Passenger Trains > Dawn on the Starlight

The Coast Starlight at Martinez at dawn a few years back. Im sure the new depot is just great but the memorys of the old depot will never be replaced.

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Nice shot, Bob. Reminds me of a trip on the Starlight when I was at "UC Eugene" in 1978. We got on the train, and the load was about 80% thirsty college types. The line for drinks in the ex-SP dome went all the way through the dome to the first coach ahead!

The guy in line ahead of us asked the bartender if he could get a pitcher of drinks in a bucket so he didn\'t have to wait in line. A while later near Cascade Summit, he guy was sick as a dog, hanging out of the dutch door for relief. Ouch!

- gb -

Is that really your picture Morris, or did you start playing with the rose filter again??

Last Saturday, a bunch of Bay Area fans got
together for a train watching and BS session
on the platform in front of the old Martinez
depot. We figured we\'d be more or less out of
the way down there, since the old depot is
more or less beyond the ends of the new depot\'s
platforms. I don\'t know if it\'s just because
we were there, or that people really didn\'t know
there was a new station in town, but we had to
redirect quite a few folks down to the new
station when they showed up at the old one and
found the doors locked. Martinez is still a
great train-watching spot - in addition to the
zillions of passenger trains, UP shoehorned a
surprising number of freights through, including
an AGBMI with shiny new UP 5123 and 5118 on the
point, and an MRVSJ with three patched SP
tunnel motors. Say what you will about the
modern scene, but somehow I doubt we\'ll look
back at the pictures we shot that day and
remark, "it was all crap then."