Oliver Moss

The train! Sadly, the steam engine is being repaired. I didn't mind, but some people were there specifically for the steam engine. You can see the variety of cars, though, from open air to the fully enclosed comfy car I was in earlier.

After my hotel room picnic and a shower to get rid of hat hair, I headed out about 40 minutes early. I thought I'd be too early and just hanging out awkwardly. Nope, the line to board was already long. The train sold out and most of the people were in line already, oops.

I'd wanted the open air car this time. I'd done the enclosed during the day to get out of the sun, but wanted the wider views of the open air car this time. However, when I boarded I just grabbed the first water-side seat available, so I was in the same car again. This was the right move as people who boarded ahead of me did not get water side seats and wound up wandering, looking for spaces.

At one point a guy had his hand on the seat opposite me, as he and the girl he was with debated taking it or trying to find another seat. As they did so, they blocked the aisle, so no one could get past them and snipe a better seat if it existed. After a few minutes, another lady came up, shimmied through and sat in the seat.

"He was taking too long," she said. I agreed that he was and she was right to snag the seat. Her husband came and joined us. They were lovely. We only faced each other a bit, as it turned out that the seat backs where moveable so you could face either direction. They wanted to face forward, and all of us got more legroom and footrests out of it. She apologized for 'abandoning me' and turned in her seat a few times to chat.

Most people there were really nice and wanted to chat with other people who'd want to come out for a special train ride.

A few attempts at pics:



The train left at 7, so the first half the sun was out and we saw the sunset. The return was after the sun was down.



Lots of trees on the coast, so when we saw things the window to get a shot was sometimes a half second.



I like that one thin line of water reflection, which shows the shape of the shallow bay. This is near Wheeler, so it's Nehalem Bay. I really want to explore Wheeler and some other areas, but I'll have to see how to get around out there.







And past that my light sensor was not fast enough to adjust. I could have gotten some shots in the dark if I was still, but, yeah.

The night train comes with 3 free drinks and they can be water, sodas or local beers. I didn't get any for most of the trip. As a solo traveler, I was worried someone might yoink my seat. There is a lot written about how freeing and whatever solo travel is and it does have it's benefits, but I don't feel people are realistic about the downsides sometimes. It didn't happen on this trip, but I've had guys be real aggro at me trying to get me to give up a seat so they can secure a nicer place for their girlfriend to sit. It has happened a number of times that bro wants to secure a good place for his female, and then spots me and thinks I am an easy target. Solo and usually mistaken for female, bros see me and think they can force me out. It never works, not on me. But it makes me want to never leave my seat or leave a line because I don't fucking trust people. I expect them to take advantage where they can, especially when traveling. I had snacks and stuff in my bag, so I was fine. But, when they did last call I decided to get a beer. The ride was pretty dark at this point so I decided if someone really wanted to yoink my seat at this point, it wouldn't be a huge deal.

At the bar they had a number of local brews, including a pilsner from Pelican Brewing. I'd actually never had anything from Pelican, but I've seen shirts with their logo a lot ever since I moved to Oregon. They are a classic Oregon coast brewery. It was good! Since they were at the end of service, people could close out their remaining drink tickets by taking cans so I grabbed some soda for in the morning. My hands were very full.

When I went back into the open car I noticed two things. First, the stars overhead and the moon huge over the train. The view was stunning without the roof in the way. I could probably have gotten a 'moon over train' shot if I'd done it at the right point in the twilight.

The other thing I noticed, and what half this post was been leading to, is that a drunk guy thought it would be funny to jump out and block me, squatting with this arms up like he was blocking a goal. I didn't respond. I just waited for him to give up. He eventually sort of jumped back into to group as they all laughed at 'the face I made'. I did not make a face. Trust me, I ran anime cons for years, I know how to refuse to engage with BS. I have balance problems, so being stuck standing on a train with full hands and an open container of liquid was pretty stressful.

I am pretty sure that sort of crap is not typical. The staff were upset about some group having brought on outside booze and doing fireball shots. I assume that was them. From the chatter as I left, it sounded like they were tracking the group as they departed for some reason. The staff seemed to love their jobs and were really not okay with the bullshit. For a lot of them, working on a train like this is probably their dream job. There are a large number of people in the US whose dream job is any train job, and working on a historic train is a top tier train job. Between how they acted and what I know about 'want to work on a train' fandom, I am very sure in my take that they do not tolerate people messing up the experience for others.

The upshot is that I want to ride again and get the open car next time, but I wouldn't do it solo. Even without that one group, the open car was more the large groups and people making the most of their drink tickets. The enclosed car was more quiet people, couples and solo travelers. I'd want another person because traveling as at least a duo is a big social buffer, and also you can get up without losing your seat. I wouldn't want to be on the party car and not be able to get a brew myself. So, I probably got the ideal seat as a solo traveler. I did have a great time and the enclosed car is really the level of vintage train I most enjoy.

It was a great ride and most of the people there and the staff were really friendly and awesome. If I didn't travel solo, I wouldn't have been able to go at all, but solo travel can be a mixed bag and I kinda wanted to talk about that a bit.

Last year the train had 56k riders and this year it's on track for 70k. I just saw that they added another moonlight ride for this year. The train is popular and seems to be growing a good bit. The track south towards Tillamook is also in good shape so maybe they'll even expand their range a bit.