I live in Magalia, a sleepy mountain town not far from Feather River Canyon & Highway 70. I’ve driven up Highway 70 many times and prior to the fires in 2008 & 2018, that canyon was hands down the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. I heard about these Amtrak sky dome passenger train tours and wished I could go on one but I couldn’t afford the tickets...not even for the short version that went from Oroville to Portola. Thank you for posting this so I can enjoy it vicariously! I love seeing familiar landmarks like the Fish Hatchery, Table Mountain Lake Oroville & the double trestles up the canyon, as well as Cresta Dam. I have never been to Oregon either so it was an eye opener to see what that was like. Not gonna lie, I expected more pine trees than I saw! Seemed more like Nevada than Northern California! Fun fact: 2017 was a high rain year & the Oroville Dam overflowed its spillway, necessitating the evacuations of towns downriver! A big change from the historic low of Oroville Lake levels! There’s also this link for the Feather River round trip: ua-cam.com/video/l5uB0IsuSQ4/v-deo.html
Thanks for your comment! Living there, you would certainly know the history. Just an FYI, Amtrak never offered service using the Feather River line, only the Western Pacific prior to 1971. Once or twice, Amtrak trains used the line as a detour around Donner Summit. The train we were on was an chartered excursion and literally takes an act of God to make it happen. There have probably been less than 10 excursions over the past 30 years.
BackRoadsWest1 You are right. I misspoke. Amtrak doesn’t ordinarily use that line. However, sometimes a special exception & accommodation is made for excursions organized by tour operators for rail fans, & The Zephyr is the line that was used I believe. It’s possible that the charter you were on was similar if not the same thing I’m talking about. You had a longer route than I’m familiar with though. I’ll try to find the info...also, Portola has a yearly railroad festival which offers train rides too, I think... Here is a blog about it: www.norcalblogs.com/transportation/2008/09/16/through-the-feather-river-cany/ Here was the 2009 schedule www.traintrips.biz/tour_reports/feather_river_express_ca_zephyr_returns_2009 Since the fires, I don’t know if there is any scenery left to see, the entire canyon burned between Concow & Paradise...so very sad...it’ll be a generation before the canyon is green again.
irishgrl hopefully they can get the fire out so no more of our beautiful canyon burns.. Stay safe up there! i got "relocated" thanks to PG&E down to Chico. i was born and raised in Paradise. i would give just about anything for it to be Nov 7th '18 And have PG&E do there dang job!
My dad rented a house boat on Lake Shasta in the 70's. My sister and I both got to bring a friend. Still remember that vacation to this day. Thanks for posting, that train was cool.
What a wonderful excursion this must have been! Definitely showing the BEST part of California, the northern half! Taking a train trip can be fun, but you add some Vista Dome cars where you can look ahead as well as around you and you have just DOUBLED your enjoyment!! How fortunate you are to take a trip like this! Thank you so very much for sharing this video. And a great video it is!!😁👍
Yes, it was a great experience. We were lucky to go as a few of the cars, one of which we were booked on, almost got canceled as the UP railroad wouldn't allow it to be moved over their tracks.
I have done the same trip ( almost ) in semi truck many times. I'm lucky to say I've seen all the beautiful places in this country and there are a lot. Looks like you had a gr reat trip though. I'll have to look into this trip since I'm now retired on the Oregon coast. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for taking all of us along with you on your trip. it was beautiful.. Sadly in the feather river canyon at grizzly bear the fire has already gone thru some of it. actually they are trying to put it out now..I don't know how long it's going to take to fix the tracks and also make sure the bridges are sill safe..it's jtust heart breaking. i lost everything in '18 do to a fire starting in that canyon.
Beautifully done Worked for so until bought by up Made this trip as conductor many times canyon is scenic Almost moved to poor top but went to Klamath falls Remember all the bridges and scenes Thanks
I watched the whole video and enjoyed every part of it! Fantastic scenery and even something learnfull. I didn’t know about rock fall detectors untill now ☺️ thank you very much ☺️
This was just a few months after I took the California Zephyr from Emeryville, CA to Chicago, IL. While the current route over the Sierra Nevada through Truckee is beautiful, how wonderful would it be to have the CZ return to the old route through the Feather River Canyon. Thank you for a fabulous video. What a wonderful trip.
The summer of '88, just before moving from SoCal to Utah, I worked for Amtrak. Almost all of the runs I worked (I was a car attendant) went from LA to Chicago. But once or twice, I went to Seattle via the stretch you showed along the Shasta River. Going south, it was dark and very late. I was in what was called "the 10 car". It was half crew quarters, half coach. It was an older car from the '50's and rode smoother with bigger, leather seats. NOT an Amtrak built car at all! The Conductor and I were standing in the middle where the doors were, and it was the only car on the train that had those half doors, that opened up the upper half. It was a big no-no to open those normally (although ppl did so anyway). It is a pretty steep grade and we were south-bound. The moon was full, Shasta was so huge, and the river made a wonderful sound. The Conductor opened the upper door and we drank in the fresh cold, fragrant air, heard the water of the river and since the train was traveling so very slowly, you would hear clack- clack... clack-clack... clack-clack... If I could have stood there forever, it would have been Heaven enough for me!! It was magical! I've since become a trucker and have trucked all 48 contiguous states and most of lower Canada. I've seen some beautiful country in all kinds of weather and encountered all sorts of people all over this great land of ours. But if I could go back and relive that moment in the 10 car, coming down slowly along the Shasta River that night with the door open, I'd do it in a heart beat. I'll never forget it as long as I live!
That was totally incredible I enjoyed that so much a credible lot a fun unbelievable thank you so much I don't know if you'll get this but I like you said you might fare
Delightful trip! Love old trains - used to take my kids on the Skunk out of Willits, CA when they were young... You must have gone through before the Fires started... Very little smoke drift... Sad to see the water so low and a delight to see Snow still on Shasta. I don't travel much of late, have hope of hitting the road again... By train sounds nice, but I'm afraid it's the end of an era if we can't turn politics away from the Corporate Greed.
The trip was arranged thru www.traintrips.biz/. Unfortunately, due to new Amtrak regulations, trips like this currently cannot take place. Hopefully that will change in the future.
Definitely specific/historic. It took them 5 years to organize this trip and the people that organize it don't want to go through it again due to the difficulty to working with the railroads. But who knows, things change.
LOL - it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ride this train, especially when it almost got canceled. Now that Amtrak has a new policy of not pulling any carriage not owned by them, the chances of a train like this occurring again is more slim.
This trip was in 2015. We were lucky as this was one of the last big excursion. Hopefully Amtrak will change their policy in the near future, but unfortunately in the meantime, many owners are selling off their historic coaches.
The weather has been dry the last two years resulting in low water in the lakes and rivers and many range and forest fires. The smoke was in Utah murking up the sky all summer.
Nice video I've been up and down I-5 there many times but didn't get to see as much as you have here. I could do without those rotating transitions between scenes though and distracting.
Thanks for watching and the feedback. Yea, several other people have commented on the various transitions. This video was created about 5 years ago and you'll see on our newer videos we don't use them as much, pretty much just cut or fade, unless there's a big like chapter change.
Sadly, I couldn't watch past 5 minutes. The flipping of the video made it hard for me to focus my eyes. The narration and video content was good too. At least 5 minutes of it. I'm hoping there is another video of the same trip on UA-cam.
No on the devastation. The Camp Fire started near one of the dams you see in the video. It then quickly climbed the ridge to the west, and then spread to areas west we all heard about (i.e. Paradise). One can certainly still drive the highway and trains are still running (just not the train we were on).
Actually, the fire that burned Paradise started near one of the dams you see after we pass Oroville Reservoir. Otherwise, the Feather River Canyon was left pretty much unburnt. The fire burned to the west.
Bong Bong great name :) well would that make the camp fire caused by humans because the Camp fire killed 88 people.. it was started by PG&E.. killing 88 people and they got a fine.. took away everything i have ever known.. never thought i would ever leave Paradise born there thought i would die there..
@@BackRoadsWest1 that fire was started at or near Pulga.. on Camp Road.. i need to watch your video again.. i did put it on my FB feed. it is such a great video, i had to share it.
I live in Magalia, a sleepy mountain town not far from Feather River Canyon & Highway 70. I’ve driven up Highway 70 many times and prior to the fires in 2008 & 2018, that canyon was hands down the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. I heard about these Amtrak sky dome passenger train tours and wished I could go on one but I couldn’t afford the tickets...not even for the short version that went from Oroville to Portola. Thank you for posting this so I can enjoy it vicariously! I love seeing familiar landmarks like the Fish Hatchery, Table Mountain Lake Oroville & the double trestles up the canyon, as well as Cresta Dam. I have never been to Oregon either so it was an eye opener to see what that was like. Not gonna lie, I expected more pine trees than I saw! Seemed more like Nevada than Northern California!
Fun fact: 2017 was a high rain year & the Oroville Dam overflowed its spillway, necessitating the evacuations of towns downriver! A big change from the historic low of Oroville Lake levels!
There’s also this link for the Feather River round trip:
ua-cam.com/video/l5uB0IsuSQ4/v-deo.html
Thanks for your comment! Living there, you would certainly know the history. Just an FYI, Amtrak never offered service using the Feather River line, only the Western Pacific prior to 1971. Once or twice, Amtrak trains used the line as a detour around Donner Summit. The train we were on was an chartered excursion and literally takes an act of God to make it happen. There have probably been less than 10 excursions over the past 30 years.
BackRoadsWest1
You are right. I misspoke. Amtrak doesn’t ordinarily use that line. However, sometimes a special exception & accommodation is made for excursions organized by tour operators for rail fans, & The Zephyr is the line that was used I believe. It’s possible that the charter you were on was similar if not the same thing I’m talking about. You had a longer route than I’m familiar with though. I’ll try to find the info...also, Portola has a yearly railroad festival which offers train rides too, I think...
Here is a blog about it:
www.norcalblogs.com/transportation/2008/09/16/through-the-feather-river-cany/
Here was the 2009 schedule
www.traintrips.biz/tour_reports/feather_river_express_ca_zephyr_returns_2009
Since the fires, I don’t know if there is any scenery left to see, the entire canyon burned between Concow & Paradise...so very sad...it’ll be a generation before the canyon is green again.
irishgrl hopefully they can get the fire out so no more of our beautiful canyon burns.. Stay safe up there! i got "relocated" thanks to PG&E down to Chico. i was born and raised in Paradise. i would give just about anything for it to be Nov 7th '18 And have PG&E do there dang job!
Photos are excellent.
My dad rented a house boat on Lake Shasta in the 70's. My sister and I both got to bring a friend. Still remember that vacation to this day. Thanks for posting, that train was cool.
What a wonderful excursion this must have been! Definitely showing the BEST part of California, the northern half! Taking a train trip can be fun, but you add some Vista Dome cars where you can look ahead as well as around you and you have just DOUBLED your enjoyment!! How fortunate you are to take a trip like this! Thank you so very much for sharing this video. And a great video it is!!😁👍
Yes, it was a great experience. We were lucky to go as a few of the cars, one of which we were booked on, almost got canceled as the UP railroad wouldn't allow it to be moved over their tracks.
Beautiful railcars, beautiful scenery, beautiful video. I traveled from Los Angeles to Tacoma Washington last summer,,, it's a gorgeous trip
I have done the same trip ( almost ) in semi truck many times. I'm lucky to say I've seen all the beautiful places in this country and there are a lot. Looks like you had a gr reat trip though. I'll have to look into this trip since I'm now retired on the Oregon coast. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for commenting!
Well crafted video. I loved the combination of still and video photography of an area I've traveled many times by car and Amtrak.
Thank you for taking all of us along with you on your trip. it was beautiful.. Sadly in the feather river canyon at grizzly bear the fire has already gone thru some of it. actually they are trying to put it out now..I don't know how long it's going to take to fix the tracks and also make sure the bridges are sill safe..it's jtust heart breaking. i lost everything in '18 do to a fire starting in that canyon.
Thank you for posting this. It was a wonderful adventure. 😊
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for commenting.
Beautifully done
Worked for so until bought by up
Made this trip as conductor many times canyon is scenic
Almost moved to poor top but went to Klamath falls
Remember all the bridges and scenes
Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for commenting.
I watched the whole video and enjoyed every part of it! Fantastic scenery and even something learnfull. I didn’t know about rock fall detectors untill now ☺️ thank you very much ☺️
I love the viewing cars.
You'd never get me out of one if I got the chance to get a seat in one.!🤣!
Thanks very well done!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for commenting.
This was just a few months after I took the California Zephyr from Emeryville, CA to Chicago, IL. While the current route over the Sierra Nevada through Truckee is beautiful, how wonderful would it be to have the CZ return to the old route through the Feather River Canyon. Thank you for a fabulous video. What a wonderful trip.
You're welcome! Thanks for commenting
Thanks for all the kind comments!
The one part of California that I haven't seen before, I would really like to!
Very cool Historical Train ride... Thanks for sharing, take care.
Another great video, thanks again.
Thank you for posting this! I really want to take this trip
Loved everything about it, I Subscribed 😎👍
Cliff, I love the selections of music that accompany your videos. Keep those videos coming.
Thank you! Will do...
The summer of '88, just before moving from SoCal to Utah, I worked for Amtrak. Almost all of the runs I worked (I was a car attendant) went from LA to Chicago. But once or twice, I went to Seattle via the stretch you showed along the Shasta River. Going south, it was dark and very late. I was in what was called "the 10 car". It was half crew quarters, half coach. It was an older car from the '50's and rode smoother with bigger, leather seats. NOT an Amtrak built car at all! The Conductor and I were standing in the middle where the doors were, and it was the only car on the train that had those half doors, that opened up the upper half. It was a big no-no to open those normally (although ppl did so anyway). It is a pretty steep grade and we were south-bound. The moon was full, Shasta was so huge, and the river made a wonderful sound. The Conductor opened the upper door and we drank in the fresh cold, fragrant air, heard the water of the river and since the train was traveling so very slowly, you would hear clack- clack... clack-clack... clack-clack... If I could have stood there forever, it would have been Heaven enough for me!! It was magical! I've since become a trucker and have trucked all 48 contiguous states and most of lower Canada. I've seen some beautiful country in all kinds of weather and encountered all sorts of people all over this great land of ours. But if I could go back and relive that moment in the 10 car, coming down slowly along the Shasta River that night with the door open, I'd do it in a heart beat. I'll never forget it as long as I live!
Thanks so much for your comment. You did a great job on writing about your experience. I should add it to our post on this story!
Excellent video!!! Enjoyed the trip.
Peaceful. Beautiful. Missing something however. What was it? Oh, well. Enjoy the peace before getting back to
the city.
That was totally incredible I enjoyed that so much a credible lot a fun unbelievable thank you so much I don't know if you'll get this but I like you said you might fare
This would be so fun it sucks the canyon will never be the same
Yes, we were lucky to see the Feather River Canyon before the various fires destroyed it.
I wonder if this trip still exists I would like to go
No. Amtrak stopped the service of pulling privately owned cars. Who knows, they may resume that service in the future.
@@BackRoadsWest1 😕
Great video.. LOL at woman on the train pointing out the "FOAMers".
Yes, there were lots of foamers along our route. It sounds like you know what a foamer is.
Delightful trip! Love old trains - used to take my kids on the Skunk out of Willits, CA when they were young...
You must have gone through before the Fires started... Very little smoke drift...
Sad to see the water so low and a delight to see Snow still on Shasta.
I don't travel much of late, have hope of hitting the road again...
By train sounds nice, but I'm afraid it's the end of an era if we can't turn politics away from the Corporate Greed.
Oh my. Wow I’d die to ride the Feather River. So lucky. How did you find this specific special route?
The trip was arranged thru www.traintrips.biz/. Unfortunately, due to new Amtrak regulations, trips like this currently cannot take place. Hopefully that will change in the future.
Is this a reoccurring train ride or was it a special historic ride?
Definitely specific/historic. It took them 5 years to organize this trip and the people that organize it don't want to go through it again due to the difficulty to working with the railroads. But who knows, things change.
Wow. I think I would have sold multiple body parts to ride a dome on this route.
LOL - it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ride this train, especially when it almost got canceled. Now that Amtrak has a new policy of not pulling any carriage not owned by them, the chances of a train like this occurring again is more slim.
Does this train run often??
No. This is the one and only time it ran. Learn more at www.backroadswest.com/blog/california-zephyr/
What are the details on this trip? I would like to go.
This was the last trip like this due to new Amtrak restrictions. It occurred in 2015. Read more about similar trips at www.traintrips.biz/
Wait. I thought this kind of chartered train wasn't possible anymore with Amtrak. Have things changed?
This must have been from a couple of years ago
This trip was in 2015. We were lucky as this was one of the last big excursion. Hopefully Amtrak will change their policy in the near future, but unfortunately in the meantime, many owners are selling off their historic coaches.
@@BackRoadsWest1 That's unfortunate. I do hope things change.
The weather has been dry the last two years resulting in low water in the lakes and rivers and many range and forest fires. The smoke was in Utah murking up the sky all summer.
We made the trip in 2015. Oroville Lake was completely full this year. We live in Utah too, glad the fires are out as it's nice and clear here now!
What’s the name of the train?
See this: www.backroadswest.com/blog/historic-train-trip-thru-feather-river-canyon/
Nice video I've been up and down I-5 there many times but didn't get to see as much as you have here. I could do without those rotating transitions between scenes though and distracting.
Thanks for watching and the feedback. Yea, several other people have commented on the various transitions. This video was created about 5 years ago and you'll see on our newer videos we don't use them as much, pretty much just cut or fade, unless there's a big like chapter change.
Coast starlight goes through all this at night so you dont see anything :(
Sadly, I couldn't watch past 5 minutes. The flipping of the video made it hard for me to focus my eyes. The narration and video content was good too. At least 5 minutes of it. I'm hoping there is another video of the same trip on UA-cam.
Different strokes for different folks! Most video presentations have various transitions in them because people actually like them.
@@BackRoadsWest1 that's exactly how I felt, like I was having a stroke
Oh well, as long as your other viewers enjoyed it. I don't matter...
I'm getting old. 50's. Amtrack ride would be cheaper than gas.
Unfortunately, I think part of the Feather River segment shown was devastated by the Camp Fire in November
No on the devastation. The Camp Fire started near one of the dams you see in the video. It then quickly climbed the ridge to the west, and then spread to areas west we all heard about (i.e. Paradise). One can certainly still drive the highway and trains are still running (just not the train we were on).
Those beautiful scenery is probably burned now. It's a shame that 99 percent of forest fire is caused by humans.
Actually, the fire that burned Paradise started near one of the dams you see after we pass Oroville Reservoir. Otherwise, the Feather River Canyon was left pretty much unburnt. The fire burned to the west.
Bong Bong great name :) well would that make the camp fire caused by humans because the Camp fire killed 88 people.. it was started by PG&E.. killing 88 people and they got a fine.. took away everything i have ever known.. never thought i would ever leave Paradise born there thought i would die there..
@@BackRoadsWest1 that fire was started at or near Pulga.. on Camp Road.. i need to watch your video again.. i did put it on my FB feed. it is such a great video, i had to share it.