Passenger Trains > Starlight #11 route into Sacramento

As long as I can remember, the Starlight has come through Roseville and then into Sacramento.

This morning, we came down the old WP main into Sacramento and used the connecting track to the SP to get into the station.

It did have the benefit of getting us into Sac extra early.

Is this a permanent change? An occasional option when the line from Roseville to Sac is busy? or something else?

Thanks.

This WP Sac Sub routing into Sacramento has been this way
for amtrak Coast Starlight trians 11 and 14 since the UP--SP Merger in 1996.
This more direct route was enabled by the combined ops of UP SP .
EDIT this normal route goes from Binney Jct in marysville to Haggin Jct in Sacramento CA.
---Daniel



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/18 19:20 by daniel3197.

Like the previous post said, the ex-WP trackage from Binney Jct to Haggin is the normal route for Amtrak 11 & 14. If something out of the ordinary is happening between those two points they can route it through Roseville, but it doesn't happen very often.

The connection at Haggin was built specifically for this operation.

Doesn't the (or a) Haggin connection date
from the 1960s?

I noticed the same thing last year but then I realized how long it has been since I rode that route.

The Haggin connection was there long before the re-routing of #’s 11 and 14. Perhaps it was revised from its original configuration citation in ‘96?

BB in Spokane

Posted from iPhone

Same thing for me - a bunch of trips prior to the merger, and then nothing (at least south bound) until yesterday morning.

Thanks to all for the info.

-- Bill

I think the Haggin connection predates the big mergers.
In1981 I rode a Ccoast Starlight detour via the FRC and Highline and
clearly remember connecting from the normla route to detour route at Haggine Jct Sacramento CA.
I think that the Biney Jct Marysville MAY not have been connected from
compass north WP to compass north SP Shasta Line prior to the UP SP Merger.
I have NO memory of the track laoyout of Binney Jct prior to those 1980s and 1990s mergers.

---Daniel

I guess wzd was not around when the Starlight did not serve Sacramento, but only through Davis.

Even in the SP days, trains did not go via Sacramento. Greyhound bus to/from Davis.

Yup, I was around, made several trips on the Cascade between Berkeley and Portland, as well as a southbound on the Shasta Daylight and another on #19 - a bunch of baggage & mail cars with a Shasta coach on the rear end. I always wondered why the SP couldn't be bothered to run through Sac instead of cutting off at Davis.

Did the Starlight also head north from Davis for a while? Honestly, I can't remember.

Bill D.

Until 1982 or some such.