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SMART Train, 31 August 2017
SMART, the Sonoma Marin Rail Transit system, began service on 25 August. I was busy with work that day, but 31 August was a bit quieter, so I took a train ride, working from train for part of the time.
SMART operates on the Northwestern Pacific between San Rafael and the Sonoma County Airport, just north of Santa Rosa. It parallels US 101. The line had been freight only since 1958, when NWP's Redwood was cut back to Willits-Eureka operation, connecting with buses for the Willits-San Francisco part of the trip.
Before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, NWP ran electrified commuter train in the southern part of Marin County, connecting with ferries to San Francisco at Sausalito. The bridge quickly drained the commuter traffic to SF and the electrics finished before WW2. North of San Rafael, the passenger service was never as heavy, although the NWP used to carry a lot of lumber.
As logging on the north coast declined, the NWP's traffic did as well and eventually, the entire NWP was out of service for several years. It is still out of service north of Windsor and whether it will be restored north of there is anyone's guess. The line in Eel River Canyon is washed out in places and the Ft Bragg lumber mill, which provided traffic to the NWP via the California Western at Willits is gone. The new NWP runs freight between Lombard and Windsor, and now it shares the track with passenger service between Novato and the airport.
My trip was via Capitol Corridor train 527 from Sacramento to Richmond. This 0700 departure is the train I took last year when I had a job in Berkeley for a month. We were delayed shortly after leaving Sacramento because UP had let the ZOAG2 run ahead of Capitol train 520 and we wound up waiting for 520 to crossover at West Causeway betwen Davis and Sacramento. 520 had the Amtrak California P32s, 2051 and 2052, leading. They were going to the Siemens plant in Sacramento to fetch a Charger locomotive.
As I've done on other Capitol runs, I took some photos of ships at Benicia. Martinez and farther on along the bay.
As we were late getting into Richmond, there was no way I was going to make a tight connection on a bus to San Rafael, so I hung out at Richmond station long enough to record the arrival of Capitol 529, which had a cabbage car (ex-F40) instead of its usual cab car. I considered sticking around in Richmond to see the eastbound Zephyr, but that might have risked the bus connection, so I took BART to El Cerrito del Norte, where the Golden Gate Transit 40 route took me to San Rafael.
San Rafael depot has changed since I last was there. SMART uses high level platforms and has rebuilt what was some pretty dilapidated track from the NWP days. There are plans to extend SMART south from San Rafael to the ferry terminal at Larkspur, near the trestle where Dirty Harry jumps off the NWP onto the school bus in the first Dirty Harry movie, but for now, people wanting to connect to SF can catch a GGT bus to SF or to Larkspur and the ferry from there.
I was heading the other way, and after buying a Clipper card, got set up to record the arrival of the next train into San Rafael. The train appeared to be full from the crowd getting off and our northbound train also had a lot of people board. Right on time at 1129, our train departed and rolled north parallel to 101. SMART moves right along and in places where we could see the highway, we were passing some cars on it, even in the middle of the day. On the way back, the northbound lanes were stop and go as we zipped by.
Not all of the NWP is in sight of 101 and in some places we passed through cow pastures and wetlands with hundreds of gulls, egrets, geese, ducks and other birds.
We arrived on time at the Somoma County Airport station at 1236. Many people got off at Santa Rosa, the last station that had much around it, with those of us staying on to the airport mostly being folks just out for the ride. SMART's maintenance yard is at the airport. There are plans to extend SMART north to Cloverdale.
The train soon returned south and I rode it to Santa Rosa downtown, which has a nice old NWP station and some restaurants. Lunch was in the plans for Santa Rosa, then afterward, I looked it at the visitor center in the station before boarding the next train heading south, which I rode to Petaluma.
Another southbound train would be along in a half hour at Petaluma and a northbound came through shortly after my train departed. Between trains, I photographed the station, and checked out the visitor center in the Petaluma depot.
I wanted to get home at a reasonable hour, so I took the next train south. As we passed Novato junction, an NWP train was stopped and I barely got a grab shot with the camera. When we arrived in San Rafael, the nest northbound train was ready to depart and I photographed it leaving before getting on the 40 bus to El Cerrito, where a BART train was arriving as I stepped onto the platform. BART took me back to Richmond, where train 543 was heading west as I got onto the Amtrak plaform.
540 was due in a few minutes, and it pulled in on time at 1712. The BART train I had ridden was still in the BART platform and another BART train was creeping up on the block as Amtrak arrived. I can only imagine the frustration of people on that BART train who might have been try to connect to Amtrak to see their Amtrak train arrive as they waited.
540 was on time the whole way, and early into Sacramento. I took a few photos at the station, then was asked by the family to stop by the store on the way home.
It was a great day out.
.
SMART Train, 31 August 2017
SMART, the Sonoma Marin Rail Transit system, began service on 25 August. I was busy with work that day, but 31 August was a bit quieter, so I took a train ride, working from train for part of the time.
SMART operates on the Northwestern Pacific between San Rafael and the Sonoma County Airport, just north of Santa Rosa. It parallels US 101. The line had been freight only since 1958, when NWP's Redwood was cut back to Willits-Eureka operation, connecting with buses for the Willits-San Francisco part of the trip.
Before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, NWP ran electrified commuter train in the southern part of Marin County, connecting with ferries to San Francisco at Sausalito. The bridge quickly drained the commuter traffic to SF and the electrics finished before WW2. North of San Rafael, the passenger service was never as heavy, although the NWP used to carry a lot of lumber.
As logging on the north coast declined, the NWP's traffic did as well and eventually, the entire NWP was out of service for several years. It is still out of service north of Windsor and whether it will be restored north of there is anyone's guess. The line in Eel River Canyon is washed out in places and the Ft Bragg lumber mill, which provided traffic to the NWP via the California Western at Willits is gone. The new NWP runs freight between Lombard and Windsor, and now it shares the track with passenger service between Novato and the airport.
My trip was via Capitol Corridor train 527 from Sacramento to Richmond. This 0700 departure is the train I took last year when I had a job in Berkeley for a month. We were delayed shortly after leaving Sacramento because UP had let the ZOAG2 run ahead of Capitol train 520 and we wound up waiting for 520 to crossover at West Causeway betwen Davis and Sacramento. 520 had the Amtrak California P32s, 2051 and 2052, leading. They were going to the Siemens plant in Sacramento to fetch a Charger locomotive.
As I've done on other Capitol runs, I took some photos of ships at Benicia. Martinez and farther on along the bay.
As we were late getting into Richmond, there was no way I was going to make a tight connection on a bus to San Rafael, so I hung out at Richmond station long enough to record the arrival of Capitol 529, which had a cabbage car (ex-F40) instead of its usual cab car. I considered sticking around in Richmond to see the eastbound Zephyr, but that might have risked the bus connection, so I took BART to El Cerrito del Norte, where the Golden Gate Transit 40 route took me to San Rafael.
San Rafael depot has changed since I last was there. SMART uses high level platforms and has rebuilt what was some pretty dilapidated track from the NWP days. There are plans to extend SMART south from San Rafael to the ferry terminal at Larkspur, near the trestle where Dirty Harry jumps off the NWP onto the school bus in the first Dirty Harry movie, but for now, people wanting to connect to SF can catch a GGT bus to SF or to Larkspur and the ferry from there.
I was heading the other way, and after buying a Clipper card, got set up to record the arrival of the next train into San Rafael. The train appeared to be full from the crowd getting off and our northbound train also had a lot of people board. Right on time at 1129, our train departed and rolled north parallel to 101. SMART moves right along and in places where we could see the highway, we were passing some cars on it, even in the middle of the day. On the way back, the northbound lanes were stop and go as we zipped by.
Not all of the NWP is in sight of 101 and in some places we passed through cow pastures and wetlands with hundreds of gulls, egrets, geese, ducks and other birds.
We arrived on time at the Somoma County Airport station at 1236. Many people got off at Santa Rosa, the last station that had much around it, with those of us staying on to the airport mostly being folks just out for the ride. SMART's maintenance yard is at the airport. There are plans to extend SMART north to Cloverdale.
The train soon returned south and I rode it to Santa Rosa downtown, which has a nice old NWP station and some restaurants. Lunch was in the plans for Santa Rosa, then afterward, I looked it at the visitor center in the station before boarding the next train heading south, which I rode to Petaluma.
Another southbound train would be along in a half hour at Petaluma and a northbound came through shortly after my train departed. Between trains, I photographed the station, and checked out the visitor center in the Petaluma depot.
I wanted to get home at a reasonable hour, so I took the next train south. As we passed Novato junction, an NWP train was stopped and I barely got a grab shot with the camera. When we arrived in San Rafael, the nest northbound train was ready to depart and I photographed it leaving before getting on the 40 bus to El Cerrito, where a BART train was arriving as I stepped onto the platform. BART took me back to Richmond, where train 543 was heading west as I got onto the Amtrak plaform.
540 was due in a few minutes, and it pulled in on time at 1712. The BART train I had ridden was still in the BART platform and another BART train was creeping up on the block as Amtrak arrived. I can only imagine the frustration of people on that BART train who might have been try to connect to Amtrak to see their Amtrak train arrive as they waited.
540 was on time the whole way, and early into Sacramento. I took a few photos at the station, then was asked by the family to stop by the store on the way home.
It was a great day out.