Towns the CZ goes through.

[KmH]

From the Google map I am using it is not clear that the CZ goes through Battle Mountain as opposed to the CZ goes near Battle Mountain.

Could it be the CZ only goes through Battle Mountain in one direction?

If I add Battle Mountain I would also add Valmy. Back in the day when I drove an over the road truck I spent the night in Valmy a few times.

Is Palisade a town? It is so small, even smaller than Cisco, UT. I only see what looks like 2 or 3 dwellings.

Beowawe gets added.

 

[chakk]

The westbound CZ goes through beautiful downtown Battle Mountain. You will know you are getting close when you see the big letters "BM" on the southside hillside.

The eastbound CZ takes a separate track about a mile north of this location through "North Battle Mountain". I don't know if NBM is incorporated. Palisade appears on the official state highway map; from the train, there appears to be some residences and other buildings there.

 

[KmH]

I added Battle Mountain and noted - westbound only.

I won't be adding Palisades and Cisco, UT may yet get taken off the list.

Y'all might note there are a couple of track tunnels and bridges over the Humboldt river there close to Palisades.

 

[chakk]

The Gilluly Loops on the CZ route just west of Soldier Summit, UT (about an hour's train travel time west of the Helper, UT station) are an engineering. Both trains traverse these loops in daylight in summer, darkness in winter.

Conductors on the eastbound CZ typically announce on the P.A. passage thru Cisco and Thompson Utah. Portions of "Thelma and Louise" were filmed in the latter.

 

[KmH]

I've seen the loops near Soldier Summit on the map and read a bit about them. Thanks for their name.

So far I've only been on the CZ once - from Iowa (OSC) to Grand Junction.

When I ride it again in the spring I'm only going as far as SAC so I can catch the CS northbound.

 

[KmH]

The 1st town the CZ goes through - Chicago, IL

Chicago is the center of the US train universe, originating point of the California Zephyr, many other passenger trains, and a point that lots of freight flows through.

Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the USA and is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation with a lot of US highways going through and O'Hare International airport often being the 'busiest airport in the world'.
The name Chicago is from a French version of a Native American Algonquian language word 'shikaakwa' meaning "wild onion" or "wild garlic".
In a memoir by Robert de LeSalle about 1679 there is a reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou".

During the mid-18th century the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox (Meskwaki) peoples. Olympian Jim Thorp was from the Sauk and Fox Nation (headquartered in Stroud, OK).

The 1st known non-indigent settler to Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in the late 1780's.

On August 12, 1833 and with a population of about 200, the Town of Chicago was established. In just 7 years the population increased 20 fold to about 4000.

Early on Chicago was established as an important transportation hub between the east and west US.
1848 saw Chicago's 1st railway, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and was the year the Chicago Board of Trade (futures and options exchange) was established.

In 1871 Chicago suffered the Great Chicago Fire supposedly started by the O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. In 1893, Michael Ahern, the Chicago Republican reporter who wrote the O'Leary account, admitted he had made it up as colorful copy.
Chicago's railroad yards and stockyards survived intact.

Rebuilding from the Great Chicago Fire fomented a move from buildings made of wood to more modern constructions of steel and stone which would set a precedent for worldwide construction.

The Union Stock Yard & Transit Company stockyards were owned by a group of railroad companies and operated for 106 years starting in 1865.

The stockyards and technical advancements in rail transport and refrigeration allowed the creation of some of America's first truly global companies

The mechanized Amour meatpacking plant was inspiration for Henry Ford and his automobile assembly line.

In 1906 Upton Sinclair wrote a novel, The Jungle, describing the horrible working conditions, routine health violations, and unsanitary practices used in the stockyards and meatpacking plants in the Chicago meatpacking district and the US meatpacking industry.

There is lots more to know about Chicago and I don't want to write a book here. If you would like to know more, the internet is the most amazing information resource yet devised by mankind.

 

[niemi24s]

In addition to using Google Earth as suggested by Railfan, I've found using USGS topographical maps a rich source of named features along any route. These topo maps are available here... http://www.mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm ...and show many, many things along a route that Google Earth doesn't. - even down to such seemingly mundane things as named railroad spurs and sidings. Used both sources to come up with a list of 575 features along the Coast Starlight's 1377 mile route. That's an average of about 2.4 miles between features!

Although it takes a fair amount of time to conduct such a search, I like to do it in advance of a trip to help insure I don't miss seeing something of interest - daylight allowing, of course.

 

[Bus Nut]

Cisco, UT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco,_Utah

It was a RR watering stop....

 

[KmH]

Key word - was.

Photos of Cisco from 2005.