Prior to the west coast being slammed by storms in early 2017, the ex-Southern Pacific (SP) coast line looked fairly tranquil in scenes such as this one brought to you just north of Gaviota. Looking down the two-tone grey paint and white lines of the 1950-built, ex-Union Pacific chair car "Pacific Trail," with a little imagination one can see a brightly colored GS-4 on the head-end leading a spotless train of stainless steel orange and red cars through the twists and curves along the coast as Train No. 99, the northbound Daylight, heads toward its next stop of Surf. While the Daylight might be hard to imagine, Amtrak's horizon transit with the veteran's painted cabbage and a pair of private cars isn't too shabby.
