KmH
Engineer
I live a 2 hour drive from the closest Amtrak station, in Ottumwa, IA.
I left home early so I didn't have to hurry, and so I could eat dinner in Ottumwa before I got on the train. Doh! They don't serve Mexican food on the train.
I boarded in Ottumwa, IA, Monday, October 17, and with the Zephyr on-time we pulled out @ 6:53 PM, a bit after sunset.
I was not able to book a sleeper berth from OTM to DEN because none were available when I booked my reservation.
Though the Zephyr had 3 coach cars, it only had 2 sleeper berth cars and it takes fewer people (some 42 people) to fill a sleeper car compared to filling a coach car (76 people).
When boarding the Conductor gave me a seat slip that only had DEN written on it, but no seat assignment.
I checked with the Train Attendant- Coach (TA-C) at the door to coach car boarding vestibule and he said, "Sit wherever you want".
There weren't many coach passengers so pretty much everyone that wanted it had 2 seats to themselves all the way to Denver.
Because there were so few coach passengers (less than 150) the TA-C had all 3 coach cars to service (some 228 seats).
Letting a passenger ride further than they paid to ride is a big no-no they call a 'carry by'. Train attendants only get to sleep on and off on a 6 day round trip of the California Zephyr, though they know which stops passengers will be getting on, and supposed to be getting off, the train. If I understand how it works correctly, if they have a couple of stops with no change in the passenger count they get to sleep a bit longer.
Once on board I fired up my laptop, stuck my GPS receiver in the window and started my GPS tracking software so I could see where we were, where they tracks ahead would take us, how fast we were going, on what compass heading, and at what altitude. So it was dark as we railed across Iowa, Nebraska, and eastern Colorado but I had my GPS to show me where we were and what towns we were railing through.
Next I got out my stainless steel, rubber bottomed, 6 oz wine glass and got myself some water from the water dispenser by the stairs.
After Creston, IA, I poured myself about 4 ounces of a highball I pre-mixed at home (Canadian whisky, a couple dashes of bitters, a cherry and a little cherry syrup) I call a Soho after a neighborhood in the Manhattan area of NYC my youngest daughter lived in for several years.
Of course Amtrak rules don't allow coach passengers to consume private stock alcohol at their seats or any other public area of the train.
So my private stock beverage was in a nondescript, 16 oz stainless steel container with a secure cap. The stiff nightcap helps one sleep in a coach seat.
If you're discrete and don't cause any problems, the on board staff (OBS) don't say anything even though it might be obvious what you're doing. Many coach passengers drink beer out of cans not available on the train, brand and/or size wise, with no problem. Indeed the guy across from me dug a cold can of beer out of his cooler bag as the TA-C was strolling by checking seat slip destinations. The TA-C eyeballed his can of beer and didn't say anything.
Swilling a big chug, or even a sip out of a mostly full 5th of Jack Daniels as a TA-C or Conductor ambles by your seat is likely another matter.
I had a sleeper berth booked from Denver to Davis, CA.
So I also had a 16 oz container of Vodka Gimlet, a nice aperitif before dinner in my sleeper berth, and a bottle of B&B (Brandy & Benedictine) for after dinner. I had a 16 oz, high quality glass brandy snifter safely packed in my carry on for drinking the B&B. A 16 oz brandy snifter is shaped so when it is turned onto it side it forms a 1.5 oz container. The shape and extra size of the snifter hold the bouquet of 1.5 oz of the beverage so the smell can be savored before a sip is taken.
I woke up before Denver (and sunrise) and walked my primary roller bag through the train from Coach to the sleeper berth car I would be moving to once we got to Denver (0532, Rm #7). Someone else was in Rm #7 from Chicago to Denver. Which is why I had to ride in coach.
We were pulled into Denver about 30 minutes early, just about sunrise.
Denver of course is a service stop.
They re-fuel the train in anticipation of the climb up the Front Range of the Rockies, take off the trash and used linens, wash the windows of the SSL and dining car, and do whatever else it is they do at a service stop.
I ambled from the coach car to the back of the train hauling my carry on's, caught the attention of a conductor and he lifted the sleeper reservation off my ticket.
I checked in with the TA-SC, Jay. Jay noted the dining car was serving breakfast, and once I got my stuff stashed in my Roomette I headed for the dining car.
I had breakfast in the dining car with 3 coach passengers, a young man and his son who were from Omaha riding the Zephyr to Salt Lake City, and a business man from Chicago also going to Salt Lake City.
Having a sleep berth provided me several benefits:
• On night #2 I had a bed.
• Coffee in the morning
• On the California Zephyr the sleeper cars are on the end of the 'consist' and the last car has a window in the back (the railfan window) that lets me take photos out the back of the train - even though they don't wash the outside of that window at any point on the trip.
But!
The Zephyr was pulling 2 private cars, and private cars always get hooked to the back of the train, so the scene out the rail fan window was a close following train car. It was a old, restored dome observation car, but the dome was in the way. Life's a beach sometimes.
So after breakfast I got settled in my Roomette as we were pulling out of the station and I got ready to start taking photos.
The first major scenic subject is the Big 10 Curve at the base of the Front Range.
My sleeper berth was on the wrong side of the train to get shots back towards Denver as we climbed the front range, but so was the rising, in my face, sun. So not getting shots back towards Denver wasn't all that big a loss.
The next big deal is the Moffat Tunnel and with the only front facing windows being in the engine at the front of the train, I was SOL for that too.
I took photos as I wanted to and the light direction and quality allowed.
The train windows are tinted so metering a good exposure was iffy even though I was using one of my Nikon DSLRs.
It's well known the Zephyr follows the Colorado River for the next 250 miles or so after the Granby, CO stop.
Being October the river was low and slow.
Gore Canyon - Eastbound
I last time I rode the Zephyr was the spring of 2015 and the Colorado was high and fast then. I need to next ride the Zephyr in the winter. Like maybe the winter of 2018.
I already have part of my next train trip booked (May 2017) but that trip is on the Southwest Chief Galesburg, IL to LA, the Sunset Limited LA to Alpine, TX, the Texas Eagle Alpine to Chicago, and the Illinois Zephyr from Chicago back to where I start, Galesburg, IL.
I timed going to the dining car for lunch after Granby so I would be done with lunch in time to shoot Glenwood Canyon as we railed through it. I haven't yet edited those photos.
We stopped in Glenwood Springs long enough people who do could smoke a cig or stretch their legs, and I got photos of the private cars. I'll get around to editing those eventually too.
The position of the sun made making good photos the rest of the day a pain, because so much of the time it was in my face and in the windows when there was scenery I wanted to shoot.
After sunset, I enjoyed an aperitif before dinner in my Roomette as I looked out the window at Venus, Saturn, Arcturus, and Mars.
We were between Green River, UT and Helper, UT following US-6 towards Prove and Salt Lake City as I had dinner.
After dinner I had a B&B and watched out the window of my Roomette as the engines and front of the train appeared and disappeared depending on which way the curves in the tracks went as we climbed up towards Soldier pass.
I lowered the upper bunk in my Roomette to sleep in so I could leave the lower part of the Roomette in it's Day configuration of 2 facing seats and a fold-out table. My laptop was on the table with my GPS plugged in so when I woke up in the middle of the night to visit the restroom I could see where we were. When that did happen we were just pulling out of Wendover, NV at the UT/NV border and close to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
I woke at 5:30, tended to my morning routine, got coffee my sleeper car attendant had ready - another sleeper berth perk - waved at O.J. Simpson's abode where he currently resides (a state prison) just before we got Lovelock, NV. I went to the dining car when they opened for breakfast at 6:30 AM PDST time.
After breakfast I sat in the SSL car from just before Hazen, NV to Sparks, NV. Along this part of the route we join the Truckee River and there were many places fog was hanging above the warm river in the cold morning air. The fog and yellow autumn tree leaves was quite pretty.
The Zephyr stops in Reno for a bit so we all can get out and stretch our legs a bit, and smoke if necessary. Out of Reno we start climbing the Sierra Nevada mountains, stop briefly in Truckee to let off/take on passengers and then start climbing again toward Donner pass.
We go through a tunnel that curves to the left and when we pop out the other side we are a couple of hundred feet above Donner Lake and can see I-80 across the lake.
Once over Donner Pass we start descending to Sacramento and the few stops between there and the end of the line in Emeryville.
Though I was booked to Davis, the stop after Sacramento, I had a room booked in Sacramento for the night and had decided to just get off there instead of catching a Capitol Corridor commuter train from Davis back to Sacramento. We got to Sacramento about 2 PM on a nice, sunny, 75 degree day.
Another sleeper berth passenger perk is baggage storage (left luggage) at Amtrak stations that offer it, and the Sacramento station does.
So after putting together an overnight kit I checked my other bags and headed to the hotel.
In Sacramento, us old people get to ride the bus system for just $1.35 (exact change only), so my room was not close to the station, and cost about 1/2 as much as a room across the street from the station.
The station is downtown and the bus stop was just a couple of blocks away. Easy-peezy, extra-cheesy. The bus stop for the hotel was a block from the hotel.
In the morning I got ready and down to the office in plenty of time to have a leisurely continental breakfast and coffee before heading to the bus stop to go back to the Amtrak station.
My return train was scheduled to depart at 11:09 AM PDST, but I arrived at the still being refurbished station early enough to make some photos and hang out a bit.
A portion of the station is cordoned off to be the Sleeper Passenger waiting area with a couch, a couple of matching love seats, and a few matching chairs.
Because I started back the next day, I was riding the same train I had been on the day before and the OBS were the same people.
I had Rm #10 in the 0631 car and Paul Blockom was my TA-SC. Apparently Paul was still on the board and not permanently assigned to the CZ yet. Paul did a good job and I sent Amtrak an email saying so.
My return trip was booked using points,15,600 and some points from SAC to OTM.
The return was as pleasant and as enjoyable as the outbound trip, but with the scenery appearing in reverse order and a different set of passengers.
I left home early so I didn't have to hurry, and so I could eat dinner in Ottumwa before I got on the train. Doh! They don't serve Mexican food on the train.
I boarded in Ottumwa, IA, Monday, October 17, and with the Zephyr on-time we pulled out @ 6:53 PM, a bit after sunset.
I was not able to book a sleeper berth from OTM to DEN because none were available when I booked my reservation.
Though the Zephyr had 3 coach cars, it only had 2 sleeper berth cars and it takes fewer people (some 42 people) to fill a sleeper car compared to filling a coach car (76 people).
When boarding the Conductor gave me a seat slip that only had DEN written on it, but no seat assignment.
I checked with the Train Attendant- Coach (TA-C) at the door to coach car boarding vestibule and he said, "Sit wherever you want".
There weren't many coach passengers so pretty much everyone that wanted it had 2 seats to themselves all the way to Denver.
Because there were so few coach passengers (less than 150) the TA-C had all 3 coach cars to service (some 228 seats).
Letting a passenger ride further than they paid to ride is a big no-no they call a 'carry by'. Train attendants only get to sleep on and off on a 6 day round trip of the California Zephyr, though they know which stops passengers will be getting on, and supposed to be getting off, the train. If I understand how it works correctly, if they have a couple of stops with no change in the passenger count they get to sleep a bit longer.
Once on board I fired up my laptop, stuck my GPS receiver in the window and started my GPS tracking software so I could see where we were, where they tracks ahead would take us, how fast we were going, on what compass heading, and at what altitude. So it was dark as we railed across Iowa, Nebraska, and eastern Colorado but I had my GPS to show me where we were and what towns we were railing through.
Next I got out my stainless steel, rubber bottomed, 6 oz wine glass and got myself some water from the water dispenser by the stairs.
After Creston, IA, I poured myself about 4 ounces of a highball I pre-mixed at home (Canadian whisky, a couple dashes of bitters, a cherry and a little cherry syrup) I call a Soho after a neighborhood in the Manhattan area of NYC my youngest daughter lived in for several years.
Of course Amtrak rules don't allow coach passengers to consume private stock alcohol at their seats or any other public area of the train.
So my private stock beverage was in a nondescript, 16 oz stainless steel container with a secure cap. The stiff nightcap helps one sleep in a coach seat.
If you're discrete and don't cause any problems, the on board staff (OBS) don't say anything even though it might be obvious what you're doing. Many coach passengers drink beer out of cans not available on the train, brand and/or size wise, with no problem. Indeed the guy across from me dug a cold can of beer out of his cooler bag as the TA-C was strolling by checking seat slip destinations. The TA-C eyeballed his can of beer and didn't say anything.
Swilling a big chug, or even a sip out of a mostly full 5th of Jack Daniels as a TA-C or Conductor ambles by your seat is likely another matter.
I had a sleeper berth booked from Denver to Davis, CA.
So I also had a 16 oz container of Vodka Gimlet, a nice aperitif before dinner in my sleeper berth, and a bottle of B&B (Brandy & Benedictine) for after dinner. I had a 16 oz, high quality glass brandy snifter safely packed in my carry on for drinking the B&B. A 16 oz brandy snifter is shaped so when it is turned onto it side it forms a 1.5 oz container. The shape and extra size of the snifter hold the bouquet of 1.5 oz of the beverage so the smell can be savored before a sip is taken.
I woke up before Denver (and sunrise) and walked my primary roller bag through the train from Coach to the sleeper berth car I would be moving to once we got to Denver (0532, Rm #7). Someone else was in Rm #7 from Chicago to Denver. Which is why I had to ride in coach.
We were pulled into Denver about 30 minutes early, just about sunrise.
Denver of course is a service stop.
They re-fuel the train in anticipation of the climb up the Front Range of the Rockies, take off the trash and used linens, wash the windows of the SSL and dining car, and do whatever else it is they do at a service stop.
I ambled from the coach car to the back of the train hauling my carry on's, caught the attention of a conductor and he lifted the sleeper reservation off my ticket.
I checked in with the TA-SC, Jay. Jay noted the dining car was serving breakfast, and once I got my stuff stashed in my Roomette I headed for the dining car.
I had breakfast in the dining car with 3 coach passengers, a young man and his son who were from Omaha riding the Zephyr to Salt Lake City, and a business man from Chicago also going to Salt Lake City.
Having a sleep berth provided me several benefits:
• On night #2 I had a bed.
• Coffee in the morning
• On the California Zephyr the sleeper cars are on the end of the 'consist' and the last car has a window in the back (the railfan window) that lets me take photos out the back of the train - even though they don't wash the outside of that window at any point on the trip.
But!
The Zephyr was pulling 2 private cars, and private cars always get hooked to the back of the train, so the scene out the rail fan window was a close following train car. It was a old, restored dome observation car, but the dome was in the way. Life's a beach sometimes.
So after breakfast I got settled in my Roomette as we were pulling out of the station and I got ready to start taking photos.
The first major scenic subject is the Big 10 Curve at the base of the Front Range.
My sleeper berth was on the wrong side of the train to get shots back towards Denver as we climbed the front range, but so was the rising, in my face, sun. So not getting shots back towards Denver wasn't all that big a loss.
The next big deal is the Moffat Tunnel and with the only front facing windows being in the engine at the front of the train, I was SOL for that too.
I took photos as I wanted to and the light direction and quality allowed.
The train windows are tinted so metering a good exposure was iffy even though I was using one of my Nikon DSLRs.
It's well known the Zephyr follows the Colorado River for the next 250 miles or so after the Granby, CO stop.
Being October the river was low and slow.
Gore Canyon - Eastbound
I last time I rode the Zephyr was the spring of 2015 and the Colorado was high and fast then. I need to next ride the Zephyr in the winter. Like maybe the winter of 2018.
I already have part of my next train trip booked (May 2017) but that trip is on the Southwest Chief Galesburg, IL to LA, the Sunset Limited LA to Alpine, TX, the Texas Eagle Alpine to Chicago, and the Illinois Zephyr from Chicago back to where I start, Galesburg, IL.
I timed going to the dining car for lunch after Granby so I would be done with lunch in time to shoot Glenwood Canyon as we railed through it. I haven't yet edited those photos.
We stopped in Glenwood Springs long enough people who do could smoke a cig or stretch their legs, and I got photos of the private cars. I'll get around to editing those eventually too.
The position of the sun made making good photos the rest of the day a pain, because so much of the time it was in my face and in the windows when there was scenery I wanted to shoot.
After sunset, I enjoyed an aperitif before dinner in my Roomette as I looked out the window at Venus, Saturn, Arcturus, and Mars.
We were between Green River, UT and Helper, UT following US-6 towards Prove and Salt Lake City as I had dinner.
After dinner I had a B&B and watched out the window of my Roomette as the engines and front of the train appeared and disappeared depending on which way the curves in the tracks went as we climbed up towards Soldier pass.
I lowered the upper bunk in my Roomette to sleep in so I could leave the lower part of the Roomette in it's Day configuration of 2 facing seats and a fold-out table. My laptop was on the table with my GPS plugged in so when I woke up in the middle of the night to visit the restroom I could see where we were. When that did happen we were just pulling out of Wendover, NV at the UT/NV border and close to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
I woke at 5:30, tended to my morning routine, got coffee my sleeper car attendant had ready - another sleeper berth perk - waved at O.J. Simpson's abode where he currently resides (a state prison) just before we got Lovelock, NV. I went to the dining car when they opened for breakfast at 6:30 AM PDST time.
After breakfast I sat in the SSL car from just before Hazen, NV to Sparks, NV. Along this part of the route we join the Truckee River and there were many places fog was hanging above the warm river in the cold morning air. The fog and yellow autumn tree leaves was quite pretty.
The Zephyr stops in Reno for a bit so we all can get out and stretch our legs a bit, and smoke if necessary. Out of Reno we start climbing the Sierra Nevada mountains, stop briefly in Truckee to let off/take on passengers and then start climbing again toward Donner pass.
We go through a tunnel that curves to the left and when we pop out the other side we are a couple of hundred feet above Donner Lake and can see I-80 across the lake.
Once over Donner Pass we start descending to Sacramento and the few stops between there and the end of the line in Emeryville.
Though I was booked to Davis, the stop after Sacramento, I had a room booked in Sacramento for the night and had decided to just get off there instead of catching a Capitol Corridor commuter train from Davis back to Sacramento. We got to Sacramento about 2 PM on a nice, sunny, 75 degree day.
Another sleeper berth passenger perk is baggage storage (left luggage) at Amtrak stations that offer it, and the Sacramento station does.
So after putting together an overnight kit I checked my other bags and headed to the hotel.
In Sacramento, us old people get to ride the bus system for just $1.35 (exact change only), so my room was not close to the station, and cost about 1/2 as much as a room across the street from the station.
The station is downtown and the bus stop was just a couple of blocks away. Easy-peezy, extra-cheesy. The bus stop for the hotel was a block from the hotel.
In the morning I got ready and down to the office in plenty of time to have a leisurely continental breakfast and coffee before heading to the bus stop to go back to the Amtrak station.
My return train was scheduled to depart at 11:09 AM PDST, but I arrived at the still being refurbished station early enough to make some photos and hang out a bit.
A portion of the station is cordoned off to be the Sleeper Passenger waiting area with a couch, a couple of matching love seats, and a few matching chairs.
Because I started back the next day, I was riding the same train I had been on the day before and the OBS were the same people.
I had Rm #10 in the 0631 car and Paul Blockom was my TA-SC. Apparently Paul was still on the board and not permanently assigned to the CZ yet. Paul did a good job and I sent Amtrak an email saying so.
My return trip was booked using points,15,600 and some points from SAC to OTM.
The return was as pleasant and as enjoyable as the outbound trip, but with the scenery appearing in reverse order and a different set of passengers.
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