This trip starts at the SLO Amtrak Station Thursday the 27th or Friday the 28th at 2:00pm and returns about 5:00pm. The Amtrak Station is located at 1011 Railroad Ave, San Luis Obispo, about 2.5 miles from the convention hotel.
Note: This excursion is limited to 30 persons. The fare for this excursion is $60. Sign-ups will close when we reach the 30 person limit. Signups are done through the convention registration. Note: a second section is available for Friday – if enough people sign up for that we will add a second trip on Friday.
Transportation to and from the Station is not included.
This excursion will gather at the Amtrak Station in San Luis Obispo at 2:00pm.
After gathering and receiving instructions we will have a quick tour while we await for the northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight. After boarding we will travel over Cuesta with a guided tour pointing out sights along the way and listening to history as we travel the 35.8 miles to Paso Robles.
We will travel across the longest bridge between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. We will go around two horseshoe curves, one of which will allow us to see the front and back of our train at the same time.
We will likely pass the southbound Coast Starlight, Train 11, somewhere on our journey north as it heads into San Luis Obispo on its trip from Seattle to Los Angeles.
During our trip we will pass through five tunnels, including 3600 foot long Tunnel 6 at the summit of the climb. We will also see where one tunnel has been abandoned because constant water in the tunnel and where another was daylighted after a collapse in 1910. One fire in tunnel 7 in 1987 stopped all freight and passenger traffic on this route for two weeks.
As we approach the summit we have views out across the canyon where Highway 101 climbs to its summit on the other side.
After the summit we will decend into the Salinas Valley passing through Santa Margarita, Atascadero and finally arriving in Paso Robles where we will disembark and return to San Luis Obispo on a private chartered bus.
A clinic called North Over Cuesta will be presented Thursday morning at the convention to give those on the excursion a preview of the sights you will see on the Coast Starlight and allow those who are not able to go on the excursion to see some of the sights and learn the history of this wonderful route along the historic Southern Pacific route.
