The First...and Last Time. Skirting the Pacific Ocean on a warm, summer day is AMTK 161 - wearing the newly applied 50th Anniversary Phase I paint scheme - as it leads Amtrak Train No. 14, the northbound Coast Starlight, along the bluffs just south of Carpenteria, California. This trip up to Seattle, Washington would up being the unit's first and last time (as of this post) running the full-length of the route...as the 25,000+ acre lava fire shortly thereafter began its tear across the base of Mt. Shasta, severely damaging the Union Pacific Railroad's rail line that the Starlight utilizes.
