The Christmas Day Coast Starlight pauses at the Paso Robles Amtrak station on a cold, winter afternoon. Trailing the power, reflecting in a small puddle leftover from a rain squall days ago, are a pair of horizon coaches followed by Amtrak's sole full-length dome car, a survivor of the Great Northern.
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.