In a spur of the moment conversation with a friend, I may be taking a Trip fo San Fransisco next week by rail from Salt Lake. What Route does this take? Any Ideas on Travel Time?
My experience (annual trips on the CZ for the last 7 years) is:
The westbound is, of course, always late so you’ll leave in the wee small hours. It’s an all day trip so you’ll be in SF that evening (or night-which makes for a beautiful view from the Bay Bridge). If you have a choice of where to get off the bus in SF, I prefer the Ferry Building. It’s right by the subway, street cars (including the “F” line that runs vintage/historic cars in everyday service-not just a tourist line).
If you like the desert landscape, the trip across Nevada will be gorgeous. If not…well, not. After Reno, the mountains begin so if you like that, it will be gorgeous. If not…well, not. (I much prefer mountain scenery.)
Sit on the right hand side if you can, you’ll get the best view from Martinez to Oakland along the Bay.
That’s all off the top of my head.
The current schedule is a 11:35pm departure from Salt Lake and a 7:50pm arrival at Emeryville. Earlier this year, approximately 3 hours of “padding” was added to the segment across Nevada to be realisitic about times due to delays from a major UP track project. Some/most of the padding might come back out with the fall timetable, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
The quick and simple answer is that the route is over Union Pacific rails. One of the two previous posters listed the scheduled time.
If our experience on UP controlled rail this summer was any indicator, just plan on being late. Period. Don’t schedule a must do meeting within 4 hours of the planned arrival! (One family on our southbound trip missed a funeral because of that…) I guess folks who dont pay much attention to AMtrack and its issues (and those of it’s railroad “partners”) expect to get there when the schedule says they will…go figure.
The trip itself (Central Oregon to Sacramento) was pleasent, great scenery, and the Amtrack Crew worked hard to make it work, but UP seems to delight in passenger delays.
Since we were depending on family to pick us up on either end, it was irksome. And “Julie” (Amtrak’s automated voice on schedules) just cant seem to bring herself to be accurate after delays start…(“but they may make up time…”) some folks were waiting around quiet a bit for us to arrive, on either end. Interestingly enough, most of our wait time happened in the dark hours, so we got to actually see more of the scenery than we thought we would…so it worked out OK for us, less OK for those waiting for us…
The only thing I would do different next time is make sure we had a cell phone along to let folks know “real time” what the expectations are. Even in what looked like failry remote areas, people had cell service. It would have been easy to make contact as we passed through populated areas, to update arrival times…
RJ - the route is generally along the south shore of the Great Salt Lake to Wendover. Directional running along the fomer WP & SP lines to Reno. Then up the Truckee River and across Donner Pass (former SP) to Sacramento and on to Emoryville (Oakland). Take your camera.
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Well it turns out that my friend couldn’t go, so I decided to just jump in the truck and go for a drive for a few days.
Tuesday the 18th I set out of Rock Springs to the north bound for Riverton. Along the way I took a back road over the south end of the Winds, This turned out to be a big mistake becasue they are in the middle of wideining and paving it. I was waiting for the pilot dar for almost 45 minutes! I got into Riverton after stopping by the Sinks and had lunch with a good friend who lives there, and then I set out for Thermopolis, through the amazing Wind River Canyon. When I arrived in Thermopolis, I decided to stop at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. It was interesting, but still the same old thing of a bunch of fossils and dinosaur bones. I then pointed the truck in the Direction of Cody, Where I would stop for the day.
Wednesday, I got up and went down the street to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. If you are ever in Cody, and have a day to spend there, DO IT!! It is well worth it.
Then with some Time to kill, I headed towards Powell, to stop and see the Heart Mountian Relocation Center. This was a camp that existed from 1942 to 1945 to almost literally incarcerate all people of Japaneese decent, US Citizen or not, because of secutrity concerns during WWII. There were a few famous people interned there, Including Ex US Department of Transportation Director Norman Meneta, and Pat Moriarti (Mr. Myagi for the Karatie Kid). All that is left today, is the old hospital building, the boilerhouse and stack, and another building. There are a few monuments there and a small walk trail with information on it.
Thursday I set out west from Cody. This took me over Sylvan Pass into Yellowstone, I cut across the park and before I knew it I was in the small Montana town of West Yellowston