Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, 1997-c2008

Fred Klein, 2013, 2016

Amtrak’s best-run train is the Coast Starlight, which connects Los Angeles to Seattle via Oakland and Portland. Runtime is about 35 hours with the daylight part along California’s scenic Pacific coast, and the nighttime part in Northern California and southern Oregon. The route includes the coast route that was followed by Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight trains (Los Angeles to San Jose) and the Shasta Daylight and the Cascade trains between Oakland and Portland.

 

The Amtrak Coast Starlight includes the Pacific Parlour car, a scenic lounge car with high-level windows that is only for first class passengers. Pacific Parlour services include wine tasting, snacks, and an entertainer like a magician or musician. The Pacific Parlour cars are rebuilt high-level lounge cars from Santa Fe’s El Capitan train. They are Budd-built cars from 1954. The Pacific Parlour cars have a unique logo on their sides. They were introduced in 1995, but taken out of service for remodeling during c2004-2008. An older high-level diner substituted during remodeling. The cars were used as lounges in the 1970s on the Southwest Chief, taken out of service with the arrival of the superliners in 1980, then refurbished as Parlour cars and had phase III striping on their introduction in 1995. In 1997, they were repainted with phase IV stripes and lettering until the 2004 remodeling. In 2008 they were given names as well as numbers and got new phase VI striping. The Pacific Parlour cars have doors that mate with the superliner cars, but they are a few inches shorter in height and can be spotted from a distance in the train. This page shows the (1997-2005) phase IV paint scheme, and a companion page shows the current (2008-present) phase VIb paint scheme. Because the Coast Starlight is such a well-run train, I believe the mixture of different paint scheme varieties in a train is less common than with other Amtrak trains.

 

The consist is from a publication called Amtrak consists for a Coast Starlight on November 4, 1999.

 

All of the cars in the Coast Starlight are factory painted Kato cars except for the Pacific Parlor car which I decorated with Microscale decals. Every car in this train is in phase IV paint. I use a Concor sleeper because I do not have enough Kato cars.

 

 

 

 

 

A Pacific Parlour car in phase IV paint at Klamath Falls, Oregon, in April 2005. Note the adjacent (and slightly taller) superliner diner and lounge cars. Four superliner coaches are at the rear of the train.

 

The northbound Coast Starlight in California’s horseshoe curve ascending the Cuesta grade. The city of San Luis Obispo is in the distance to the right. All cars are superliners and there is no Pacific Parlor car in this short train. Unlike the model train, this Coast Starlight is in the later phase VIb paint.

 

 

Power and baggage car

 

Two GE P42 diesels in phase V paint power the train. The power is followed by a 72’ Budd baggage car. All are Kato models.

 

Sleeper section

 

The first sleeper is a dormitory car for the crew, which also transitions between high level and low level cars. In the model train I use a transition sleeper custom modified and decorated on a Kato sleeper by Thomas Magazin to make a prototype transition dormitory sleeper car. A typical Coast Starlight then has 3 superliner sleepers for the first class passengers. Sleepers 1 and 3 are Kato models and sleeper 2 is a Concor model.

 

Lounge and dining section

 

Adjacent to the sleeper section is the Pacific Parlour car for the use of the first class passengers. It is a rebuilt Budd lounge car originally used on the Santa Fe’s El Capitan train. See the paragraph at the top of this page for more info on the history of Pacific parlor cars. The kitchen/pantry end of the car without windows is adjacent to the following dining car with its kitchen. The car is a Kato model using the El Capitan lounge car body that I decorated with Microscale decals. Next are the diner and lounge cars as found on all long-distance superliner Amtrak trains. The lounge is for all coach and sleeper passengers. Four coach cars follow the lounge. All are Kato models.

 

 

Coach section

 

Coach cars bring up the end of the train. The third coach has a baggage door, but is labeled as a coach smoking car. Cars with smoking rooms have a window and an independent ventilation system. Smoke in these rooms is so thick that it looks like a foggy day in San Francisco. These are Kato models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Starlight

Amtrak, Brian Solomon, MBI railroad color history, 2004.

Amtrak by the numbers, by David Warner and Elbert Simon, White River productions, 2011. An excellent guide with thorough car histories and hundreds of photographs.

 

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