To Shiny Rails

After Dad’s and Vickie’s recent visit to California, including the SMVRR business excursion to Seattle, I took Dad home to Kansas City via Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. Predictably, the book I always pack was never cracked. We did nothing but gaze out the window and eat in the dining car (which also involved looking out the window!). Well, there was the occasional bio break, railroad talk, platform wanderings, but by and large it was something of a treasure hunt – what’s around the next bend?! If you want to see the country, the exceptional beauty, the bad, and the ugly, travel by train. You get a perspective like no other. On our second and last night, we were in the southeast corner of Colorado, heading for Kansas, watching a long storm line do its thing a fair distance away. It put on quite a lightning show for hours. And as if that weren’t enough, we saw a meteor (Perseid Meteor Shower) as the skies were perfectly clear near the train. The evening ended with a hilarious comedy routine performed by our car steward over the intercom describing the problem we were having with the toilets: “I’ve got some good news and some bad news…”. Nothing like a good belly laugh to end the day.

That’s not my photo above, but it’s remarkably similar to what we were seeing. I did not have my camera with me. Shocking, I know. The photo came from a royalty-free photo website I often use: http://www.sxc.hu/

Lots of layouts to see, events to attend, and excurstions to ride! And it’s all now in the history books. Here’s an index to the photos we have of the 2012 Central Coast Railroad Festival: http://ccrrf.com/photo-index-2012.html

Dad and I went on a Santa Maria Valley Railroad business excursion to Seattle, for a little business and a little pleasure. What an experience. Private railcars are an exceptional way to travel. Six pages of photos start here: http://JF2.com/120809/

Lynn and I thoroughly enjoyed a Wine Rail Excursion put on by the Central Coast Railroad Festival. We took the Coast Starlight from SLO, over the grade, to Paso Robles where but a few feet away from the train was our destination winery, D’Anbino. The CCRRF offers these excursions every 2nd Sunday of the month; check their website <CCRRF.com>. Check out this web page for photos and more info: http://ccrrf.com/120512.html

We had a great day at the Guadalupe Amtrak Station. People were flowing steadily through the caboose, enjoying the displays in the station, and waiting patiently for the Pacific Surfliners to come through.

All the photos: http://www.friends-smvrr.org/120512.html

This was quite a trip. Went to KC to visit family a little and get caught up on Dad’s backyard railroad. Then on to Omaha for the “main event”, Union Pacific’s Short Line Workshop. The first day (Sunday) was all fun stuff, a train ride on eight of UP’s heritage fleet cars followed by a reception at the Joslyn Art Museum. Monday and Tuesday morning were the workshop itself. And did I mention that I took the Pacific Surfliner SLO-Burbank in order to catch Southwest flights?… Lots of photos: http://jf2.com/110826/110828.html