Trip Report: Fullerton, CA to Portland, OR.
May 21, 2005 to May 26, 2005
By Fred Dunn
Saturday, May 21
We left our house in Fullerton at about 7:30 a.m. for the Fullerton station, where we were
to catch Amtrak train 763 into LA, and from LA, the Coast Starlight to Portland. We
arrived at the station, and I unloaded our bags and went into the station to get a parking
sticker for my car. My wife, Donna, waited with our bags at the Santa Fe Express Cafe
while I went and parked the car in the parking structure. (An advantage of leaving on the
weekend is that the Metrolink trains don't run, so parking is available.) I arrived back at
the station just about the time that the Southwest Chief was arriving from Chicago. On
the rear of train #3 was the private car Tioga Pass, which I think I have seen before in
Barstow.

Fred & Donna At Fullerton (p01)
Train 763 arrived within a few minutes of the scheduled arrival time of 8:16 a.m. and we
managed to get two seats on the first floor of the coach car that we boarded, although the
few available seats disappeared quickly, and several people were left standing or sitting
on the stairs. We arrived in LA at about 9:55, and it was announced that the Coast
Starlight would be arriving on the same track (10), so we got off the train and found a
seat to wait for train 14. We watched the Tioga Pass being removed from train #3 and
moved to the garden tracks next to the Scottish Thistle.

Donna at LAUPT (p02) ..... Tioga Pass (right) & Scottish Thistle (left) (p03)
At about 10:15 a.m. (the scheduled departure time), the train had not yet shown up, and
an announcement was made that the train was delayed. These announcements continued
periodically until about 11:10, when it was announced that the equipment had left the
yard and should arrive shortly. The train pulled into track 10 at 11:24 a.m.
The consist was as follows:
P42 Genesis #112, #119
Baggage #1221
Transition Sleeper #39019
Sleepers #32072 (Arkansas), #32097 (New Hampshire), #32088 (Maryland)
Pacific Parlor Car #39975
Diner #38061
Lounge #33041
Coach #34117, #34512, #34113, #34078
Donna and I boarded our car, #1432 (Arkansas), and went to our rooms, numbers 11 and
12 on the first floor. We had decided to get two sleepers because neither of us likes to
sleep in the narrow upper bunk, and we had several Amtrak vouchers that were close to
expiration, so we used them for the upgrade. Our car attendant, Shirley Clemens,
welcomed us and took our tickets.
Our train pulled out of LAUPT at 11:50 a.m., one hr. 35 min. late, and lunch service
began about 12:10 p.m.
There was a big lunch crowd in the diner, and the service was fairly slow. We sat with a
couple from Tennessee who were celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary. They had
traveled from Tennessee to New Orleans, and from New Orleans to Los Angeles on the
Sunset Limited. They were on their way to San Francisco, and then were going to take
the California Zephyr to Chicago. They said they were thoroughly enjoying their trip.
All four of us ordered the open face prime rib sandwich, which came with a salad. My
wife and I both thought that the prime rib was overcooked. For dessert, I had the key
lime pie and Donna had the chocolate bombe. Both were good.
We left Oxnard at 1:28 p.m., 1 hr. 33 min. behind schedule, and continued into Santa
Barbara, arriving about 2:20.

Santa Barbara (p04) ..... Famous Santa Barbara Fig Tree (p05)
Wine tasting began at 4:00 p.m. The Pacific Parlor Car attendant, Jose, was very
enthuastic in promoting the wines, as well as the souvenirs that he was selling such as
hats, playing cards, baggage tags, etc. The wine tasting consisted of two whites, a
sauvignon blanc and a Riesling, and a red, a petite Sarah. I bought a bottle of the
sauvignon blanc which was consumed that evening.

Pacific Parlor Car Attendant, Jose (p06) ..... Donna, Waiting for Wine Tasting (p07)
We left San Louis Obispo at 5:00 p.m., 1hr. 17 min. behind schedule. At 5:40 we passed
southbound #11 at mile marker 233, shortly after ascending Cuesta Pass. We pulled into
a siding alongside of #11, and they passed us on the main. We then backed out of the
siding and continued on our way.

San Luis Obispo Station (p08) ..... Climbing Cuesta Grade (p09)
At dinner, we sat across from a couple from Eugene, OR who were on their way home.
They had boarded our train in San Louis Obispo, where they had gone to celebrate their
10th anniversary, with reservations for dinner and the night at the Madonna Inn.
Unfortunately, their train from Eugene to San Louis Obispo was so late that they arrived
after the restaurant had closed. They did not seem particularly thrilled with their Amtrak
experience.
I had catfish for dinner, which was quite good, although I asked for it blackened (a menu
option), and it was served covered with a tomato sauce instead. Our dinner companions
both ordered the New York steak, asking for it blackened, also without success. Donna
ordered the chicken teriyaki, which she said was good. Although neither one of us
needed dessert, I managed to put down a cup of vanilla ice cream and Donna a piece of
key lime pie. The service was poor and our waiter was unfriendly.
We left Salinas at 8:22, 1 hr. 46 min. behind schedule, and San Jose at 10:01, 1hr. 22
min. behind schedule. It was encouraging that we seemed to be at least holding our own
on the schedule.
The movie in the Pacific Parlor Car was Finding Neverland. Donna intended to watch it
when we finished dinner, but by the time she got down there, the movie had already
started so she decided to skip it for tonight. She had Shirley turn down her bed around
9:00 p.m. and went to bed. I stayed up for another hour, making notes of the trip, and
turned in about 10:15.
Sunday, May 22
I woke up about 5:00 a.m., and we were traveling along the Sacramento River
somewhere north of Lake Shasta. We arrived at Dunsmuir at 6:20, where I saw old train
sheds, turntable and a snowplow. We left Dunsmuir at 6:24, 1 hr. 20 min. late. Mount
Shasta soon came into view, and was visible for the next few hours.

Snowplow at Dunsmuir (p10) ..... Mount Shasta (p11)
We went to breakfast about 7:00 a.m., and unfortunately, wound up with the same waiter
that we had for dinner last night. The service was faster, but just as unfriendly. The job
of waiter seemed to be a real challenge for this man. I tried to read the name on his
badge, which he wore on a lanyard around his neck, but he always kept his name facing
against his body.
At 8:05, an announcement was made over the PA in the sleepers that the toilets in
sleepers 1430 and 1431 were out of service, and would remain so until we reached
Eugene. Passengers were told that if they were unhappy with this, then they should call
Amtrak, and they gave the phone number. (The implication was don't complain to us
about it.) I knew from past experience on this train that the vacuum toilets on the
Superliner II cars (where you have to close the lid to make it flush) sometimes did not
function properly at high altitude, but this was not explained in the announcement.
Fortunately for us, the toilets on our car had been replaced by what look like Superliner I
toilets (press the button to flush) and these toilets had no problem with high altitude.
(More about this later.)
For at least an hour before reaching Klamath Falls, our train was traveling at very slow
speeds or stopped. We finally arrived at Klamath Falls at about 10:25 a.m. Here the
passengers who were connecting with the Empire Builder were taken off and bused to
Portland. One of the passengers was listening to his scanner while we were waiting in
Klamath Falls and heard the dispatcher tell the engineer coming on duty that he had to
wait another 30 minutes in order to meet service break time requirements. When the 30
minutes were up, we finally left Klamath Falls at 11:17, putting us almost 3 hours behind
schedule.

Klamath Falls (p12) ..... Donna at Klamath Falls (p13)
We went to lunch at noon and Donna and I both had the Angus Burger, which was very
good. I refrained from dessert, but Donna went with the ice cream. While we were
eating we stopped at Chemult, departing at 12:50, putting us over three hours behind
schedule.
Upon leaving Chemult, we began our climb up the Cascades, crossing at Willamette Pass.
The train passed through 22 tunnels, and spectacular vistas were visible between the
tunnels. Descending the other side of the pass toward Springfield, we ran alongside
Lookout Point Reservoir for several miles, finally arriving at Eugene at about 4:00 p.m.

Crossing Willamette Pass (p14) ..... Lookout Point Reservoir (p15)

Eugene, OR (p16)
Again this afternoon, we had wine tasting in the Pacific Parlor Car. Jose went into his
sales pitch for his Amtrak souvenir items and gave his glowing descriptions of the wines,
which again were available for purchase for $14 each, except for the Pinot Noir, which
was $16. As we were sampling the wines, we passed the southbound #11 at 4:52 p.m.,
about 10 minutes before we arrived at Albany, OR. I estimated that it was about 30
minutes late.
During the wine tasting, the dining car attendant came through the car to take dinner
reservations. Since it looked like we would not arrive in Portland until about 7:00 p.m.,
we could have easily had time for dinner. But after eating the cheese and crackers at the
wine tasting, plus the previous four large Amtrak meals and desserts, I couldn't face
another meal, and told my wife that I was going to pass on dinner, so she did the same.
At about 6:50, when it appeared that we were within a few minutes of Portland, the train
stopped and the conductor came on the PA and said the signals on the bridge over the
Willamette River going into the Portland Union Station had a malfunction, and a signal
maintainer had been sent to investigate the problem. Happily, the problem was resolved
quickly, and we arrived at Union Station at about 7:10 p.m., 3hr. 30 min. late. We exited
the train, giving Shirley, our friendly car attendant, a well-deserved gratuity.

Shirley Clemens, Our Sleeping Car Attendant (p17)
Donna and I walked to the bus station a block from Union Station, and caught the free
downtown Portland bus to S.W. 5th Ave. and Stark, which was one block from our hotel,
the Vintage Plaza.
Monday, May 23
We both slept in late this morning. Donna is very interested in flowers and gardens, so
our plan for the day was to visit the International Rose Test Garden and the Japanese
Garden, both in Washington Park. We left the hotel at about 9:45 a.m., stopped at a
coffee shop for juice and a bagel, and then caught the TriMet trolley to the zoo station at
Washington Park. From the zoo station, there was supposed to be a shuttle to the Rose
Garden and Japanese Garden, but when we got there, we found out that the shuttle does
not start running until next month. We had to wait for about an hour to catch a TriMet
bus to our destination.

Portland Trolley (p18)
We went to the rose garden first, which has about 10,000 rose bushes of 550 different
varieties, covering 4 acres. The Rose Garden turned out to be somewhat of a
disappointment however, because most of the rose buds had not yet opened. Apparently
we arrived a week or two early. We then spent about one and a half hours walking
through the Japanese Garden, which covers 5.5 acres, and offers a good view of
downtown Portland and Mt. Hood. The weather was mostly sunny and beautiful,
although the top of Mt. Hood was obscured by clouds.

Donna at Test Rose Garden (p19) ..... Portion of Rose Garden (p20)

Fred at Japanese Garden (p21) ..... Portion of Japanese Garden (p22)

Portland and Mt. Hood from Japanese Garden (p23)
We took the TriMet bus/trolley back to our hotel, arriving about 3:00 p.m. We cleaned
up at the hotel and then walked two blocks to the Greek Cusina, a popular Portland
restaurant where we had a late lunch which we both enjoyed.
We got back to our hotel (Vintage Plaza) shortly before the start of the daily wine tasting,
which is offered from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. every day. The hotel is very nice, with a 4 star
AAA rating. It was built in 1894 as the Imperial Hotel, but has been totally renovated
and modernized inside. It is also reasonably priced compared to the other 3 and 4 star
hotels in the area.

Hotel Vintage Plaza (p24)
Tuesday, May 24
We had no specific plans for this morning, so we left the hotel around 9:00 a.m., had
breakfast, and strolled around downtown Portland. I stopped at the Bank of America to
replenish my leaking wallet at the ATM. We then went back to the hotel, and I brought
up the Amtrak website using the hotel's high speed wireless network, to check on the
status of our train (# 11). The website showed that it had left Seattle on time, and was
expected into Portland at 2:02. We packed up our bags, and checked out at noon, the
hotel check-out time. We walked to the bus stop, which was one block from the hotel,
and took the bus to Union Station. Again, the weather was perfect, and Union Station,
which has been in service since 1896, looked impressive against the clear blue sky. We
went to the Metropolitan Lounge (for sleeping car passengers) to wait for the arrival of
our train.

Portland Union Station (p25)
The Coast Starlight arrived at 2:25 p.m., having the following consist:
P42 Genesis #117, 116, 46
Baggage #1171
Transition Sleeper #39026
Sleepers #32085 (Kentucky), #32098 (New Jersey), #32109 (South Dakota)
Pacific Parlor Car #39974
Diner #38056
Lounge #33034
Coach #34059, #34504, #34073
Donna and I went to our rooms (numbers 13 and 14) in sleeper 1131 (New Jersey). Our
car attendant, Joseph Washington, was at the car door to greet us. Again, our rooms were
on the first floor, which I was not terribly happy with when I made the reservation, but
they were the only pairs of rooms available that were directly across the aisle from one
another. While the first floor rooms may not have quite as good visibility of the scenery,
we came to enjoy them because of the lack of traffic through the aisle and the close
proximity to the bathrooms and shower.
Our train pulled out of PDX at 2:51, 26 minutes behind schedule, but an improvement
over leaving LAX. We went to the Pacific Parlor Car for the wine and cheese tasting,
which began at 3:00. The Pacific Parlor Car attendant was Garrett, who we remembered
from our trip from Portland to LAX last June. Garret is very helpful and personable .
We had dinner reservations for 5:45. I had the salmon, which was quite good. Donna, in
spite of her experience with the overcooked prime rib sandwich on # 14, ordered the
prime rib for dinner, and she was again disappointed. Oh well, can't say she wasn't
warned. We had dinner with a woman and her mother who had been with us on the
Northbound journey on #14, and who we were surprised to see again on #11. They had
spent two nights in Seattle, whereas we had spent two nights in Portland.
After passing Lookout Point Reservoir, at 7:11 our train stopped at Lookout and we were
told by the conductor that there was a brush fire ahead alongside the tracks, and we
would have to wait until the Oakridge fire department put it out. We started moving
again 30 minutes later and began climbing the Cascades. By the time we got to
Willamette Pass, the daylight was gone.
We departed Chemult at 9:55 p.m., 1 hr. 50 min. behind schedule. The conductor
announced that he expected that we would make up about 30 minutes by the time we
reached Klamath Falls. This conductor has been very informative in keeping passengers
advised as to what is happening, why we are stopping, etc.
I went back to my room to jot down my notes for the day. At 10:00, our room attendant,
Joseph, made up our beds, and I put aside my notebook and read for a while before going
to sleep.

Fred Recording the Days Events (p26)
Wednesday, May 25
I woke up a little after 5:00 a.m. and looked outside to see where we were. It appeared
that we had just passed Redding, which would mean that we were about 3 hours behind
schedule.
At 6:40, we left Chico, and at 7:00 we passed Northbound #14, which appeared to be
about 5 hours behind schedule.
It is interesting to note that while all three of the sleepers on this train have the Superliner
II type toilets, none appeared to have the altitude related problems encountered on our
Northbound trip. I asked one of the car attendants about this and told him that two of our
sleeper's bathrooms had been closed from Klamath Falls to Eugene on the Northbound
trip. He said that at high altitudes, the toilets can stop working, but this can usually be
fixed by cycling the waste treatment power switch. He has done this from one to 4 times
per hour, as necessary.
We arrived at Sacramento at 9:00 a.m. While most of the old SP shops have been torn
down, some of the major buildings still stand and are now used by the California State
Railroad Museum.

Coast Starlight at Sacramento Depot (p27) ..... SP Shop Building (p28)
We passed the Navy mothball fleet at Suisun Bay at about 10:10 a.m. Leaving Martinez
at 10:30, still 3 hours behind schedule.

Suisun Bay Mothball Fleet (p29) ..... Salt Collecting Ponds (p30)
Donna and I went to lunch at 12:30, and I had a chicken breast sandwich and she had the
Angus burger. I declined dessert, but when the waitress came with Donna's ice cream
sundae, she also 'accidentally' brought a second one for me. Not wanting to hurt her
feelings, I forced it down.
Going along the East side of the bay, we passed the salt collecting ponds near Newark,
CA around 1:30 p.m., and could view the blimp hangers at Moffett Field about 20
minutes later.
We arrived at the San Jose Station at 2:15. The San Jose Sharks Arena is just across the
street. Our train departed San Jose at 2:25, putting us over 4 hours behind schedule.

San Jose Station (p31) ..... San Jose Sharks Arena (p32)
As soon as we left San Jose, it was announced that the afternoon wine and cheese tasting
would begin immediately in the Pacific Parlor Car. Having just finished lunch and
dessert only an hour and a half ago, the thought of more food was not terribly appealing,
but a little wine sounded good, so we went up to partake. Just then, the dining car
steward came by taking dinner reservations. I asked for the latest he had available and it
was 5:30. Garrett again hosted the wine tasting, with the help of two of the sleeping car
attendants.

Garrett, Pacific Parlor Car Attendant (right) (p33) ..... Elkhorn Slough, National Reserve (p34)
We passed Elkhorn Slough, National Reserve, a little before 4:00 p.m., arriving Salinas at
4:10. The Salinas station has Baldwin S-10 steam locomotive no. 1237, built in 1918,
standing in front of the Station. The goal is eventual restoration. Leaving Salinas at
4:15, about 4 hr. 30 min. late.

Baldwin S-10 1237 at Salinas (p35) ..... Salinas Railway Express Building (p36)
At 5:40, our train stopped and the conductor walked to the front of train to throw a
switch. Minutes later we were moving again onto a siding. After moving onto the
siding, we stopped again, and Northbound #14 passed us on the main, apparently just
about on schedule. A private railcar (I believe it said Rail America on the side) with an
observation platform was at the end of #14. I didn't get the car name, if there was one.
Our 5:30 dinner reservation was called at 6:00 p.m. I ordered the special of the day,
chicken marsala, and Donna had the roast half chicken. Both were good, but neither one
of us was very hungry, so we did not do the meals justice. Both of us skipped dessert.
During dinner, we arrived at Paso Robles, leaving at 6:33 p.m., just a little shy of 4 hours
behind schedule.
At 7:00 p.m. the train stopped and the conductor announced that the crew had reached
their 12 hours of service limit and a relief crew was being sent from San Luis Obispo.
We started moving again at 7:30.
We arrived at San Luis Obispo at 8:10, departing at 8:25, putting us 5 hours behind
schedule. Santa Barbara was our next stop at 10:50, leaving at 11:00.

San Luis Obispo (p37) ..... Santa Barbara (p38)
Thursday, May 26
We gained some time between Santa Barbara and LA, arriving in LAUPT at 1:10 a.m.,
4hr. 10 min. behind schedule. We made our way to the Amtrak bus for our final
destination of Fullerton. The bus departed LAUPT at about 1:45, and we arrived at the
Fullerton Amtrak station at 2:25 a.m. I unloaded our bags from the bus and Donna
waited at the station with the bags while I walked over to the parking structure to get our
car. I picked up Donna and the bags, and we finally arrived home at 2:40 a.m. This was
an improvement over our trip of last June to Portland, when we arrived home at about
4:30 a.m. If I make the trip again, I think that I will consider returning on the Starlight as
far as San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara, and then returning the rest of the way the next
day on the Surfliner.
Click here for more travel reports by Fred Dunn!