California Zephyr Project

Passengers wait inside the Sacramento Valley Station, which serves thousands of passengers every day. The station was built in 1926 at the western terminus where the Central Pacific Railroad was begun in 1863.

Sacramento Valley Station has a decently-sized platform with views of downtown Sacramento. Descending into the tunnel under the tracks transports your from an industrial rail yard and into manicured gardens as you approach the old station building. Leaving the doors of the station transports you to downtown Sacramento.

Looking down the Capital City Freeway towards downtown Sacramento from a rail overpass. New housing creeps up to the highway as Sutter's Landing Regional Park on the other side attempts to maintain green space in the growing city.

The overpasses and service roads near McClellan Park are home to numerous homeless camps - camps that you would never notice if you weren't on the train.

Colfax is named after Vice President Schuyler Colfax, who made a visit here in 1865 to check on the progress of the Central Pacific Railroad as construction progressed eastward towards Promontory, Utah. The town was previously known as Illinoistown.

Snow removal operators and equipment working to keep the Union Pacific lines near Donner Pass open during a storm.

Low clouds and snow make for an eerie yet beautiful scene as the California Zephyr makes its way towards Donner Pass during a winter storm.

A girl peers out from behind the conductor as the California Zephyr pulls into Truckee.

Catching up on the news of the day in the Truckee railroad station while waiting for the westbound #5.

Volunteers from the California State Railroad Museum read about the fascinating, important history of the railroad between Reno and Sacramento, to the passengers above them in the observation car.

Passengers in the observation car admire the Truckee River west of Reno as volunteers from the California State Railroad Museum read about the history of this stretch of the line.

Union Pacific workers near Boca, California

Travelers visiting with each other in the observation car, somewhere between Reno and Winnemucca, Nevada.

Late-April snow covering Star Peak and Thunder Mountain near Lovelock, Nevada.

A lonely night at the Winnemucca train station, Nevada.

Sandy, the cafe car attendant, has been with Amtrak for 13 years. Her parents met while working in the dining car in the 1960s.

It wasn't until I looked at these pictures later that I noticed a hawk perched on these lone trees in the middle of the Nevada scrub.

The rail line mostly parallels Interstate 80 through the Nevada desert.

Farmland near Fernley, Nevada

The massive rail yard at Helper, Utah. Helper got its name from the "helper" engines that were staged here to help freight trains up the steep grades. The mine and power plant that supported the town have shut down, and now it struggles to survive. It has become a haven for artists.