Train trip ..... part II

The modern version of the California Zephyr train left promptly at 9:22am from Emeryville and after running along San Francisco’s bay reached Davis and soon after Sacramento, Golden State’s capital city.  

We then started the climb of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Their name in Spanish means snow covered (“sierra” for mountain and “nevada” for snow covered). We went thru forests and alpine lakes and reached Reno at 4:06pm.  We had lunch with two train enthusiasts.  Steve was from Iowa and knew a lot about trains.  Barbara was from Ithaca, NY and told us about her daughter an ultra-marathoner who like Forrest Gump is always running.  I asked her to suggest to her daughter to run the Spartathlon, the 153 miles or 246 kilometers ultra marathon from Athens to Sparta in Greece.  The Spartathlon commemorates the run of Pheidippides, who in 490 BC, before the battle of Marathon was sent to Sparta by the Athenians to seek help.  According to Herodotus he arrived at Sparta the day after his departure from Athens!  After his return to Athens presumably by running, Pheidippides fought in Marathon and when the battle was over he ran the 26 miles back to Athens and announced the victory of the Athenians over the Persians.  The story has it that after he said “νενικηκαμεν» that means we won, he died.

After lunch we moved to the observation car that because of its many windows allows for panoramic views of the landscape.  After we left Colfax we saw the American River Canyon and its river.  Gold miners and prospectors mined the river for gold and some struck it rich.  At this point we were at 1,500 feet above the river and the view was stunning.  The train continued its climb over the Sierra Nevada.  This is where tunnel No1 was dug up thru the toughest granite on earth.  The workers worked 24 hours a day and managed to dig approximately 6 inches a day as they did not have power tools. While on the Sierra we saw several passes the early settlers had to negotiate on their way to California.  At the Emigrant Gap the cliffs are so steep that the 1840s pioneers had to lower their horses and wagons and themselves with ropes in order to continue towards California.

We went then by Yuba gap where in 1952 the eastbound train became trapped and immobilized by the snow. The train its 158 passengers became hostages of the blizzard for four days. The National Guard played a major role in their rescue.  Interestingly our train had to stop at the same point because the tracks or ties ahead had become loose and had to be fixed.   We then traveled towards the Donner Pass where the Donner Party was stranded.  They were trapped by heavy snowfall and difficult terrain in the winter 1846-47 and allegedly some practiced cannibalism in order to survive. 

After Reno we started on our crossing of the Nevada Desert had dinner and went to sleep.  Sleeping on the train is an interesting experience.  Some of the passengers dislike it because of the continuous rattling while others like it.  It reminded me of sleeping in a sailboat where the motion is endless but soothing.  

Train trip ..... part I

The California Zephyr is the train that connects Emeryville, California, a town adjacent to Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco to Chicago, Illinois.  At 2,438 miles (3,924 km) it is one of the most scenic train routes, with views of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains and the Colorado River.   

The actress Eleanor Parker who was born in Ohio, broke a bottle of Champagne and declared, “I christen thee the California Zephyr”, and thus she christened the first train in San Francisco on March 19, 1949.  In the same ceremony Soprano Evelyn Corvello sang the Star Spangled Banner. 

We boarded the train in Emeryville.  The train arrived and departed on time.  Daryl a friendly conductor helped us find our car and compartment.  He informed us about the amenities in the car and our compartment, the etiquette and what to expect such as dinner times, snack and other times during the trip.  He helped us load the suitcases and was responsive to all our needs during the entire trip.  Interestingly he knew the names of all passengers in his car and always called us with our last name.  Our room had two large comfortable seats facing each other.  At night Daryl prepared our beds (a lower and an upper).   The compartment had a wall outlet which is very useful for charging smart-phones, computers etc. The last two coaches are sleeper cars.  In front of them is the dinning car and ahead of it is the observation car with more cars between it and the locomotive. 
http://blog.postcardgallery.net/transportation/transport02.htm

The observation car has swiveling seats and large windows on each side as well as ceiling windows.  In the observation car volunteer train enthusiasts provide narration with geographic and historical information of the sites we passed by. The top speed of the train is 80 miles per hour and the trip’s average is 40 miles per hour.

• There are several advantages to traveling by train for example 
• The two seats in our compartment were larger than the first class seats on airplanes.
• There are four clean roomy restrooms in each car.  There was not even one occasion during the 2-½ day trip that a passenger had to wait because they were all occupied.  The shower room was as big as those found in hotels and it was kept clean and like the restrooms it was readily available.
• Breakfast, snacks, drinks, lunch and dinner real china and silver are used and four separate calls made for to accommodate different times passengers are used to and like to eat.
• Amtrak employees are friendly and helpful and they truly serve the passengers’ needs.
• Passengers are for the most part friendly.  They select this mode of transportation, because they are train enthusiasts or they are afraid of flying, or have medical conditions that preclude air travel.   The majority are retirees thus not in a hurry to reach their destination.
• Also there is an abundant opportunity to walk the length of the train from car to car and exercise while looking at beautiful landscapes.  
• The main disadvantage is that it takes two days to travel the distance that the airplane does in four hours.  In any case if time is not an issue it beats air travel hands down and brings back the romance of travel of yesteryear.