klamath Falls-Emeryville trip via the former SP on 12 Oct.
Our train had a P40, P42 and 9 private cars. We were in ex-Burlington dome Silver Splendor, although we were riding downstairs in coach. I spent a fair bit of the trip enjoying the breeze in the vestibule.
We boarded in Sacramento. The train had taken the ex-SP Martinez Sub from Emeryville to Sacramento. After leaving Sacramento station, we turned north on the ex-WP Sacraento Sub for a quick run up the valley to Marysville and Oroville.
After Oroville, we were in the Feather River Canyon, the scenic highlight of the WP's California Zephyr.
At Keddie, we turned north onto the Inside Gateway or Hi Line, now owned by BNSF. WE climbed out of the canyon and contined north through Greenville and by Lake Almanor to Westwood, where the train spent the night. Westwood was having a craft fair and BBQ at the station and half the town seemed to have turned out to welcome the train. We had dinner at a pizza restaurant before toaking buses to Susanville, where we spent the night.
We awoke before dawn on Sunday, 11 Oct and were on buses from Susanvile to Westwood as the sky brightened. Leaving Westwood, the railroad runs through remote country with only a few crossroads in the forest. Eventually, the countryside opens up as the line nears Pit River and Lassen and Shasta become visible.
Not much is left at the old WP-GN junction of Bieber, but I shot the water tower and wye. North of Bieber, we encountered farmland as we crossed the ex-SP Modoc line at Stronghold and crossed into Oregon.
We had a bit of a delay getting onto the UP at Klamath Falls, then had a fast run north to Chemult, where the power was run around and the train towed back to K Falls. We took a bus to Crater Lake, which was a high point of the trip, an utterly beautiful mountain lake in the collapsed caldera of a volcano.
We had dinner at the Klamath Basin Brewery in K Falls before boarding the Starlight back to Sacramento. Elizabeth had work on Monday, so we rode overnight the route the excursion would take by day. I went to work for a few hours to work on a problem, then shot the train coming into Sacramento at West El Camino Ave. and then leaving across the I Street bridge.
If this train is run again in a few years, I want to ride it again!