Amtrak's National Train Day

Just like I threatened last time, I did indeed attend Amtrak's 5th Annual National Train Day at Union Station in downtown L.A. Normally, I drive to Woodland Hills and park at the Promenade Mall. Then I catch one of MTA's Orange Line buses and ride all the way across the Valley to North Hollywood, where I catch a Red Line train and ride to Union Station. Today, I drove straight to North Hollywood. Like last week, I went down, dowwwn, dowwwwwwn into the North Hollywood Metro station. It hasn't changed since last week, but who knows? Maybe one day they'll dig it deeper.

Here is one of the fare machines. Metro charges $5 for an all-day pass. That's fair to me; or should I say, "fare?" By the way, even though this particular machine suggested that I Push button H, I didn't do so. Therefore, I really don't know what happens if you do. Maybe you'll get a taco for all I know.

All Metro passengers must pass through these turnstiles. They didn't have these at one time because Metro originally designed its stations to be on the honor system. But too many people were riding without paying their fare, so they've resorted to these.

Note that one of the turnstiles doesn't have anything blocking a person from going through it. I've heard that the one in the middle is a trap. If dishonest non-fare payers use that one, thinking they've pulled one over on Metro, rumor has it that a death ray will turn them into sawdust. Needless to say, I didn't choose that turnstile. Even though I paid my fare, I'm not going to risk becoming hamster bedding.

Down this much shorter escalator is the actual boarding platform for the Metro Red Line trains. You can see the edge of the platform and part of the track on the left and right side.

I took this shot of an incoming train. Then after I boarded, one of the rent-a-cops sought me out and yelled at me. "DID YOU KNOW THOSE TRAINS COME INTO THE STATION AT 70 mph?!?!? IF YOU'D HAVE SLIPPED, YOU'D BE DEAD NOW!!!" Yeah, and we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we? (Please pardon the sarcasm, but at no time was I in any danger. If trains blew into stations at 70 mph, they'd suck people off of the sidewalk up on the street. I saw a bug running faster than this train as it pulled in.)

Less than a half hour after boarding the Red Line train, it pulled into Union Station. I got in line to see the displays and waited for less than the posted hour. When I got to the display area, I saw Silver Splendor, one of four dome cars that were on display.

All of the dome cars were vintage 1940s-era rolling stock. Along with Silver Splendor, there were Silver Lariat, Silver Rapids, and Silver Solarium, which brings up the rear. Inside Silver Solarium, this is a typical private compartment. Sofas can be turned into beds for nighttime.

Looking toward the rear of Silver Solarium, on the bottom level, you can see the curved shape of the car. As I mentioned before, Silver Solarium is at the end of the train.

If you ran through that door and jumped out onto the track, this is what you'd see moving away from you while you sat on your sorry (and sore) butt:

You think this is a fancy restaurant? Think again. It's inside Silver Rapids.

How'd you like to take a train trip aboard this car? This is the dome part of Silver Rapids.

GET YOUR FEET OFF THE DAVENPORT!!! Back in the day, your kids might have heard that if they rode in this car on the lower level.

When you ride in Silver Lariat, you always know which car you're riding in, as you're reminded every time you look at the top of the seats.

Inside Silver Splendor, the living room theme continues with more sofas and tables for passengers. This is travel the way it was meant to be.

We're done with the classic railcars. Now let's see what Amtrak has to offer. The car below is an Amtrak Pacific Parlor car. It was built in the 1950s and originally ran on the Santa Fe as a bi-level car. These bi-level cars were a couple of feet shorter in height than Amtrak's Superliner cars. But people were shorter then, too, so it made sense. Amtrak refurbished them to current standards, and quite honestly did a nice job.

By comparison, here is the interior of one of Amtrak's current cars:

Same idea, but with bigger windows and sideways facing seats. Not a bad way to watch scenery go by. But if you want to eat on an Amtrak train, this is where you do it.

Not quite as elegant as other onboard dining facilities--sort of the Carl's Jr. of dining on the rails. To be fair, Amtrak's food really isn't bad--it beats airline food by a mile or twelve from what I remember. Now if they'd only switch to Coke...

Moving on, Amtrak had some Metrolink equipment on display and I went ahead and walked through one of the cars. This is the interior of one of the new Hyundai-Rotem cars that Metrolink has purchased within the last 18 months. These new cars have been designed to withstand the forces of a collision and keep passengers safer than the older Bombardier cars.

Speaking of the older Bombardier cars, here's one that apparently has gone to the bikes. Actually, what Metrolink has done is to remove some of the seats from these cars to make room for more people who bring their bikes as a means of commuting. These cars are easy to spot because of the graphics.

In honor of Amtrak's 40th anniversary last year, they painted a fleet of their most modern diesel-electric locomotives in the various color schemes that they've used over the years. Today, they only had a Genesis series model with Amtrak's original 1971 paint job on it. By the way, that's the MTA building in the background. Just thought you'd like to know that. I hope they don't have turnstiles in there.

Here it is parked next to a 1927 Santa Fe steam locomotive:

Speaking of which...with only one exception, I've attended all of the National Train Day events since 2008 when the event started. This event doesn't really change much, but this year I got to do something a little different. The old Santa Fe steam locomotive, No. 3751, was not only at the event, but was open for tours of the cab. For only $10, you got to climb into the cab and listen to one of the guys who operates it tell you everything you wanted to know and probably even things that you didn't want to know. Miracle of miracles, I managed to snag the next to last available ticket of the day.

Upon climbing up into the cab, I noticed the biggest collection of knobs, dials, gauges, cords, switches, wires, and buttons that I'd ever seen. Why, it would take an engineer to know how to work all of this stuff!

The talk was very interesting; unfortunately, we weren't able to take a ride or ring the bells or blow the whistle. Because we were the last tour of the day, we got a little more than the 15 allotted minutes. To all who think it's SO important to be first, think again...

There is nothing like travel by rail. Amtrak does a decent job, but it pales in comparison to what we had decades ago. Thanks to those who have a love of trains, these classic railcars live on. The owners of these cars book tours, and for a premium, the average Joe can experience travel like it was in the old days.

National Train Day 2012 is now behind us, but I look forward to next year.