I’m just finishing up my first term in my Master’s of Urban & Regional Planning, and it’s been a lot of work. I feel like I’ve learned a lot, but won’t go into too much detail beyond that. The important bits here are that it’s been a lot of work, and I haven’t had the chance to do nearly as much walking as I would have liked. One of my class projects did involve a fair bit of fieldwork in the Kerns and Hosford-Abernethy neighborhoods, so I did a bit of exploring there.

It was nice, but the structure of class was bit stiffing for the sort of writing and musing I prefer. And there was disappointingly little talk about railroad history, policy, or anything of the sort! So to fill the void, I planned an extravagant railroad and walking related winter break trip – and I am going to write lots while I do so.

The Trip

First, I’ll be taking the Coast Starlight all the way to Los Angeles – on the former Southern Pacific line. SP never ran a train all the way from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California, but the Shasta Daylight ran from Portland to Oakland while the Coast Daylight made the run from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Amtrak combined the two into the Coast Starlight shortly after forming, and it currently provides the only (!) train service between the Bay and LA.

I’m excited to ride it all the way to LA, as the section along the coast is supposed to be beautiful, even if it’s a pretty slow roll. But I’m more excited to spend a few days in Los Angeles walking, eating, and writing. I’ve recently read a couple Mike Davis books – City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear – and loved them.

Los Angeles is a singularly fascinating place in my imagination, though this has been a recent development. Yes, LA is maybe the capital of car infrastructure and culture in the US, but it also used to be home to one of the most expansive electric transit systems in the world. The Pacific Electric was integral to the development of the city and region, maybe to an ever greater degree than other parts of the country. LA has always been the ultimate land of real estate speculation, and Pacific Electric was basically a real estate speculation tool at its height.

But it also housed impromptu jam sessions from Charles Mingus, and its downfall largely is the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Almost all of the newly built LA Metro subway and light rail lines follow old Pacific Electric right of ways, and countless famous streets in the region formed along the old interurban’s tracks as well. So yes, LA may be the birthplace of the freeway, but I don’t care. I want to ride on the successor services to the Pacific Electric. I want to ride the A Line down past the Watts towers, listen to Mingus, and imagine how life was back in the day.

Once I’m done in LA, I’m riding on the Southwest Chief on the old Santa Fe mainline to Flagstaff. My dear friend Olin has been there since last September, and I haven’t visited yet and this trip was the perfect opportunity. Plus, since I bought the Amtrak 10-ride rail pass it’s basically free to get off in Flagstaff for a few days. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (or Sante Fe for short) – whose mainline did not go through Atchison or Santa Fe – merged with Burlington Northern in the late 90s, but beforehand tried a merger with Southern Pacific. Southern Pacific Santa Fe is the subject of very interesting YouTube video I watched once, but I mostly bring it up because SPSF would have owned the entire stretch of rail between Portland and Chicago that I will be traveling on, while BNSF owns almost all of my route back home from Wisconsin (excepting the former Milwaukee Road mainline between Chicago and the Twin Cities).

Anyways, I’m excited to see Flagstaff since its a small town with a train station experiencing gentrification. I imagine that very few (if any) of the current appeal of Flagstaff is related to the one train a day to LA or Chicago in the wee hours of the morning, but I think it also offers an interesting look back at my thoughts on small towns and railroad mergers. Flagstaff was a railroad town after all, and while NAU and outdoor recreation probably define the place now I am hoping to get a sense of how people interact with the railroad nowadays still.

It’s also an opportunity to go back to the Grand Canyon (always worth it!), play with Olin’s new (to me) dog Roscoe, break out the Magic the Gathering cards, and just enjoy time with my dear friend (and his partner Emma too!).

Next up will be Chicago, as no railroad journey is complete without a trip to the Windy City. I’ll be finishing off the rest of the Southwest Chief, then Olivia and I (she’s meeting me there, also coming in by train!) are staying in one of my favorite buildings of all time – the Carbide and Carbon. I’m always excited to go to Chicago, and this trip is no different. I’m hoping to get to a few museums, have some wonderful food, and to ride a bunch of public transportation.

One of my favorite parts of Chicago is the architecture though – and I am really hoping we get the chance to head inside the Thompson Center before Google guts it. It’s a crying shame that one of the most interesting and iconic pieces of architecture in Chicago is going to be lost to the boring sensibilities of a megalomaniac tech conglomerate, but money doesn’t buy taste as they say. And there’s about a million other buildings to check out. I’m always blown away by the quality of random buildings in Chicago.

And of course, I will have friends to see and will find many more things to observe on long walks – no matter what the Midwest winter has in store for me.

Finally, we’ll hop on the bus to Madison for Christmas with my family – before getting ready for another trip on the Empire Builder back home to Portland. What is there for me to say about Madison? Home is where the heart is, and I imagine I’ll spend my time playing Parcheesi, cavorting at the Essen Haus, and reveling in good times with dear friends and family.

Make sure to stay tuned!

I’m planning on walking and writing every day I’m in LA – and hopefully will have time to do the same in Chicago. I’ll write up a reflection on Flagstaff as well, and am really looking forward to having more time to spend on my feet out in the real world. Grad school is good and all, but there’s still no better way to learn about a city than on your own two feet.

Stay warm, and I’ll see you all out walking.