Mount Shasta and Shastina tower over the Butte Valley as Amtrak's Coast Starlight blasts northward at 79mph on a spectacular summer morning. The searchlights and code line are living on borrowed time as UP's signal replacement project marches southward; new color-light block signals have been erected north and south of this spot at milepost 404.25.
Running daily between Seattle and Los Angeles, this train offers running alongside the Pacific Ocean and through the Cascade Mountains. It has been one of Amtrak's long-distance success stories.