Passenger Trains > Bay area trains inthe rain.

Stopped by Jack London Square and saw a few Caltrans Amtrak trains. Rode the BART a lot as well.

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More of the BART and State Amtrak.

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Caltrain

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Very nice views!

I like the rain pictures, you captured the mood of SF Bay Area winter very nicely. It’s funny, I never carried an umbrella, just my jacket and a baseball cap and would take the different routes between BART and my office in The City to avoid getting too wet. Going through the Embarcadero Center was one way to avoid the rain.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

It may sound strange, but I love riding Amtrak in the rain.  It's sort of mesmerizing, watching the rain run down the windows as you are riding down the rails.  It's so relaxing.  Of course, I know it is different for the engineer with the wet rails.  It's just hard to plan a trip so that you'll be in the rain.

John

For those of us that live in an areas without commuter service we would like to see some photos of the insides of these bi-level cars and also the I assume Canadian built cars with the single level ends and bi-level middle. On the bi-level cars I note some have the end door up high and others have the end door at the usual passenger car height. On the bi-level cars is the engineer down low or high?

I neglected to get pictures inside these specific cars. On most bilevel cabs the engineer is on the second level. With the Canadian-designed Bombardier cars there is a middle level on both ends and the cab is in that level.

POW Wrote:
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> For those of us that live in an areas without
> commuter service we would like to see some photos
> of the insides of these bi-level cars and also the
> I assume Canadian built cars with the single level
> ends and bi-level middle. On the bi-level cars I
> note some have the end door up high and others
> have the end door at the usual passenger car
> height. On the bi-level cars is the engineer down
> low or high?

So the silver bi-levels are similar to Metra's cars from what I understand.  Rode them once and you have a set of stairs up to the main floor - which is at the same height as a single level car so you can run them together as the end doors match up.  The main floor is 4 seats across, normal seating.  There's a tiny little stair case (spiral if remember right) on each side of the aisle that takes you to the upstairs.  The upstairs only has 2 seats across, with a big gap in between them - see this picture I found - https://images.app.goo.gl/XFihscANNq2F6tc37.  This gap lets people walk down the aisle on the main floor and have enough head clearance.  So each side upstairs has a skinny aisle, and then the gap for the main floor aisle.  This means you can't cross from side to side on the upper level, you have to go downstairs and then back up the other side.  The head clearance along the main floor aisle is fine, but you have to nod under the upper level seating to get a seat on the main level by the window.  It feels a bit like an airplane in that sense.  The upper level just had a set of railings and I remember the conductor reaching up to the railing for me to hand over my ticket back when I rode.

The Bombardier cars really have 3 levels.  On Caltrain, and on UTA here in Utah, you board on the lower level and then there are stairs on either end that take you up a half level.  This "intermediate" level is the same height as a single level car, with the end doors to let you pass from car to car, so on UTA they used to run 3 Bombardier bi-levels with an ex-NJT Comet car.  From this "intermediate" level you go up another half level to reach the upper level.  Seats on all levels are 4 across, and some have tables.  UTA has a bike car where the seats on one side were removed so bikes can be parked.  This picture is the upper level - https://images.app.goo.gl/Snbj6uPDta7fyFGD7.

For cab cars, the cab is the main level or intermediate level, so sitting at the height of a single level car.

Nathan    

Very nice set. Thank you.

atsf121 Wrote:
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> For cab cars, the cab is the main level or
> intermediate level, so sitting at the height of a
> single level car.

The silver bi-levels have the cab on the upper level, as you can see in one of the pictures.