View allAll Photos Tagged AmtrakCoastStarlight
The northbound Coast Starlight nears the Oregon border, after spending the last 21 hours traversing the state of California. The next stop for train 14 will be a crew change at Klamath Falls, in around 25 minutes.
Running well behind schedule, the northbound Coast Starlight nears Black Butte, California in summer 1994. Lead unit AMTK 501 is noteworthy - owned by the State of California, it was ostensibly restricted to use only on trains operating within the state. When the sun set on this day, it was running several hundred miles north of the Golden State.
On another one of those clear mountain mornings that the east side of the Cascades sees in profusion, Amtrak's northbound Coast Starlight screams across the Butte Valley. Aside from one 70 mph curve at Macdoel, the 13 mile stretch from Mount Hebron to Dorris is straight and flat, with a maximum authorized speed of 79. This morning, Train 14 is making every bit of it.
There are lots of little cues that date this photo to June 1986. The Starlight is operating with a couple of ex-Santa Fe Hi-Level coaches, in addition to the Hi-Level coach-dormitory. The Hi-Level coaches rode better than the new Superliner cars. For overnight travel, they were about as luxurious as you could get without springing for a sleeping car accommodation.
The coach dorm at the front of the train was originally a Hi-Level stepdown car. One end of the car had a stairway that descended to a doorway matching the height of conventional passenger cars. The one in this consist has not yet had a zig zag stripe added to make a transition matching the higher stripes on the Superliner cars. Speaking of striping, note also that the original, as delivered “Phase 2” striping on the Superliner cars still adorned with it is fading badly.
With five coaches, two sleepers, and the coach seats in the crew dormitory, this train has space for over 450 passengers. Good luck fitting a crowd like that onto the Coast Starlights of today - assuming you could find that many people that wanted to ride one.
Here are shots from each end of Dry Canyon Viaduct near Hotlum on the Black Butte Subdivision. On a summer morning in 1994, the northbound Coast Starlight is high above the Shasta Valley as it crosses the structure. An Amtrak engineer once told me that if the signals were all green and No. 14 was making track speed, the trestle was right at an hour's running time from the station stop at Dunsmuir.
A decade later, this spot at the north (SP timetable east) end of the trestle would be a favorite campsite for my son and me.
During the brief period in 1993-1995 when Amtrak's Coast Starlight was powered by General Electric's P32s, northbound Train 14 blasts through Macdoel, California. The next station stop is a little over a half hour away at Klamath Falls, Oregon.
The northbound Coast Starlight highballs Hampton, Oregon on Union Pacific's Cascade Subdivision. It's around 5:00 pm, and the train is roughly 30-45 minutes out of Eugene. If it were on schedule, it would be somewhere in Washington between Vancouver and Kelso. A post-midnight arrival in Seattle is virtually guaranteed for this train.
Looking to be a tad bit tardy, the Coast Starlight rolls through Cougar, California on a perfect summer morning in August 1994. As No. 14 passes over Deer Mountain Road, it's next stop will be at Klamath Falls, Oregon in a little over an hour. The grade is about 1.4% ascending here.
The other day, I noticed that Amtrak 187 was running on the point of the Coast Starlight. A check of the Olympia railcam this morning revealed that the 187 was still first out. So, I went down to the depot at Vancouver and met Train 11 for this shot.
Doesn't it just figure that when these GEs are on their last legs, Amtrak finally discovers a paint scheme that they look good in?
On one of those perfect summer mornings that often grace the Southern Cascades, Amtrak's northbound Coast Starlight highballs Grass Lake, California. The summit of Southern Pacific’s climb away from Dunsmuir and Black Butte is about a mile ahead.
There will be a couple of nice whiffs of eggs and bacon when the diner goes by. If you look closely, the Heard Peak fire lookout is at the top of the mountain on the right.
Just as the brush was starting to take over the classic shot near Cougar, Amtrak 14 rolls by on a typical clear mountain morning. It was May 1, 1999 in the Shasta Cascade Wonderland.
Just after Amtrak introduced the Pacific Parlour Car on the Coast Starlight in Spring 1995, one of the former Santa Fe cars nears Grass Lake in the consist of Amtrak 14. The Hi-Level lounges ultimately worked in this service longer than they served on the Santa Fe.
Roughly 25 minutes from a crew change at Klamath Falls, the northbound Coast Starlight rolls across US 97 at Dorris, California. The Amtrak operating crew went on duty the previous evening at Oakland, and will look forward to some bedrest after arrival in Oregon's City of Sunshine. They will return to the Bay Area late in the evening on southbound Amtrak 11.
This is the north end of a long, 79 MPH tangent. Before Amtrak took over crewing the train, rumor has it a retiring SP hoghead made a memorable final trip on No. 14, hitting 103 MPH on this stretch.
On a perfect Northern California summer morning, the sun has just made it over the north flank of Mount Shasta. We're trackside watching Amtrak 14 roll through the Devil's Garden. The Coast Starlight is passing through a lava flow on Southern Pacific's Black Butte Subdivision near Graham, California. If we were a bit closer to the track, we would receive a nice whiff of breakfast's aroma as the diner passes.
On this July 1995 morning, there's a lot to like in the viewfinder. The former Santa Fe Hi-level lounge car ahead of the sleepers is in its initial year of service as the first-class Pacific Parlour Car. Ultimately, the Hi-level lounges would work in this capacity on the Coast Starlight longer than they were used by Santa Fe in El Capitan service.
Other equipment on the train demonstrates updating going on at Amtrak. Class P40DC unit AMTK 800 on the point of the train is just a little over two years out of the locomotive factory at General Electric. The Sightseer Lounge, diner, and sleepers are Superliner II equipment all built within the last year and a half. Soon, new Superliner II coaches and dormitory cars will be delivered to revitalize the rest of the train.
At the rear, we can see a heavyweight private railcar. At the time, the Starlight had a fair share of PV moves. Few appreciated it at the time, but the Starlight was at the dawn of its Golden Age.
Amtrak's Coast Starlight had new ALC-42 #309 leading southbound through Felida WA yesterday, Apr 1 2023 (no foolin). #ArtGrossPhotography #Amtrak #AmtrakCoastStarlight #SiemensCharger #WashingtonState #Trains #Railroads #Railroadphotography #trains_worldwide #railfanning #daily_crossing #trainspotting #railsupremacy #everything_transport #diesel_locomotive_shop #west_coast_rail #trainsofpnw #pnw #train_nerds #trb_express #railfans_of_instagram #train_explorer #railfannation #railmarkable #newtopographics #documentingspace #lightroom
On the third day of my October 1985 vacation, I caught the Empire Builders making a meet on film. Eastbound Train 8, which I was aboard, has taken siding for westbound Amtrak 7. The conductor had opened the rear door to protect a pending reverse move. After the westbound Builder cleared, the dispatcher lined our train out onto the mainline, and it backed out of the siding. Note the small signal between the siding and the main.
I didn't record the site where this image was exposed. Thanks to some excellent sleuthing by J_West 7966, the location of this photo has been identified as the west switch of the siding at Malta, Montana. According to the Amtrak timetable in effect at the time, westbound Amtrak 7 was due out of Malta at 1:20 PM, and my eastbound Builder's scheduled departure was 1:40 PM. However, digital cameras and their time stamps were over a decade away.
The station in Malta is on the north side of the mainline. The memories have faded, but I presume that after my train was back on the main, it moved forward and made its station stop.
With private car "Virginia City" on the rear, Amtrak 14 meets a westbound Southern Pacific train at Shedd, Oregon. The Coast Starlight is roaring along at 79 mph or so through the longest stretch of tangent railroad track in the state of Oregon.
In the intervening years much has changed here, but one constant remains - the stench from the manure piles at the dairy farm in the distance.
Amtrak's Coast Starlight heads north in summer 1994 near Grass Lake, California. The next station stop for No. 14 is a little under an hour away at Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Amtrak 160 was on the point of the northbound Coast Starlight yesterday. Although the so-called "Pepsi Can" scheme was designed for the boxy lines of a GE B32-8WH, it looks very nice on the Genesis carbody.
In this image, the train is coming off the Columbia River drawbridge, entering the station at Vancouver, Washington. It looks like a rain shower will follow the train into the station.
Amazingly close to being on time, Amtrak train 14, the northbound Coast Starlight, arrives at Vancouver, Washington. It has just crossed BNSF's drawbridge over the Columbia River. The train made it to the depot mere moments before the setting sun made it below the horizon.
Delayed for half a day in the Oregon Cascades due to a blizzard, the southbound Coast Starlight pounds the south switch of the siding at Wocus, Oregon. The train, which should be somewhere in California between San Jose and Salinas, will be making its station stop at Klamath Falls in about five minutes.
In May 1995, a friend working for Amtrak advised me that the photogenic P32-8BWH locomotives assigned to the Coast Starlight would soon be replaced by P40 "Genesis" units. His information was that the change was going to occur around the first of June.
Armed with this knowledge, I figured I could get some last photos of P32s on the train when my wife and I were in Klamath Falls for Memorial Day Weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, all went well, as I caught a pair of P32s on No. 14 each morning.
Memorial Day saw the changing of the guard. When the northbound Starlight entered my viewfinder, it was drawn by Genesis units AMTK 802 and 801. Aside from a brief stretch when EMD F40s returned to the train, General Electric's P40 and P42 units would be the regular Coast Starlight power for the next quarter century.
In February 2019, a severe winter storm hit Oregon. Due to downed trees across the track, heavy snow, and power outages, a southbound Coast Starlight was trapped in Oakridge for 36 hours. The passengers and crew sat on the train for a day and a half, literally with nowhere to go. Oakridge was overwhelmed with four feet of snow, no electricity, and no supplies due to road closures.
When Union Pacific was able to reopen the Cascade Subdivision, a set of UP power towed the stranded Amtrak train back to Eugene. That summer and fall, UP cleared trees from several miles of its right of way between Oakridge and Eugene.
In many places, views of the track that were completely overgrown have reopened. This vantage of Minnow siding at a pullout on Oregon Highway 58 is one. Three years to the month after the big biizzard, the northbound Coast Starlight rolls past Lookout Point Reservoir.
The northbound Coast Starlight has just highballed Calimus siding in Klamath County, Oregon. This is a favorite spot along the Williamson River. Once the train passes the site of the former Kirk siding, it will be time for 79 MPH running all the way across the high desert to Chemult.
Fourteen miles from its regular crew change at Klamath Falls, the Coast Starlight pauses to take on a relief crew at Worden. Having crossed the California/Oregon state line a couple of miles back, the crew almost made it all the way from Oakland to Klamath on their hours of service.
I am friends with a retired Amtrak engineer that worked out of Portland. He said he had dogcaught train 14 at every CTC siding between Dunsmuir and Klamath Falls during his career. Today, crews on the Starlight work from Sacramento to Klamath.
Three Amtrak units in three paint schemes (P42 18, and Chargers 340 and 303) lead the northbound Coast Starlight out of Portland OR, June 7 2024. Note the new RR bridge being built at top left, maybe to replace the last SP&S bridge on the BNSF Fallbridge Sub at Underwood WA? #ArtGrossPhotography #Amtrak #AmtrakCoastStarlight #Portland #PortlandOregon #Oregon #Trains #Railroads #Railroadphotography #trains_worldwide #railfanning #railfan #daily_crossing #trainspotting #railsupremacy #diesel_locomotive_shop #west_coast_rail #trainsofpnw #train_nerds #trb_express #railfans_of_instagram #railfannation #railmarkable #rsa_theyards #railways_of_america #pnwrail #newtopographics #documentingspace
Dinner in the diner will presumably be starting not long after Amtrak 11 departs Albany, Oregon on July 5, 1993.
Amtrak ALC-42 306 was the first Siemens Charger to lead the Coast Starlight back on March 9 2023. Getting a right proper Portland in March welcome, a couple of hours late making it's station stop at Portland OR. #ArtGrossPhotography #Amtrak #AmtrakCoastStarlight #ALC-42 #SiemensCharger #Portland #PortlandOregon #Oregon #Trains #Railroads #Railroadphotography #trains_worldwide #railfanning #railfan #daily_crossing #trainspotting #railsupremacy #diesel_locomotive_shop #west_coast_rail #trainsofpnw #train_nerds #trb_express #railfans_of_instagram #railfannation #railmarkable #rsa_theyards #railways_of_america #pnw_rrshots #newtopographics #documentingspace
Detouring around a derailment on the Shasta Route near Redding, the northbound Coast Starlight crosses the Modoc Line at Stronghold, California. The train went up Union Pacific's Feather River Canyon route after departing Sacramento, and got on BNSF at Keddie. Amtrak will be back on its regular route at Klamath Falls, Oregon in about an hour.
On Southern Pacific's Brooklyn Subdivision, a short grade that peaked at Hito siding offered a challenge to westbound trains. Most of the route through Oregon's Willamette Valley was straight and flat, but Hito Hill was one of the few exceptions. Upon reaching the apex, trains entered an area of long, level tangents that continued all the way to Salem.
Late on a winter afternoon, Amtrak's Coast Starlight highballs Hito. The train will now be rolling at 79 MPH, until it gets within sight of the state capitol dome. I thought the GE B-32WHs looked best in a nose tele like this.
On a late spring morning, the Coast Starlight zooms through the Butte Valley of Northern California. In the days before CTC, there was a siding here named May. The next station for Amtrak 14 is Klamath Falls, the first stop in Oregon.
The train is in the middle of a ten mile long tangent between Macdoel and Dorris. Legend has it that in the days before Amtrak took over crewing its trains, a Southern Pacific engineer - making his retirement trip - hit 105 MPH one morning here running the Starlight.
Back when Amtrak encouraged private car business, PVs "Columbia River" and "Yerba Buena" are on the rear of the northbound Coast Starlight near Grass Lake, California.
On a clear July morning, Amtrak 14 closes in on Worden siding. The train crossed the border into Oregon a couple of minutes ago. Private car "Silver Foot" is on the rear.
Engineer Phil Gosney should have the train at its next station stop in Klamath Falls within 25 minutes. After arrival, the Oakland-based crew will head for the local Red Lion to rest. They will return home in the evening on Amtrak 11.
The Coast Starlight is living up to it's nickname today, the Coast STARLATE. Passengers on a tardy train 14 are getting a daylight view of Mount Shasta and far Northern California. Here, the tardy train passes over the looming Mount Eddy, near Weed, CA.
Running at about the same time as Southern Pacific's old Shasta Daylight, Amtrak 14 heads north near Calimus, Oregon in July 1998. The Coast Starlight's next station stop will be the miniscule platform at Chemult, around nine hours after the schedule states it should occur. In an on-time world, this train should be in the vicinity of Kelso, Washington. Instead, today it is passing the northernmost point on the Shasta Route from which you can see the peak of Mt. Shasta.
The reversed car consist and the late operation indicates that this set of equipment was most likely yesterday's southbound train out of Seattle. Clearly, during the night a derailment somewhere in NorCal forced a bus bridge between the southbound and northbound Coast Starlight sets.
Aside from the lateness, the Starlight was truly at its peak when this slide was exposed. We have three full sleepers, five coaches and the Pacific Parlor Car on this train. Comparing this train to 2023, you have to wonder - where did all the passengers go?
In summer 2021, a trestle on the route Amtrak uses between the Pacific Northwest and California was heavily damaged by a forest fire. During the period while the trestle near Weed, California was rebuilt, Amtrak was unable to operate the Coast Starlight between Klamath Falls, Oregon and Sacramento. On the north end of the route, a stub train ran from Seattle to Klamath Falls for approximately two months.
Somewhat amazingly, Amtrak Phase I heritage unit AMTK 161 became captive to this service. Every other day during this time period, it lead the southbound Starlight. I caught it at Oregon City, Oregon on a warm afternoon in August.
Illuminated by low light late on a winter afternoon, the southbound Coast Starlight slows for its station stop at Albany, Oregon. It shouldn't take the station agent long to load the checked luggage into Train 11's baggage car.
Amtrak 160 was on the point of the northbound Coast Starlight yesterday as it arrived at Vancouver, Washington. Although the so-called "Pepsi Can" scheme was designed for the boxy lines of a GE B32-8WH, it looks very nice on the Genesis carbody.
Amtrak 11 rolls through Jack London Square in Oakland, California on a summer morning. This train knows the way to San Jose.
The northbound Coast Starlight passes Elkhorn Slough on a summer evening. This train knows the way to San Jose, as that will be the next station stop.
Since leaving Los Angeles the previous morning, the Coast Starlight has been traveling within California. In about the length of a football field, the Starlight will enter Oregon. Those Horizon cars are heading to Seattle for use on holiday specials in the Northwest.
Just for fun, I took the Thunderbird down to the depot at Vancouver, Washington to watch trains. For once, I didn't have the oldest car in the lot.
Slowing for its station stop, the northbound Coast Starlight enters the third of the three states on its journey from Los Angeles to Seattle. Lead motor AMTK 10 is a quarter century old, having been constructed in September 1996.
It is amazing to think that once upon a time, the railyard at Dunsmuir, California was filled with activity ‘round the clock. In August 2002, what remained of the yard was a fine place for Union Pacific to park a ballast train on a quiet Saturday morning. The peace is briefly disturbed by a late northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight.
On a spring morning in Northern California, Amtrak 14 nears the former siding of Cougar. The train was running about an hour behind schedule. Assuming it has been running strictly on green signals, the Starlight is about an hour and fifteen minutes out of Dunsmuir.
On Labor Day weekend 1995, the northbound Coast Starlight rolls through Bray, California. The relatively short siding here had recently been removed, a victim of the Moyers rationalization effort. In just under an hour, the Starlight will be making its next station stop at Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Since a forest fire damaged a trestle on the Shasta Route in Siskiyou County, California, the railroad scene in Klamath Falls, Oregon has been a shadow of its normal self. On a quiet Saturday morning, the northbound Coast Starlight waits for the bus bridge from Sacramento to arrive.
On Memorial Day weekend 1995, my wife and I made a trip to our hometown of Klamath Falls, Oregon. Each morning, I rose early and drove south to catch a shot or two of the northbound Coast Starlight. It had been running with the very photogenic GE P32 units since fall 1993. A friend at Amtrak had told me that starting on June 1, the train would be powered by GE Genesis units. This was my last call to get the photogenic 500s on the train.
This shot was taken about a mile south of where the Shasta Route crosses the California/Oregon border. Northbound train 14 is emerging from tunnel 18. This scenic spot was a favorite area of mine to catch trains when I was in Klamath. It was less than a 20-minute drive from town, and it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.
After the P32s went elsewhere, I did, too - at least as far as the Coast Starlight was concerned.