Andy Randall 🇺🇦Starting a short train trip today from #seattle to #portland with #amtrak. No decent cafe in King St station it seems, but Zeitgeist coffee is around the corner and does a fabulous latte and decent breakfast sandwich. All set for the #CoastStarlight, departing in 30 mins.
Approaching King St station. Up ahead is… the campanile? Did I just get teleported to Venice (or Berkeley)?
A lovely grand waiting hall in the best #amtrak style. We board through gate 7. Excitement is mounting.
As I walk down the platform, I marvel at the engineering and beauty of the grand old dame of the railways, the #superliner
I am welcomed to my car (number 1130) by our car attendant Marty and head up the stairs to my room. I splashed out a little and got a roomette for this short (planned 4 hour) journey because that’s the only way to be able to eat in the dining car.
One of the perks: free coffee and tea at the end of the car. The dining car isn’t open yet but we are told they are coming round later to make reservations. I’m slightly nervous that I won’t get a reservation, because I’m looking forward to lunch and have to leave the train at 1:45pm, but am sure it will be fine.
And we’re off! Departed on time at 9:50am, sedately rolling past #LumenField on this beautiful crisp sunny morning. I’ve been told the train is called the Coast Starlate because it is always delayed. But so far we are on time and they say we are expected to arrive 5 minutes early.
Impressions: a storage facility full of Teslas, a cement factory with a huge Stars and Stripes on the side, a fresh produce distribution center, a parking lot for dozens of identical unmarked white buses, old brick factories. Industry old and new.
We’re in Boeing country here. A field of Cessnas parked next to the railway at King County International Airport (I guess you can fly to Canada?).
We’re out of the Seattle metro area now, so there’s open country but still a few industrial sites and acres and acres of parking lots. Where do all these cars come from? Where do they go? What do they think while they’re parked there all day long?
Now: farms. More huge car parks. Some kind of animal farm (pigs? cows? can only see the manure piles between the rows of massive stalls.)
Wow this Safeway distribution center is just unbelievably huge. When I go to the local supermarket I don’t think about how the food gets there, but the logistics behind it are incredible.
Beautiful wintry trees, fields and ponds juxtaposed with bland human-made nothingness of white box buildings and black tarmac.
We take a turn right, westwards, toward Tacoma and I spy the cranes of the port in the distance.
Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, called təˡqʷuʔbəʔ in the Puget Sound Salish dialect. It is locally known as the "City of Destiny" because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century.
While we are stopped, let’s take a moment to appreciate the retro-chic aesthetic of my roomette. The Superliners were built between 1975 and 1996, so this is a 40+ year old design, but it has stood the test of time.
We trundle past a golf course and then Camp Murray, the headquarters of the Washington national guard.
Let’s get up and take a walk through the dining car - all set up but not yet serving - and into the sightseer lounge car
We will shortly be pulling into Centennial, WA, and they will be coming to take lunch and dinner reservations. Woohoo! Sadly I won’t be here for dinner as well.
This is the epitome of small town America. There isn’t even a Wikipedia entry on this place.
Yay, I have a lunch reservation! I am carefully tucking this bit of paper into my breast pocket, scared of going hungry if I lose it.
If you’re wondering how fast the train is going, this motorbike just overtook us and is heading off into the distance.
Allan Svelmøe Hansen@ahrkrak I have been watching some videos of the amtrack special routes and if I ever got the chance it could be fun to try even though I am not a 'train' person
Andy Carolan@ahrkrak That looks more than adequate for a short trip!
Ted@ahrkrak I took the Empire Builder (Seattle to Chicago) a few years ago. Incredible experience. Amtrak is such an underrated way of getting around the country.
Berkubernetus@ahrkrak yeah, I always take the Cascades because the Starlate is usually around an hour late. Cascades averages more like 20 minutes.
Kendall McGiggles@ahrkrak I love trains so much. American trains challenge my love. But I still love them.
Maartje@ahrkrak ooooh fancy 😍
Enjoy the trains!
Enjoy the trains!
Florian Haas@ahrkrak This looks nice!