Amtraks at San Luis Obispo, Ca.

The wife and I were spending a few days at the coast and decided to visit San Luis Obispo and why not, while there, shoot a video at the depot and catch a train! In fact we caught two Amtraks and I did a little bit about the depot and area.
So, join us for some SLO action!
Amtrak/ BNSF meet at Rowen • Railroading on the Teh...
San Luis Obispo, Ca. Amtrak Station GPS 35d 16' 35"N 120d 39' 16"W

[@markgilbertson4917]

The Amtrak personnel that are on the train are called attendants now.. Porter are no longer used accept by us old foggies who are nostalgic.

[@brucearmstrong7463]

Gated area in the background is for the regional Amtrak from and to San Diego while it waits to return to San Diego. Love the area.

[@railfanbryan7225]

Beautiful area! I was in Pismo a couple weeks ago and of course did some railfanning there, caught Amtrak 11, 14, and 777 (at night). Sadly not much else goes through there anymore.

[@seanvanderj]

Thanks for the video. It’s been a few years since I’ve been here! This was my old stomping ground when I was at Cal Poly around 2004-2007! The SP/UP crew office is just across the outside hallway from the main depot. If you went inside and walked out the hallway directly across from the ticket counter, you’d run into it. There used to be a helper set stationed on the spur track in the foreground of the Amtrak facility (in front of the black fence) when freight was still regularly run on the Coastline. In its heyday in the mid 2000s, San Luis Obispo was a busy night terminal with 1-2 Northbound and 3-4 Southbound freights in a period from late afternoon to early morning typically. All freight traffic was rerouted to Tehachapi after the economic collapse of 2008. The CTC was installed in 2005 to help Amtrak enter/exit their maintenance facility. 2MT CTC was extended to South San Luis Obispo. The Santa Barbara sub from S. San Luis Obispo to Elwood (just north of Santa Barbara) is some of the last mainline TWC/ABS. It’s also TWC/ABS from Santa Margarita (other side of Cuesta Grade) to Salinas. Too bad you didn’t wander over to the Museum. They have an old SP Sugar Beet gondola they are almost done restoring. I recommend you ride the train from LA someday. It’s a beautiful ride along 100+ miles of untouched coastline. There used to be a dome car that SOMETIMES made an appearance on train 798/799 Pacific Surfliner from LA to SLO. I don’t know if it’s still around. These days these two trains and the Coast Starlights are the only trains regularly scheduled in/out of San Luis Obispo.

[@FADED-q5g]

CTC is currently being installed on the Santa Barbara Sub north from Ellwood. It is currently functioning up to Gaviota and it will eventually run up to SLO.

[@seanvanderj]

@@FADED-q5g, thanks for the update. Gaviota has been a CTC island for a while now, but I didn’t know it was being extended north. Who’s paying the tab?

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

The wife and I want to do a nice trip but it it will be a year or so out. I want to do the museum when it's open. It looks really cool. They've been talking about CTC to Gaviota since I was a gang foreman in the SP days. I'm glad they're finally doing it. Thanks for the information!

[@CoastlineRailroadVideos]

Hey Sean, it’s Kevin the architecture major from cal poly.

[@roncross1945]

We visited our granddaughter at Cal Poly SLO last spring. I was amazed and fascinated to see that Amtrak goes right through the campus.

[@christopherseat9871]

I live 2 blocks away........that depot is what made San Luis Obispo CALIFORNIA a town

[@rsmith.182]

Another great video. We just came back from the east coast by air but we took the train from Vancouver, WA to Chicago using the sleeper car. I thought they called the person assigned to each sleeper car the attendant. We had a full sleeper to Chicago then a roomette on the train from Chicago to Albany, NY. The Empire Builder to Chicago was quite comfortable and the food was great but not very cheap, but worthwhile. I saw on the news after we arrived in Vermont that the westbound of the same train had derailed and there were some injuries. Don't know the reason but it would not stop me from taking another train trip, maybe to south Cal. to see the loop. Keep up the good work, I appreciate all the side history you comment on while videoing the trains.

[@dmorgan28]

I used to have some friends that lived there. Beautiful place. Great video Mark. Enjoyed it. 👍👍👍❤️

[@andross51]

My former hometown Mark! Always saw 11 and 14 endlessly back in the day! Great video as usual!

[@FADED-q5g]

The UP building is also used as a crew building. On the rare occasion that a freight train actually runs on the Coast Line, a crew change will happen there, these days it's usually a Bakersfield crew brought over to SLO. The Gated spur is where the northbound Pacific Surfliner (777) stays overnight before going south on the following morning as 774. The other spur next to that is where the manned helpers were stationed for the Cuesta Grade. These manned helpers were mainly used on the loaded oil cans until that train was abolished in December 2018. There were fairly regular autorack repo trains and occasionally some baretables (intermodal) that used the Coast until May 2019, then there were no more crews based at San Luis Obispo, (likely PSR).

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Yeah..it's a shame there's no more freight over there unless it's an emergency. Makes for more interesting videos! Thanks for checking it out!

[@rhvolboll625]

Thank you Mark for your tour of the SLO station

[@mikepate6404]

nice change of pace - interesting feature.

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Nice video of the station area and catch of the private coaches.

[@georgehasler142]

Chuck Johnson was a engineer who work for sp/up out of San Louis Obispo.

[@phila8226]

The gated siding is where the Surfliner is parked at night for a 6:55am departure to LA

[@JC-bl9bo]

Very cool video.

[@johneveritt3976]

Howzit Mark : A Nicely Informative Viddy ... Thank You. Too Good To See A Pristine; Graffiti-Free / Well-Kept Station and Surrounds. And What A Beautiful Train With A Shining; Sleek-Looking Rake Of Coaches ! Appreciated and Keep Attit ! Regards / Johnny

[@3sierra15]

Loved the video. Seeing the depot brought back many memories. Went to college in San Luis Obispo. One of the skills I learned there was hopping freight train trains. You were indeed at the south end of the building. Northbound trains pass through the university campus, cross the Stenner Creek bridge, and climb Cuesta grade, all of which are worth a visit with your camera if you ever return.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Thank you! I'm definitely planning some more videos on the Coast Line!

[@ritaloy8338]

Nice as I have spent time in San Luis Obispo.

[@Ron-N-Ellen-Adventures]

Ahh, I've inspected that track many times 👍

[@chuckmorris7043]

Hey Mark: Glad to see you take trips like this. The SLO area is so beautiful, I hope you get to stay and tour a while. Thanks for sharing your trips.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

We had spent most of the day in the area. We headed home after this. Thanks for checking it out!

[@brianhickey5949]

Nice scenic area - thank you for the history :) Amtrak can be some pretty cool stuff if you overlook some schedule issues like that 20 minutes late :) They do rock and roll out on the high iron!

[@railfanbryan7225]

Nice PVs on the 11!!

[@barbarafitzgerald4940]

Coast. Starlight

[@kens.3729]

448th View, 100th Like and 21st Comment. Grand Prize, a Fantastic Video by Mark. 😬👍

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Thanks Ken!

[@glenmatteson149]

I have an answer to your question about the cantilever arm, and I'd like to add a photo --but Facebook is down this morning. Short answer: It was a jib crane, used by signal maintainers to lift heavy items (probably the signal cabinets that also served as bases, masts, and battery boxes) on and off trucks. The crane is the last remnant of SP signal forces. The neat little building was heavily damaged by fire and torn down. The City of SLO funded restoration of the water tank, which is empty.

[@Ron-N-Ellen-Adventures]

MOW for that track works out of Guadalupe.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Good info. Thanks!