Journey notes: Our new Edmonds prepare station mural and recollections of becoming an Amtrak docent

When Edmonds resident Kevin O’Keeffe supplied a photo of the new mural at the Edmonds educate station, he also available this backstory:

For in excess of 5 years when I was living in Seattle, I was an Amtrak docent in the National Park Trails and Rails system, with regular one particular-day operates on the Coast Starlight to and from Portland. A lot less often but additional pleasant have been the two-and-a-50 percent-day round excursions on the Empire Builder to past Glacier Park. Most of the volunteers most well-liked to push and board at the Edmonds station instead than at the King Street station in Seattle.

Even aside from these trips, my spouse and I would frequently go by rail to Whitefish, Montana, even immediately after we stopped downhill snowboarding.  (The agenda allows a complete day on the slopes after arrival, and on the working day of the return.) Then, after driving by Glacier so several times as a docent, I realized it was time to get off the prepare and stop by that fantastic park, and have performed so practically yearly in the earlier ten years, which include in blend with a a person-week volunteer stint ai the Blackfoot reservation in Browning.

Soon after COVID cutbacks, rail vacation is rebounding and our new president is a fervent supporter. The still-ongoing Canadian border closure affects not only journey to Vancouver, BC, but also the decline of two Cascade trains going north of Seattle, wherein from Edmonds you could take a southbound educate through Seattle to Portland and Eugene, or join with the Coastline Starlight to Los Angeles.

Extensive-distance trains on the West Coastline have been been returned to each day operation, and dining automobile operations are getting resumed. Even improved,  on-board cooks will shortly be getting ready foods. New fuel-successful engines are currently being phased in along with new passenger cars and trucks. Even though Edmonds is a amazing area to be, it is also excellent that we are well positioned to incorporate rail vacation to our ferry, highway and air modes of travel. All aboard!

— By Kevin O’Keeffe