TRIP REPORTS

A RARE MILEAGE DAY ON THE AMERICAN ORIENT EXPRESS

Monday June 7 2000.

One of many unusual features of the American Orient Express is that the train occasionally travels on routes that haven't seen passenger service for many years, giving the rail enthusiast the chance to enjoy rare scenery, and perhaps to fill in a mileage map recording routes traveled.

Here is the story of one day on the elegant train's Pacific Coastal Explorer route between Los Angeles and Seattle, a tour of seven day's duration with stops for sightseeing..

After a morning tour of the California State Railway Museum in Sacramento, passengers reboarded the AOE. Pulled by two mighty Genesis engines provided by Amtrak, the train headed northeast towards the legendary Feather River Canyon over what are now Union Pacific freight tracks. This scenic route is now usually reserved for viewing only by locomotive crews, but today the AOE wound through this little-known segment of the Golden State while high tea was being served to its fortunate guests. When the train reached the much-photographed Keddie Wye Bridge, it headed north on the BNSF route over the Inside Gateway, or Bieber Line.

Although the California grasslands are usually turning brown by this time, heavy rains this spring have kept the hills and meadows a verdant green. We head for the round end observation car, New York, formerly the Sandy Creek, which carried the markers for the 1948 Twentieth Century Limited. In the two other lounge cars, passengers are talking, reading, playing board games, or listening to the onboard entertainers playing familiar tunes on the grand piano. We suspect that most of the passengers are not railfans; however, we see a few pacers and photographers bedside the tracks who are recording our progress. This dark blue and cream-colored train will surely photograph well.

Another note about our fellow passengers - who have paid between $3,000 and $5,000 apiece to buy a ticket on this journey - they are dressed in a surprisingly casual manner, with shorts and Dockers in evidence throughout. While this may seem incongruous aboard a train with inlaid wood paneling, plush carpets, rich upholstery, elegant floral arrangements, and an onboard crew dressed in formal, tuxedo-like uniforms, it is apparently the favored mode of dress for contemporary wealthy Americans on vacation.

The train crew are clean-cut, with a freshly-scrubbed and enthusiastic demeanor. They are low-key, polite, and friendly without being too familiar.

Soon we are skirting the shores of Lake Almanor, with a glimpse or two of snowy Mt. Lassen to the west. This is the Mount Lassen National Forest, a wilderness of Ponderosa and Juniper trees, with no sights of human enroachment. We gaze at meadows and lakes and white pelicans as we roll along.

The New York sports a round sofa in the raise area at the rear, giving passengers a chance to look outward through the surrounding extra height windows. In the center of the car is a bar with single-malt Scotch and other upscale offerings. Lounge chairs and a few booths complete the dÈcor. The carpet is dark blue with a white pattern. Everything inside this train looks even better in reality than it does in the brochure.

And now comes the high point of the journey. After the other passengers finish consuming their pre-dinner cocktails, served this evening with bowls of salted nuts and quail's eggs, they all depart for the early dinner sitting at 6:30 PM. Even the bartender decamps; leaving Ted, our friend Ann, and me to finish our Glenlivits in solitary splendor as we roll past the juniper and ponderosa -covered landscape with nary a shopping mall or freeway to spoil the enthralling wilderness outside.

We have the illusion that this private railcar is ours alone. To this unforgettable moment, we raise out glasses in a toast as we gaze out at the meadows, brooks, and distant snow-streaked, mountains.

Eventually, hunger brings us back to reality and we head for one of the two dining cars, which is elegantly fitted out with burgundy-colored tablecloths and napkins, crystal wine glasses, and flowers. Wine is complimentary as is of course the five course dinner, but the portions are moderate so that you don't feel too full for dessert.

After the sweet-potato soup, I enjoyed a green salad with pecans and brown sugar. There were five entree selections (one of them vegetarian).. Ann chose the scallops, Ted the filet mignon, and I had the salmon, served on a bed of wild rice with okra and a raspberry sauce on the side. Our wine glasses were kept full throughout the meal.

I was torn between the creamy roasted pineapple soup and the chocolate pecan pie for dessert, so the waiter brought both.

To the west, the sun was setting amid streaks of glowing orange clouds that framed the silhouette of glacier-covered Mt Shasta., providing an angle from which we had neither observed the mountain, nor seen a photograph of it. A typical magic day on this special train was coming to an end.

The Coast Starlight, The Mount Baker International, BC Ferries, and BC Rail (or How to Visit British Columbia Without Leaving the Ground)
By Ted Blishak

Fri, May 12.

Every time we leave Klamath Falls on Amtrak's Coast Starlight, we deal anxiously with the question, "When will the train leave?" When traveling northbound, we call Amtrak Central Reservations before retiring, just to make sure the train has not been greatly delayed or even annulled for some reason. If the train has been reported leaving Emeryville, California, on time, we plan to get up early to call again for news about the scheduled 755am departure from our hometown. The typical story goes like this.

Central Reservations advises that the train is running about an hour behind schedule but can make up time into Klamath Falls. They have no way of knowing exactly where the train is located, because its night time stops in Marysville, Redding, and Dunsmuir are not manned stations, and the locomotive's Global Positioning System (GPS) is not functional. At 7am we can phone our local station to get the real story. They have contacts with the Union Pacific dispatcher; Klamath Falls being a crew change point. The story this morning was somewhat typical, "Don't believe what you hear from Central Reservations, the train will be arriving only twenty minutes late this morning, at 805am."

We rushed through breakfast at home and arrived at the station in time to check our luggage, only to find that Coast Starlight #14 had been held up (peering down the track we saw the headlight of the stationary Genesis engine) behind a BNSF freight that has been dispatched onto Track 2 immediately in front of the station. Amtrak always uses Track 2, requiring every passenger to manhandle his baggage across Track 1 between the train and the station platform. Our local newspaper, the Herald and News, reported recently that the reason for this is the lack of a remote crossover, which would cost about $20,000 to install. Since the Union Pacific will not spend this kind of big bucks, the City of Klamath Falls has been seeking Federal funds to pay for this capital improvement.

After about fifteen minutes, it was announced that Amtrak would be manually switched over to Track 1, an unprecedented event, but one that took another thirty minutes to work out. After fifteen minutes of boarding and crew changes, we finally left town about one hour behind, with the BNSF freight stilling fouling Track 2. Since the BNSF yards are three miles south, from whence the freight had just arrived after the crew change, its pause here in the UP yards next to the Amtrak station remains a mystery. UP dispatching has become very imaginative in its methods of delaying Amtrak, as well as the freight trains of the BNSF, which shares the rails between Klamath Falls and Chemult.

While most crew members of the Coast Starlight work hard to maintain a fine level of service in spite of the reduction of amenities such as the on-board entertainers and passenger gift packs, we are beginning to notice petty little bean counter reductions like inadequate portions of salad dressing and smaller slices of cake and pie. Not enough to really complain about, but enough to make you wonder if the Coast Starlight will remain the best train in the Amtrak stable or if it will be downgraded to match the other long-distance trains.

One service improvement that we have not experienced before is through checking of baggage to Vancouver, BC. We had heard on our last trip from the baggage room staff in Seattle that this service was in the works, but the news hasn't been passed down the line. Our local Amtrak agent had to phone Seattle to find out how to handle it. Special transfer tags are placed on your bags to advise the Seattle people to store them overnight and transfer them to the Talgo the next morning. You can just hand carry your Seattle overnight bag and you will not have to handle your checked baggage again until you claim it outside the Talgo baggage car in Vancouver.

Since we were not burdened with our heavy luggage, we were able to arrive early at the orderly taxi lineup outside the King Street Station to catch a cab to the new W Hotel Seattle, where we were greeted and checked in with unprecedented speed, courtesy, and efficiency. In moments we were inside our comfortable and "with-it" room, furnished with more pillows than we had ever seen in any other hotel room, as well as a CD player and a bubbling desk top fountain. Too bad we had so little time in Seattle, for we were merely making a connection to Vancouver on next morning's Mt Baker International.

Many Coast Starlight passengers had elected to take the connecting Amtrak Thruway bus that evening to Vancouver. We have tried that and found that a four hour bus ride, arriving at its destination after midnight, was not a comfortable way to end a luxurious day on the Coast Starlight. Many passengers wonder why the Coast Starlight does not just continue on to Vancouver, British Columbia, as its end point. But while this might be mightily convenient for passengers traveling to Canada, it would be very inconvenient for all of the business and governmental entities involved in its passage, not to mention the crew members, who would be expected to work until midnight and beyond.

The connections Amtrak provides into Vancouver BC require (a) an overnight hotel in Seattle - you arrive late on the Coast Starlight and leave early on the Mt. Baker International Talgo - or (b) climbing aboard the Amtrak Throughway Bus for a midnight arrival in Vancouver, BC. We always choose (a).
Sat, May 13.

After a brief taxi ride from the W Hotel, we were checked in and pre-boarded on our Business Class coach in just a few minutes, immediately repairing to the adjacent dining car, where we had an excellent breakfast. The weather was fine and we enjoyed views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, arriving in Vancouver just fifteen minutes late.

Peter Armstrong, founder and CEO of Rocky Mountaineer Railtours, met us at the train station. (Amtrak, VIA Rail Canada, and Rocky Mountaineer all use this station.) Peter took us into the yards for a look at his two new Gold-Leaf Dome cars.

"We just took delivery of these; they'll be making their inaugural run on tomorrow's train," he explained. "This brings our total to eight domes, and we'll run some of the into Jasper as well as to Banff this year." Rocky Mountaineer, with its innovative daylight-only trip through the Canadian Rockies, is celebrating its tenth year in operation..

We checked into the Westin Grande, then departed with our rental car to North Vancouver for the BC Rail Dinner Train. We were surprised, when we reached the entrance to the Lion's Gate Bridge, to learn that it was undergoing a "random closure" due to a construction project. It took nearly one and a half hours to find our way via the Second Narrows Bridge. Fortunately, we were able to reach BCRail by cell phone and they gave us directions as we went, and actually held the train for three minutes. Zooming into the parking area, we were met by a member of the train staff who handed us our prepaid tickets and directed us to a reserved parking space. After boarding our assigned full-length dome dining car, we got the highball and were on our way. (Travel advisory - check with your hotel concierge before making your way to North Vancouver this year!)

Our steak and salmon dinners were exquisitely prepared and served by Delta Hotels Catering between North Vancouver and Porteau Cove, where the train stopped over for thirty minutes while we danced to the big band music of Night Train., then strolled out onto the pier to watch the scuba divers.

On our return trip dessert was served at our dome table in the former Milwaukee Road full-length dome lounge car. After dessert we repaired to the former Santa Fe Super Chief Turquoise Room Pleasure Dome Lounge Car for an after dinner liquor. The young train staff was fascinated with my tale of speeding across the American Southwest at ninety miles per hour in what could have been this very same lounge car on the Super Chief in 1968.

Sun, May 14. The Royal Hudson steam engine has been put into the shops for extensive repairs, so our steam excursion this morning was pulled by Consolidation 3716. Our Parlour Car ticket placed us in the last car of the train, which was a dining car, with full white linen and silver service. An excellent brunch was served by the same caterer that handles the dinner train. During the two hour layover at Squamish there are available several optional activities offered by Pacific Spirit Tours, including glacier flights by helicopter or light plane. We opted for a bus tour to Shannon Falls, a raging torrent dropping 1700 feet from the northern facing cliffs overlooking Howe Sound. Other options would have been to return by boat to Vancouver, motorcoach to Whistler for an overnight stay and returning to Vancouver on BC Rail's Cariboo Dayliner, or heading north to Prince George on the Dayliner.

On our return trip, we had tickets for Club Service, which was a coach in which a basket of muffins and a pot of coffee was placed on a self service counter. By the time we were seated, the basket was empty, and was obviously not going to be refilled. We decided to upgrade to the Parlour Car again, and were offered a choice of High Tea or lunch. I would have to recommend that when you ride this train that you don't even consider anything less than the Parlour Car, which gives you as fine a dining experience as the dinner train, and between courses, you can stand on the vestibule to listen to stack talk.

Mon, May 15 through May 18, we traveled by BC Ferry to the Sunshine Coast (a remote part of B.C. north of Vancouver which can only be reached by ferry or small aircraft), then to Courtnay onVancouver Island and back to Horseshoe Bay on the mainland.

Fri, May 19. This morning we picked up a Budget Rental Lincoln Town Car and drove to Whistler, about two hours to the north in the Coast Range. Next time, we'll take the BC Rail Cariboo Dayliner. As we discovered on our trip to North Vancouver, driving in this area is fraught with complexities. All signage is geared to the local drivers rather than tourists, and traffic flow is never quite smooth or direct to anywhere. For example, the Lion's Gate Bridge, the main northbound route out of the city, does not connect directly to Highway 1, the main route to the north. The bridge exits on surface streets which eventually lead you to Highway 1, which in turn leads you directly to the ferry landing at Horseshoe Bay. If you are headed for Whistler and points north, you must exit Highway 1, but when ferry traffic is backed up, there is no access to the exit. Locals in the know, leave the highway at one exit before the signed exit, but tourists end up at the ferry terminal asking anyone we can find how to get out of Horseshoe Bay and back onto the main highway, which eventually is possible with several round abouts. Although Whistler is a world class resort claiming over two million visitors per season, the highway is mostly of secondary quality. It was the longest two hour drive in memory, with bumper to bumper traffic. For visitors, I would recommend the train, which leaves at 7am and arrives about 930am. Most resorts will provide a pickup at the BC Rail Station at Whistler, and once you arrive at your hotel, a car is not necessary, as everything is within walking or shuttle bus distance. We checked in to the Canadian Pacific Chateau Whistler for two relaxing days of strolling the Village, napping, and dining. There was snow in the upper slopes, and many lifts were open for skiers and snow boarders.

Sun, May 21. The drive back to Vancouver was as hectic as the drive out. We missed the poorly marked exit to the Lion's Gate Bridge, but were able to find the bridge >from the next exit. Dropping our luggage off at the Pacific Central Station, I returned our Budget car and was given a ride back to the station, where we began the check-in routine. First pickup a Customs and Immigration form. Then get into the Business Class check-in line where an Amtrak agent checks your tickets, assigns car and seat numbers, and makes sure you have all the proper forms. Next go to the Immigration table, where an agent checks your documentation. Then a Red Cap is able to check your bags into the baggage car, but only as far as Seattle, where the bags will be placed in the baggage room where you can recheck them to your next destination.

This boarding procedure begins at 430pm. We were on board and in our seats before 5pm. The diner opens a 5pm, but some passengers were ignoring the sign to wait to be seated at 5pm, so we picked a table for two, and at 5pm they began taking dinner orders. Four of the tables were not available, saved for use for an overbooking situation, but later the dining car attendant was told that he could use them for dining car customers, as there were many no shows. The dinner was excellent as usual on the Talgo, and the American dining car crew must be hand picked for this train, as they are much more efficient, quiet, and courteous than the typical long distance dining car crews. They are, in a word, more like Canadians in personality than the typical American. Amtrak thus helps to ease the culture shock between the polite Canadian and the flamboyant American personalities.

On arrival in Seattle, only about 20 minutes late, again unburdened by our luggage, we swiftly taxied to the Paramount Hotel where we checked in, checked our e-mail and retired to rest up for next day's trip aboard the Coast Starlight for Klamath Falls and home.

Mon. May 22. We enjoyed an early business breakfast at the Paramount dining room with Michelle Ott, our sales representative for VIA Rail Canada, BC Rail, and Brewster Tours of Canada. Michelle drove us to the King Street Station, which is now quite easy to find, next to the pile of rubble where the King Dome once stood. After claiming and rechecking our baggage to Klamath Falls, we were swiftly preboarded to sleeping car 1132, Deluxe Room E. Our car attendant, Lee, was one of most quietly friendly and efficient attendants that we have enjoyed on this train, more proof that it is the quality of the personnel which is one of the most important aspects of the service business. Ice and bottled water were delivered to our room, and later lunch, so that we could avoid the long waits for dining car seating that occur when this train is full.

That evening before dinner, we met a long time client, Paul Kassen, from Seattle, in the Pacific Parlour Car. Like many of our clients, Paul was a familiar voice on the phone, but we had never met face-to-face before. He was beginning a week long journey just as ours was coming to an end. We might have enjoyed a pre dinner glass of wine in the Parlour Car, except that as usual on most Amtrak long distance trains, the bar is often closed during cocktail hour so that the attendant can have his dinner break. I strolled up to the Lounge CafÈ car, only to find that the bar there was closed there as well. I suppose that the attendants are friends, and enjoy taking their break together. Experienced Amtrak riders remember to bring their own bottle if they wish to enjoy a predinner cocktail. This is important also for those who enjoy a nightcap prior to retiring, for the bars are usually closed before many of the passengers have retired.

We enjoyed a late sitting dinner and found the dining car full to capacity, even at 830pm. Although we had lost time en route for the usual no particular reason, we made up some time on the padded Eugene to Klamath Falls segment, arriving only about fifteen minutes late into our home town. The baggage was efficiently delivered, and we had our Lariat loaded up and were driving out of the station even while the train was still standing there on Track 2.

From: Steve January

Date: 22 May 2000

Subject: Trip To Canada

Sylvia, just wanted to let you know that our trip to Canada was great!! The Rocky Mountaineer is difinitely a GREAT experience. They sure do have it all together when it comes to service and exceeding one's expectations. the Cariboo Prospector and Skeena were also very good, but obviously the Rocky is in a league of its own. We had very good weather the whole week and saw plenty of wildlife, both from the trains and from our car between Jasper and Banff. That road is also a fantastic drive to make. The hotel room at the Waterfront in Vancouver had a fantastic view of the harbor, and the room at the Rimrock Hotel in Banff also had a great view.

Every time we go to Canada, be it on business or pleasure, we are always impressed with the hospitality and attitude of people in the service sector.

Thanks again and we'll be in touch!

Steve and Sherly January