California Zephyr Railcar Charters

We were paying customers on the June 10 – 12 Dunsmuir Shasta Daylight-​Black Butte Daylight which included the Silver Solarium car owned by this business. Unfortunately, a man later ID’d as the car’s owner (Bert Hermey) grabbed my brother’s wrist when my brother was offered a drink by another passenger, in front of several witnesses. He did not say who he was and the trip itinerary publicized our being able to walk from car to car on the train. This incident of assault sadly ruined an otherwise very good trip. We have also complained to Trains & Travel International, to whom we paid close to $ 1,000 for this trip!

Being a Blackberry toting Twitter-​er who likes to move just a little faster than the person in front of me, I must write about this amazing trip that I thought I would never take. We took the modestly paced train up the Feather River Canyon, slept over on the train while we were parked in Portola, CA for Feather River Rail Days. The town that chic has not touched was truly a fabulous weekend destination, great parade, food booths and a rail museum that is making a fan out of me. Gear heads who love to stand next to roaring engines, smell diesel, swap lies and generally enjoy life were present in abundance, charming! Model trains of the California Zephyr were zipping around tracks in the museum. Tons of historic cars to climb all over and see how the robber barons traveled, awesome. All while being able to repair to the Art Deco Silver Solarium Dome car for a cool drink of my choice. One extremely cool couple dressed in period costume when we boarded in Emeryville, CA and my husband and I brought our bikes so that we could pedal up to Lake Davis during the weekend. The mix of «trainers”/riders, couples mainly but for one amazing older lady who’s Dad was a telegrapher for the Western Pacific. This was all as charming as it was because of the coordinated efforts of the owners of these private cars, their staff which made our lives easy and graceful serving linen table cloth, silver service, tidy rooms and roomettes, and of course the open bar. Keep an eye out for more trips cause I think this one was a huge success.