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Train to Yesterday Up the historic West Coast by rail.
This is the place to catch Amtrak's Coast Starlight north to Seattle, to take in the West Coast's most riveting scenery and get a quick look at America's rich history beside the Pacific. It's where savvy travelers catch a train to yesterday. Amtrak gets tough criticism in some parts of the country, but after looking over timetables for its major interstate routes, we discovered Amtrak's 33-hour Coast Starlight ride from L.A. to Seattle followed much of the old El Camino Real (colonial Spain's "King's Highway"), hugged southern California's fabled coastline, and after passing through the historic San Francisco Bay area, hit the capital at Sacramento before pushing north through Oregon and Washington, the bountiful landscape that first drew the fur trade to the Northwest. Calls to Amtrak about historic sites along the route yielded only the promise that the train would get you from Point A to Point B for a specific fare and on time. Agents offered Grayline Bus tours or "City Escapades" at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle, and overnight package stays in those cities as well as in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo—all stops on the Coast Starlight run. But, except for a tour of news magnate William Randolph Hearst's "Castle" near San Luis Obispo, their descriptions of side trips usually emphasized scenery, not history.
The Coast Starlight is the railroad's single most popular run. Our friends, Libby and Larry Noble, waited an hour to board it one bright day this past September. She's a former ad agency executive and he's a working artist; both share a sharp appreciation for history and found they could not have waited in a more inspiring setting. Capped by a distinctive plaster clock tower, surrounded by palms so long they seem giddy, Union Station was designed to evoke the exotic, to make routine travel hint at something more to come. In any of the more than 60 movies in which Union Station has appeared, when characters boarded trains there, you knew they were going someplace: to their doom or a brighter tomorrow. As the Nobles discovered on leaving L.A., that sensation of "something more to come" takes its time showing up. On board and underway, they found their first look out the broad windows of their rail car less than inspiring. "Leaving Los Angeles," Libby told us, "feeds the notion that trains take you down the backstreets of the nation. For over an hour you nose past America's junkyard—gang graffiti, warehouses, housing projects, and urban sprawl. "The scene changes as you begin to climb the Santa Susanna Pass. The train attendant points out that this area with its cactus fields and imposing rock formations was the backdrop for many Hollywood westerns. Minutes later the train rounds a curve, and an unobstructed view of the Pacific takes you by surprise, with beach-goers, children racing the waves, artists with their sketch pads, yachtsmen, and fishermen." The Nobles weren't aware of it yet, but one of the historical features of the junket was rolling along behind the other cars. Called the "Los Angeles," it's a private luxury rail car, and on this day some high-roller had paid to have it coupled behind the Starlight for the run to Seattle. Finding out the "Los Angeles" was along for the ride, the Nobles peeked inside and found "music floating out of a sophisticated sound system, red carpeting, a crystal chandelier, and passengers who looked as if they were attending an elegant party." Our gate crasher found out the car was named for its city of origin and had been built by Pullman Standard for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1928. Today, it's leased out by a Walnut Creek, California, company named Uncommon Journeys. The Nobles' own accommodations weren't shabby. The Coast Starlight and many trains on scenic Western routes are made up of cars with observation lounges, video entertainment centers, dining cars, three classes of bedroom coaches, and wheelchair-accessible bedrooms and facilities. They also come with a couple of features ticket agents should remember to point out: on board, passengers can ask for Route Guides—booklets that describe the landscape and historic spots along the way—and can chat with on-board interpreters whose job it is to talk about the scenery and history. On this run, the first historic stop was Santa Barbara, home of Mission Santa Barbara, "the Queen of the Missions." Begun with Native American labor in 1786, completed in 1820, it's one of colonial Spain's original string of 21 missions in California, a day's horseback ride between San Diego and San Francisco.
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Copyright © 2001: Primedia Enthusiast Publications, Inc. and Away.com. All Rights Reserved Image: Photo: Courtesy Amtrak | |
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