Passenger Trains > Quick trip report

The wife and I took a round trip on today's southbound Coast Starlight from Tacoma to Portland and back on the northbound Coast Starlight from Portland to Tacoma.  We had great difficulty getting lower-level seats, apparently due to a system malfunction that somehow lasted for days.  A very capable agent at the big res bureau got everything straightened out.  Our power on 11 was Operation Lifesaver unit 203 and P42 181, which was the rear unit in the Cascades 501 wreck in 2017.  It suffered little if any damage in the wreck is now almost seven years older and looks definitely the worse for wear.  I see on Dixieland Software as I write this late Monday night Pacific time that our southbound train has now encountered mechanical problems and is stuck south of Eugene.  I hope the problems are not with the rickety-looking 181.  I also hope that one of our fellow passengers followed the advice of our conductor, who urged him not to rely on a transfer to MetroLink in LA as another of our passengers was recommending.  The conductor pointed out that if anything happened to our train, the passenger might be delayed long enough that he'd get in too late to make a MetroLink connection.  I think the idea was that he'd have a dedicated Amtrak bus to take him onward if he stuck with Amtrak.  I didn't quite catch the whole conversation.  Anyway, we had an excellent crew and no apparent freight train interference and arrived in Portland 10 minutes early.  We did have a slight delay meeting Cascades train 502 on the Point Defiance Bypass because 502 was late by ten or 15 minutes as usual and didn't make its meet at the long siding at Manitou (pronounced MAN-ih-too) north of Lakewood.  Again and again we need a siding south of there to accomodate meets with usually late northbound trains.  Without that siding, the meets often have to be done farther south at Nisqually back on the BNSF main, causing more delay than should be necessary.  I understand WSDOT has plans to put a siding in about midway between Manitou and Nisqually, probably somewhere near Dupont, hopefully fairly soon.  If the trains were only on time, Manitou would do fine.  Anyway, coming back from Portland, our train started about half an hour late and ran into some minor delays, including meeting Cascades 509 at Nisqually, again largely because of our lateness and no siding south of Manitou, so it didn't make up any time into Tacoma.  Again excellent crews, although one of the restrooms in coach 54515, an ex-Coast Starlight Business Class car now otherwise refreshed, was definitely ratty (the attendants were otherwise keeping the cars clean).  One surprise on both of our trains.  The lower levels of the two sightseer lounges were open to the public with no crew members other than the lounge attendant present, and the attendants weren't using any of the tables that I could see.  One of them told me that the lower level lounges are supposed to be open to all and if I ever saw one that wasn't, I should report it to Amtrak.  Maybe this has been going on for a while, but this is the first time I've seen it in a long time, and it's very encouraging.  These were both Superliner I lounges with lots of lower level tables.  I saw only ONE crew member at ONE table upstairs in one of the lounges, a definite improvement.  And downstairs, all condiments, knives and forks, etc, were properly placed on the counters between the serving area and the tables, not on the tables themselves. BNSF track had some rough spots that shouldn't have been there, but it seemed like there weren't as many as I've encountered in the recent past.
One other thing.  In Portland, a man with a squegee was washing the windows on the eastbound Empire Builder Portland section's charger (332) and apparently testing the windshield wipers.  I couldn't see from where I was whether he was washing other windows on the train.  In something I've not seen before, they had the Portland section on the track right next to the station, and we didn't buy access to the Met Lounge so I couldn't get a good look while this was going on.
Hope you find this info useful.

 

This is an encouraging trip report.  I will be on 11 next week from Seattle to Los Angeles.

Encouraging report, thank you for the compliment, but with one embarrassing inadcuracy.  The actual coach number, of course, was 34515, not 54515.  I guess I'm getting too accustomed to Cascades Horizon cars up here (perhaps too old as well.  And we don't even have the 54515 in our Horizon fleet (we do have the 54516).

14 from Los Angeles October 8th will have private cars TIOGA PASS and Pacific Sands on the rear headed for Seattle.  These two cars pick up a charter group at Oakland so the trip along the surf will be pleasant with crew and a few guests aboard.  Return from Seattle on October 12th, out of Bay Area October 13th returning to LA.  Please wave - a few passengers will board at S L O for the ride along the surf.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

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"(pronounced MAN-ih-too)". When I grew up in Lakewood, that area was called MAN-in-toe.  I guess someone wanted that glamorized, too?