Harpo Jaeger dot com

The 2016 Grand West Coast Trainventure

Today I begin the 2016 Grand West Coast Trainventure, in which I take Amtrak from Seattle, WA back home to Tucson, AZ. Why, you may ask? Because trains are awesome, and the Coast Starlight is supposed to be one of the most beautiful routes in the country. I’ve wanted to take it for some time, especially after moving to Tucson via Amtrak from Boston.

Did I mention trains are awesome?

I depart Seattle this evening (on the Cascades, actually), arriving in Portland tonight. I’ll stay there for a few days to visit friends, then proceed to the SF Bay, where I’ll stay for another few days. Finally, I take the Coast Starlight the rest of the way down to LA, change to the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle and end up back in Tucson.

Main hall of Seattle Union Station Here’s a nice picture I took today of Seattle’s Union Station. Unfortunately, Amtrak trains depart from a different station (King Street), but that one looks nice too. I’ll try to get a good picture on the way out. And you can certainly expect lots of pictures, or at least some posts, from the train (if the Internet is passable) or my various stops along the way.

Lastly, I’m going to try out some of the frequencies listed here to see if I can pick up any dispatch/crew traffic along the way. It’ll be interesting to start learning how that all works.