Amtrak Coast Starlight Trains on the Coast Subdivision (November 15th and 16th, 2024)

Last week, my mother and I took a journey over to Paso Robles to meet a friend that she hasn't seen since high school for a long time, and I was able to get some shots of the Amtrak Coast Starlight at a few select locations along the Coast Subdivision. The line isn't as busy with train traffic south of San Jose but I am absolutely ready for this route to see more service when the new Central Coast train for Amtrak is finally established between Downtown San Jose and San Luis Obispo. It felt nice to see some more ALC-42's in service on this line, including 301, the Day One Heritage engine trailing behind 309, the very first ALC-42 to be painted in Phase VII. Enjoy!
Dates and Locations:
0:00
Salinas, California - November 15th, 2024
This station did not really turn out the way I thought it was going to be. We found out that there was a bunch of trash on the south end along the platform and some people were also trespassing on the tracks. It seems that this area in town has a homeless problem like those areas in Oakland and Stockton. Can't wait for more passenger service to run into Monterey County. This train even had 2 baggage cars behind the power. Locomotive Triple 3 was also looking filthy on the nose.
2:51
Gonzales, California - November 15th, 2024
Knowing we would beat the train when we reach Paso Robles, we decided to chase the train through the beautiful countryside and got ahead of it easily as we were stopping to get gas. We show them who's faster as we got back on the road.
4:50
Paso Robles, California - November 15th, 2024
After seeing this train and the Northbound Coast Starlight here, we would go check out a bit of the town and meet my mom's friend before going to our hotel for the weekend in Atascadero. We even went to an amazing sports themed pizza place nearby called Marv's Pizza And Sports Bar, and the food there was amazing. 312 on the Northbound Starlight was also an intriguing sight seeing as the locomotive was involved in a fiery collision with a road vehicle in Alabama on a test train to re-establish a new service on the Gulf Coast.
9:52
San Luis Obispo, California
Ah, San Luis Obispo! This station I also happened to visit in 2012 when we still had a nice mix of classic power, and I even saw 2 of the SD60M's that used to run on UP at the time. On the day we visited, we happened to visit the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum where I even happened to see some awesome displays of Pacific Surfliner stuff and other things dedicated to railroading on the Central Coast. Purchasing a PNW Railroading DVD from 7idea Productions and a classic BN Metra timetable from 1969 was a nice gift. Additionally, 309 has been another ALC-42 I've always wanted to see since the Phase VII paint on locomotives had been coming along. This is my second time seeing 301.
Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains 761 and 794 are also shot moving into the siding and departing for LAUPT whilst there was engineering work south of Irvine. It'll be even better when a few more trains run to and from this town, although another platform + track or two will likely have to be installed when the new Central Coast service starts running. My battery was already too low to film 11's departure. I did want to see the Southbound Coast Starlight the day after while we were going home, but it was taking a while and it was a bit sketchy in some areas near Gilroy Station.
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