Snow Train

We took a train trip on Christmas Day to visit our dear friends Bob & Nancy who live near Reno Nevada. We were planning to drive the 2 hour route east over the Sierra Nevada mountains, but the forecast was for a BIG snow storm. So we decided to take the train.. Great idea!! I just LOVE the train. Woo Hoo, this was my idea of a great Christmas!!

It snowed and snowed Christmas Eve Day & night, and when we drove to nearby Colfax to board Amtrak, the train was already running over an hour late. No big deal, we thought. We're not driving! So we get on the train & it immediately starts moving backwards! We were moving to a siding to wait for an hour & a half for the snow-clearing engines to pass, followed by the westbound passenger train. Great, we live here, we're thinking, we know what Colfax looks like!

So finally we see the train engines with the snow blades all covered with snow pass by. They pull off to another siding & turn around. They were heading back in front of us to clear some more snow. When it snows in the High Sierra it snows. Ever heard of the Donner Party?? Finally the westbound train passes & we start to move east. By this time I'm really glad that Catdad brought along some turkey sandwiches.

So finally we are traveling in the California Zephyr lounge car (in days past it was known as the Vista Dome). And it was GORGEOUS!!! The scenery on this stretch of track is spectacular, especially right after the huge dumping of fresh snow. After about an hour or so we stop for about 30-40 minutes. We're being told "Mother Nature" is the culprit. By now it's time for me to go rummage through my luggage for my bottle of wine. I'm not driving. To make a long story a little shorter we stopped at least twice more for another 30-40 minutes each time, and our total travel time was about 7 hours, instead of the usual 4. We didn't find out until the next day that a woman had been killed on the track that day because she was confused about where she was cross country skiing due to white out conditions. How terribly sad....

In spite of it all we ended up having a fantastic Christmas & a fantastic visit. But our trip home was another fun story.... There was a derailment that delayed our train that day!!!

I don't care, I still love to travel by train. People who take the train aren't in a hurry (for obvious reasons.) The destination isn't as important as the journey is how I like to look at it.

All of these shots were taken through the dirty train windows. I think some of them turned out pretty good anyway!

Enjoy.... And Happy New Year from Jannie & Catdad