 |
Serious new proposal for Altamont hsr route
Author: S.S. Sam Taylor
Date: 05-09-2010 - 23:17
Here is that article that didn't make the CA Rail News. All here can be the judge.
As submitted, not edited:
Starlight Night Owl Service
by Robert L. Reynolds
One of the most surprisingly attractive of the Starlight cities can be reached on that train only by dedicated night owls. The Starlight stops in Redding in the dead of night, both directions (Northbound at 2:21 AM and Southbound at 3:14 AM).
Fortunately, the California Amtrak Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin routes offer more amenable connections, although only on through buses from Sacramento. The buses traverse some pleasant scenery that the train crosses only in the night so it offers travelers a chance to see some beautiful areas of northern California. “Try it, you’ll like it.”
What does Redding offer the traveler? The city reminds me metaphorically of one of those timeless cabaret singers. You know them, the crooners whose repertoire compasses blues to be-bop to old standards to opera and who can switch from one to the other at the drop of a downbeat. They’re the singers who fill the lounges with customers and good music and when the place closes everyone wishes they coulda’ had more.
That’s Redding: we always plot a speedy return as we head south to our home in Sacramento. At one time or another Redding has been a Home on the Range, a [Coal] Miner’s Daughter, an Old Man River as well as a Don Juan. Bonus: you’ll find two Reddings. The “old” Redding straddles the Union Pacific line known as the “I-5 corridor” (the city straddles Interstate Highway 5, too.) The new Redding sits east and north of “Old Town” on the bluffs overlooking the Sacramento River extending along the bench land toward the Sierra Nevade range. Most days you can marvel at the looming presence of snow-capped Mount Shasta to the north and Mount Lassen to the east. In winter the city, elevation varies from 400 to 800 feet, can resemble an alpine village. The Trinity Alps to the west climb up steeply into the western sky so you’re looking at snowy mountains on three sides. There’s rarely any snow on the streets in town so you can have your alpine experience without slipping and sliding around.
Redding history reflects the Home-on-the-Range-Miner’s-Daughter heritage. Originally the Wintu tribe settled here but about two hundred an fifty years ago Pierson Reading took California’s northernmost Mexican land grant and starting ranching. Somewhat later the railroad arrived and named the town Redding after a railroad honcho. The locals preferred Reading, but the railroad name stuck, since 1880 we have called it Redding. That’s certainly an improvement over the name the railroad found on arrival: “Poverty Flats”.
After the bus ride from Sacramento the first thing you have to do is eat. For a city this size you have plenty of choices although my breakfast and lunch time favorite has to be the Gold Street Café. Gold street is a few blocks south of both the Amtrak bus stop and the Amtrak station Take a leisurely stroll paralleling the tracks and you’ll see it on the right on Gold Street. Angela Marsh owns it and serves some of the best vittles in the city – for that matter in the country. My personal favorites are corned beef hash and eggs in the morning and the Reuben on rye at midday. It’s a friendly and popular city institution although sadly, she doesn’t serve dinner and it closes mid-afternoon. Did I mention they serve a bottomless cuppa’ joe? Don’t take my word for it, see: [www.yelp.com].
Dinner choices will cover the culinary world, but this is Jack’s Grill country if you ask me, and if you ask locals they’ll say the same thing. A simple menu of great steaks, chicken or fish washed down with a bottle of good, local wine draws diners from all over. The killer entrée is the blue cheese salad made from a secret but not too complicated recipe. Served family style, you’ll end up stuffed before your main plate hits the tablecloth. It’s, let’s say, intimate – if you arrive much past 6 you’ll probably have to wait and fortunately Jack’s bartenders know how to make mean martinis as well as other standard old West libations. Families with children do well here as the service satisfies as much as the food. In Jack’s own words (the owner is a local legend, Don Conley):
“The history of Jack's Grill is a colorful one. Built in 1935 by Bill Morrison, the two-story structure on California Street originally housed a second-hand store. In 1938 Morrison leased downstairs to Jack Young, a World War I flying ace, who opened a bar and grill. The last thing the town needed at that time was another bar, but Jack's was successful nonetheless. In the years just prior to World War II, Redding was a boomtown filled with thousands of men who had come to work on the railroads, the construction of Shasta Dam or in the mines. In the best Old West tradition, it was also a raucous, wide-open town, and California Street was an infamous strip of bars, hotels, restaurants and several houses of prostitution (including the upstairs of Jack's Grill for a brief time in the early 1940s). Of the numerous bars that sprang up during that era, Jack's is the only one to survive.” See: [www.jacksgrillredding.com].
Not in the mood for the simple, your other choices range from a classy tapas bar (http://www.tapasdowntown.com/) to a several culinarily sophisticated California style restaurants all a short distance from the station. You’ll find Tapas a couple of blocks north and west from the station. Next door to Tapas there is one of the many antique marts dotting the Redding scene. I really like the merchant who specializes in Corning wear. My wife really likes me to keep my credit card in my wallet when I visit…If you’re looking for lunch in the downtown, be sure to hit Dam Burgers, on Placer Street due east a couple of blocks from the station (http://www.yelp.com/biz/dam-burger-redding). We often treat the employees of my wife’s office to “dem Dam[n] burgers” as an excuse to get them for ourselves.
The Redding Area Bus Authority serves the area well, making auto-free visits very easy (http://www.rabaride.com/). They depart from the same station as the Amtrak bus so the convenience factor is high. I’ll mention some RABA routes for us parapatetic travellers now just to get you started thinking: Rte 6: to Discovery Park and the convention center; Rte 9 to the Redding Railroad museum and Rte 14 to the Trestle and the Arboretum. How these fit will become clearer as you keep reading.
For two-wheelers the area offers extensive bike trails and that’s an especially good way to visit the Sacramento River, which bisects the city and delineates the old from the new parts of town. You can see more at: [www.visitredding.com]. Not too far downstream from the Shasta Dam and Lake Shasta, the river in Redding has drawn fly fishermen for years. Now with the addition of the Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay museum it draws everyone else (RABA Rtes 6, 14). You could not do better than to chow down at the museum diner while watching the world amble across the bridge, a new monument that puts Redding on the “must see” list.
The world renowned Calatrava designed a suspension bridge that majestically defies gravity and features so many special touches that it’s beyond the scope of this article to catalogue them. One thing stands out – it’s eco-friendly deck is glass so as to minimize the bridges shawdow and lessen disruption to the trophy trout eager and anxious anglers often pull from the river’s depths. In addition to being a functional work of art, the Sundial Bridge is a technical marvel as well [www.turtlebay.org].
From their website:
“The cable-stayed structure has an inclined, 217 foot pylon constructed of 580 tons of steel. The deck is made up of 200 tons of glass and granite and is supported by more than 4,300 feet of cable. The structure is stabilized by a steel truss, and rests on a foundation of more than 115 tons of steel and 1,900 cubic yards of concrete. The McConnell Foundation, a private, independent foundation established in Redding in 1964, funded the majority of the bridge’s $23 million cost.
“World renowned Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava conceived the Sundial Bridge’s unusual design, his first free-standing bridge in the United States. Calatrava has built bridges, airports, rail terminals, stadiums, and other structures around the world..”
If you’re an angler you’ll find several fishing services and I believe that it’s catch and release water: See: [www.flyshop.com] or [www.sacriverguide.com].
In addition to its tourist attraction the Sundial bridge connects many riverside biking and hiking trails although you’ll find that its best function is to join the museum with its truly world class McConnell arboretum. It features a not-to-miss collection of “Mediterranean Climate Garden” trees and plants from several exotic areas. Kids will love the museum itself with a number of hands-on activities to keep them busy. In recent visits I’ve seen a collection of Old West revolvers, all the world’s geckos and a whole bunch of dissected human bodies.
For railfans I guess the number one, two and three attractions is the railroad bridge crossing the Sacramento River not far from downtown. In service in 1939, it spans the river and an adjacent city park complex. It’s 4350’ long and 110’ high, and it curves about 45 degrees. Many times I’ve listened to the clatter and banging of various freight trains as they rattle their way in and out of Redding. I’d love to photograph a passenger train on the trestle but I’m no night owl. The trestle is always an impressive sight and accesible on foot or RABA Rte 14. I await the day that a suitable steam excursion blesses us with its presence.
Number four on the two item attraction list is the Shasta Cascade Rail Preservation Society [www.scrps.com]. You can take RABA Rte 9 to visit, but be warned it’s quite a way from downtown. They have done some great restoration work and are quite active for this size region. However, their biggest contribution to the Starlight network involves the restoration of the Redding Espee depot. Even though the Amtrak trains arrive in the middle of the night, Shasta Cascade members open the doors and provide shelter to those night owls arriving or departing Redding and connecting points. Drop a tip in their jar if you can!
There are numerous motels and hotels downtown within a stone’s throw of the tracks. We haven’t stayed in any of them as our preference is on the north end at a pleasant, friendly Rodeway Inn on Market Street (the historic Highway 99) (on RABA Rte 14). It’s an easy mile or so walk from the station and sports an excellent Mexican restaurant to boot. It offers Southwest Air miles and that’s our connection. The others in downtown all look clean and reasonable. There are a bunch of hotel search pages available on Google “redding ca hotels”. Take your pick. You’ll find the big chain hotels on the east side of the river along I-5. RABA routes 4 or 11 take you there and it’s an easy bicycle ride. But it’s not downtown.
All said and done, Redding will fascinate cabaret loungers, history buffs, antiquers, railfans, fly fishermen, two-wheelers, families with curious children, walkers and foodies. The Sundial Bridge does put it at the top of the must see list.
Let me warn you about one thing: summers in Redding are like winters in 7734 upside down and backwards (i.e., hell). If you love heat you’ll love Redding from June to September (average high temps are high eighties to mid nineties). Otherwise, visit some other Starlight cities with less chauffage.
As submitted, not edited:
Starlight Night Owl Service
by Robert L. Reynolds
One of the most surprisingly attractive of the Starlight cities can be reached on that train only by dedicated night owls. The Starlight stops in Redding in the dead of night, both directions (Northbound at 2:21 AM and Southbound at 3:14 AM).
Fortunately, the California Amtrak Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin routes offer more amenable connections, although only on through buses from Sacramento. The buses traverse some pleasant scenery that the train crosses only in the night so it offers travelers a chance to see some beautiful areas of northern California. “Try it, you’ll like it.”
What does Redding offer the traveler? The city reminds me metaphorically of one of those timeless cabaret singers. You know them, the crooners whose repertoire compasses blues to be-bop to old standards to opera and who can switch from one to the other at the drop of a downbeat. They’re the singers who fill the lounges with customers and good music and when the place closes everyone wishes they coulda’ had more.
That’s Redding: we always plot a speedy return as we head south to our home in Sacramento. At one time or another Redding has been a Home on the Range, a [Coal] Miner’s Daughter, an Old Man River as well as a Don Juan. Bonus: you’ll find two Reddings. The “old” Redding straddles the Union Pacific line known as the “I-5 corridor” (the city straddles Interstate Highway 5, too.) The new Redding sits east and north of “Old Town” on the bluffs overlooking the Sacramento River extending along the bench land toward the Sierra Nevade range. Most days you can marvel at the looming presence of snow-capped Mount Shasta to the north and Mount Lassen to the east. In winter the city, elevation varies from 400 to 800 feet, can resemble an alpine village. The Trinity Alps to the west climb up steeply into the western sky so you’re looking at snowy mountains on three sides. There’s rarely any snow on the streets in town so you can have your alpine experience without slipping and sliding around.
Redding history reflects the Home-on-the-Range-Miner’s-Daughter heritage. Originally the Wintu tribe settled here but about two hundred an fifty years ago Pierson Reading took California’s northernmost Mexican land grant and starting ranching. Somewhat later the railroad arrived and named the town Redding after a railroad honcho. The locals preferred Reading, but the railroad name stuck, since 1880 we have called it Redding. That’s certainly an improvement over the name the railroad found on arrival: “Poverty Flats”.
After the bus ride from Sacramento the first thing you have to do is eat. For a city this size you have plenty of choices although my breakfast and lunch time favorite has to be the Gold Street Café. Gold street is a few blocks south of both the Amtrak bus stop and the Amtrak station Take a leisurely stroll paralleling the tracks and you’ll see it on the right on Gold Street. Angela Marsh owns it and serves some of the best vittles in the city – for that matter in the country. My personal favorites are corned beef hash and eggs in the morning and the Reuben on rye at midday. It’s a friendly and popular city institution although sadly, she doesn’t serve dinner and it closes mid-afternoon. Did I mention they serve a bottomless cuppa’ joe? Don’t take my word for it, see: [www.yelp.com].
Dinner choices will cover the culinary world, but this is Jack’s Grill country if you ask me, and if you ask locals they’ll say the same thing. A simple menu of great steaks, chicken or fish washed down with a bottle of good, local wine draws diners from all over. The killer entrée is the blue cheese salad made from a secret but not too complicated recipe. Served family style, you’ll end up stuffed before your main plate hits the tablecloth. It’s, let’s say, intimate – if you arrive much past 6 you’ll probably have to wait and fortunately Jack’s bartenders know how to make mean martinis as well as other standard old West libations. Families with children do well here as the service satisfies as much as the food. In Jack’s own words (the owner is a local legend, Don Conley):
“The history of Jack's Grill is a colorful one. Built in 1935 by Bill Morrison, the two-story structure on California Street originally housed a second-hand store. In 1938 Morrison leased downstairs to Jack Young, a World War I flying ace, who opened a bar and grill. The last thing the town needed at that time was another bar, but Jack's was successful nonetheless. In the years just prior to World War II, Redding was a boomtown filled with thousands of men who had come to work on the railroads, the construction of Shasta Dam or in the mines. In the best Old West tradition, it was also a raucous, wide-open town, and California Street was an infamous strip of bars, hotels, restaurants and several houses of prostitution (including the upstairs of Jack's Grill for a brief time in the early 1940s). Of the numerous bars that sprang up during that era, Jack's is the only one to survive.” See: [www.jacksgrillredding.com].
Not in the mood for the simple, your other choices range from a classy tapas bar (http://www.tapasdowntown.com/) to a several culinarily sophisticated California style restaurants all a short distance from the station. You’ll find Tapas a couple of blocks north and west from the station. Next door to Tapas there is one of the many antique marts dotting the Redding scene. I really like the merchant who specializes in Corning wear. My wife really likes me to keep my credit card in my wallet when I visit…If you’re looking for lunch in the downtown, be sure to hit Dam Burgers, on Placer Street due east a couple of blocks from the station (http://www.yelp.com/biz/dam-burger-redding). We often treat the employees of my wife’s office to “dem Dam[n] burgers” as an excuse to get them for ourselves.
The Redding Area Bus Authority serves the area well, making auto-free visits very easy (http://www.rabaride.com/). They depart from the same station as the Amtrak bus so the convenience factor is high. I’ll mention some RABA routes for us parapatetic travellers now just to get you started thinking: Rte 6: to Discovery Park and the convention center; Rte 9 to the Redding Railroad museum and Rte 14 to the Trestle and the Arboretum. How these fit will become clearer as you keep reading.
For two-wheelers the area offers extensive bike trails and that’s an especially good way to visit the Sacramento River, which bisects the city and delineates the old from the new parts of town. You can see more at: [www.visitredding.com]. Not too far downstream from the Shasta Dam and Lake Shasta, the river in Redding has drawn fly fishermen for years. Now with the addition of the Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay museum it draws everyone else (RABA Rtes 6, 14). You could not do better than to chow down at the museum diner while watching the world amble across the bridge, a new monument that puts Redding on the “must see” list.
The world renowned Calatrava designed a suspension bridge that majestically defies gravity and features so many special touches that it’s beyond the scope of this article to catalogue them. One thing stands out – it’s eco-friendly deck is glass so as to minimize the bridges shawdow and lessen disruption to the trophy trout eager and anxious anglers often pull from the river’s depths. In addition to being a functional work of art, the Sundial Bridge is a technical marvel as well [www.turtlebay.org].
From their website:
“The cable-stayed structure has an inclined, 217 foot pylon constructed of 580 tons of steel. The deck is made up of 200 tons of glass and granite and is supported by more than 4,300 feet of cable. The structure is stabilized by a steel truss, and rests on a foundation of more than 115 tons of steel and 1,900 cubic yards of concrete. The McConnell Foundation, a private, independent foundation established in Redding in 1964, funded the majority of the bridge’s $23 million cost.
“World renowned Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava conceived the Sundial Bridge’s unusual design, his first free-standing bridge in the United States. Calatrava has built bridges, airports, rail terminals, stadiums, and other structures around the world..”
If you’re an angler you’ll find several fishing services and I believe that it’s catch and release water: See: [www.flyshop.com] or [www.sacriverguide.com].
In addition to its tourist attraction the Sundial bridge connects many riverside biking and hiking trails although you’ll find that its best function is to join the museum with its truly world class McConnell arboretum. It features a not-to-miss collection of “Mediterranean Climate Garden” trees and plants from several exotic areas. Kids will love the museum itself with a number of hands-on activities to keep them busy. In recent visits I’ve seen a collection of Old West revolvers, all the world’s geckos and a whole bunch of dissected human bodies.
For railfans I guess the number one, two and three attractions is the railroad bridge crossing the Sacramento River not far from downtown. In service in 1939, it spans the river and an adjacent city park complex. It’s 4350’ long and 110’ high, and it curves about 45 degrees. Many times I’ve listened to the clatter and banging of various freight trains as they rattle their way in and out of Redding. I’d love to photograph a passenger train on the trestle but I’m no night owl. The trestle is always an impressive sight and accesible on foot or RABA Rte 14. I await the day that a suitable steam excursion blesses us with its presence.
Number four on the two item attraction list is the Shasta Cascade Rail Preservation Society [www.scrps.com]. You can take RABA Rte 9 to visit, but be warned it’s quite a way from downtown. They have done some great restoration work and are quite active for this size region. However, their biggest contribution to the Starlight network involves the restoration of the Redding Espee depot. Even though the Amtrak trains arrive in the middle of the night, Shasta Cascade members open the doors and provide shelter to those night owls arriving or departing Redding and connecting points. Drop a tip in their jar if you can!
There are numerous motels and hotels downtown within a stone’s throw of the tracks. We haven’t stayed in any of them as our preference is on the north end at a pleasant, friendly Rodeway Inn on Market Street (the historic Highway 99) (on RABA Rte 14). It’s an easy mile or so walk from the station and sports an excellent Mexican restaurant to boot. It offers Southwest Air miles and that’s our connection. The others in downtown all look clean and reasonable. There are a bunch of hotel search pages available on Google “redding ca hotels”. Take your pick. You’ll find the big chain hotels on the east side of the river along I-5. RABA routes 4 or 11 take you there and it’s an easy bicycle ride. But it’s not downtown.
All said and done, Redding will fascinate cabaret loungers, history buffs, antiquers, railfans, fly fishermen, two-wheelers, families with curious children, walkers and foodies. The Sundial Bridge does put it at the top of the must see list.
Let me warn you about one thing: summers in Redding are like winters in 7734 upside down and backwards (i.e., hell). If you love heat you’ll love Redding from June to September (average high temps are high eighties to mid nineties). Otherwise, visit some other Starlight cities with less chauffage.
