The California ZephyrThe original California Zephyr was a passenger train operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad between Chicago and Denver, by the the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad between Denver and Salt Lake City, and by the Western Pacific Railroad from Salt Lake City to Oakland. The train ran from 1949 to 1970, although the Denver & Rio Grande managed to keep their highly scenic portion in operation until they joined Amtrak in 1983. With the availability of the D&RGW route, Amtrak created it's own California Zephyr, following much of the old route from Chicago to Salt Lake City, but using a slightly different route into Emeryville on Union Pacific track. Just north of the Sacramento station are the eight surviving buildings from a massive maintenance facility for the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railways. The Central Pacific first began using the site in 1863 and at its height in the 1930s the site had over 90 buildings on 200 acres. Steam locomotives required constant maintenance to stay in operating condition and this was the primary activity on this site, although there was some new construction as well. The facility remained in operation until 1999 and future plans for the site include a museum and high speed rail station.
Around Colfax, CA, the line begins to climb into the Sierra Nevada mountains and becomes much more scenic.
Descending into Truckee, CA, the route winds around Donner Lake, which for some reason is remembered for a group of 87 migrants from Illinois (!) who got stranded here in 1846 and resorted to cannibalism to survive. After Truckee, the line briefly followed the Truckee River, which has it's source in Lake Tahoe.
Along with the Sierra Nevadas, a highlight of the California Zephyr is the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad route that winds its way through the Rocky Mountains between Salt Lake City and Denver. Unfortunately, on my trip a rock slide had closed the route, necessitating a reroute through the Union Pacific's Overland Route through Wyoming. However, this was not entirely bad as it gave us a unique opportunity to see areas that were part of the original transcontinental railroad and hadn't seen regular passenger rail service since Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr had been replaced by the California Zephyr. While certainly not as dramatic as a trip through the snowy Rocky Mountains, there was a certain austere beauty to the snow-covered landscape. And with numerous instances of deer and antelope playing, along with birds of prey and sporadic splotches of blood on the snow, the frosty scene was surprisingly full of life.
Lacking any station stops in the 16-hour trip between Salt Lake City and Denver, the train made a smoke stop at the Union Pacific facility in Green River, WY to get a fresh crew. I also got to notice that we were being led by a Union Pacific freight locomotive, reputedly because we needed the extra power to get through the heavy snow.
In stark contrast to the Sinclair Refinery outside Rawlins, we passed a wind farm which, I believe, is the Foote Creek Rim, a comparatively small 60 MW facility built in phases between 1998 and 2000 in Carbon County.
Tiring a bit from looking at snow for 10 hours and surrounded by empty seats (since the folks for stops between Denver and Salt Lake had to leave the train and take a bus), I decided to do some documentation of my Superliner car seat. The bi-level coach has bathrooms, luggage racks and a small number of seats on the lower level. The upper level is all seats with 17 rows of seats on the starboard side and two sets of 7 rows of seats on the port side, interrupted in the middle by a stairwell, garbage cans and a water fountain. This configuration gives a total of 62 seats on the upper level with an additional 24 seats on cars with lower-level seating. Seats are 46" wide and 25" deep. Rows in this configuration were separated by 52" giving a leg area of around 27". Aisles are 21" wide. The seats recline steeply and have a retractable leg rest. Small children can lay flat on a single seat and larger folks can recline in a fetal position across two seats if they're lucky enough not to have a seat mate (or have one that is small and familiar enough to cuddle with). I found the most comfortable sleeping option was to slip as far down in the seat as possible, with my legs supported by the leg rest and extending deeply under the seat in front of me. A rolled-up sweatshirt in the seat bend provided a little extra back support, although I was rarely able to get more than an hour of sleep before discomfort or some other noise (like loudly snoring fellow passengers) would awaken me. The next best option was to sleep in the lounge car, where you could stretch out over multiple seats. The best option is, of course, a sleeper, but at up to $1,000 for some heavily-loaded long-distance trains, the cost is prohibitive. If the predictions of increased rail passenger traffic come true, seating configurations may more frequently resemble the higher density of Amtrak's commuter line services. As such, ample leg room might become a premium amenity.
As the day ended and we neared Northern Colorado, the terrain becomes a bit more dramatic as the snow became less deep and dense.
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