A couple weeks back I saw a flier in a local shop advertising a day trip on a vintage railway car. The classic 39 seat first class lounge was built in 1949 by the famous Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company for use on the old San Francisco Overland Trail line between Chicago and San Francisco on the now defunct passenger service of Southern Pacific Railroad.
We arrived at Santa Barbara’s Amtrak station on Sunday morning as the San Luis Obispo-bound Amtrak train pulled in the station. The familiar sight of Amtrak’s polished steel train was interrupted by what I would soon learn was the trademark “Daylight” paint scheme of the old Southern Pacific line. Our Pullman car dropped off a trainload of Los Angeles day-trippers bound for Santa Barbara’s urban wine trail – a prearranged combination train ride and wine tour – and we boarded the classically luxurious streamliner.
Our scenic trip on Southern Pacific railcar 2981 took us through the rarely seen Santa Barbara County coastline, obscured by private ranches, rugged terrain and the implicit secrecy of Vandenberg Air Force Base. As photo opportunities whizzed by the large, crystal-clear windows, I tried my best to snap my shutter. The train’s antique windows had an odd effect on the digital exposures, giving each shot a sort of vintage look and coloring. All of the photos in the gallery were taken on Sunday August 29, 2010, but have a strange quality that, at a glance, might be mistaken for August 29, 1950.
The tracks wind past the infamous Point Conception and Point Arguello where the mostly southern facing coastline of Santa Barbara jogs northward toward the notoriously sharky and perilous waters of the California Central Coast. Past Vandenberg the missile launch sites are clearly visible on the leeward side of the tracks, as is the gigantic 15,000-foot long runway on the base.
While the Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo trip is relatively new, the Overland Trail car was purchased 23 years ago by Bill Hatrick and his wife Debbie. They restored the train to its original splendor, complete with stewardess’s quarters and a on-board barber shop. The Hatricks claim that they are just one year away from being the car’s longest-term owners, as their records indicate that Southern Pacific itself owned the 2981 railcar for 24 years. Bill serves as conductor and host for the rides. He beamed with pride as he explained the process of restoring the classic railcars to Amtrak’s modern specifications, complete with sanitary holding tanks, rendering quaint the original posted lavatory warnings about not flushing while the train is standing in the station.
When not gliding up the coast hitched to an Amtrak locomotive, the Overland Trail sleeps in Los Angeles Union Station where it is available for charter for a variety of occasions. The Hatrick’s 2981 railcar was even featured in Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of our Fathers,” among other productions.
Visit the complete photo gallery for more images of our journey up the coast, including photos of the launch facilities at Vandenberg. More information and a complete history on the Overland Trail Club Lounge Car can be found at larail.com. For booking information on the Santa Barbra to San Luis Obispo route call Terry at 805.680.0397.
According to the Santa Barbara Independent a brushfire has broken out off Old San Marcos Road north of Cathedral Oaks Road. The fire was estimated at three to 3.5 acres as of 4:05 p.m. As of 5:30 p.m. the fire appears to be under control. I was driving on US-101 from Goleta toward Downtown when I saw the smoke and managed to turn off to snap a few photos. More shots are available in the gallery.
I completed the installation of my new Ambient Weather WS-1080 on Tuesday. The WS-1080 is a relatively inexpensive ($109 PC / $119 Mac OS) personal weather station (PWS). I opted for the suggested solar shield – for more accurate temperature readings – which was on sale ($19.95) with the Mac bundle. The sensors consist of a anemometer (windspeed), wind direction indicator, hygrometer (relative humidity), thermometer, barometric pressure sensor and rain gauge. The sensor array is mounted on the rooftop and communicates with the main console via a 433MHz wireless link. The console then connects via USB to my Mac Mini which is then able to transmit the weather data via the Internet.
It was fun assembling the sensor array. Despite the low price tag the instruments and sensor components seem to be well made. The optional larger solar shield was quite a bit larger than the one included with the station but it seems to be providing adequate shielding. I have used other wireless thermometers and typically they become inaccurately high when the sun shines on them. Given that this unit is usually mounted where it will be in sunlight all day, this is an important consideration.
Once I had the array fully assembled and fixed to the included mounting pole I set up the ladder for the roof summit. My roof has a particularly large sanitary stack pipe (to provide proper clearance from the skylight) so I was able to mount it nearly five feet off the roof on just the pipe alone. Others who might not have such a mast already in place will want to consider a tripod or chimney mount.
The Mac software, WeatherSnoop that Ambient included with the Mac Package was very easy to set up and it flawlessly interfaced with the USB-connected LCD console. WeatherSnoop supports two of the most popular communities of amateur weather observers: Wunderground and CWOP/APRSWXNET. Wunderground in particular does a really nice job of promoting PWS usage. By default, visitors to its site are shown data from their nearest PWS, based on ZIP code. Live data from my station is the currently the default for the 93109 ZIP code. Wunderground also makes available a comprehensive collection of historical data and charts. Wunderground also offers a free iPhone app called Wunder. The app is pretty bare-bones, but it will be of interest especially to PWS owners who want a quick way to monitor their stations. Another nice feature of Wunderground is the ability to embed an HTML “sticker” of any PWS on your home page. You will see a number of options here for my station, including a pretty comprehensive Adobe Flash console (I haven’t figured out why no rain is being reported as “-999.00 in.” in the large Flash console. This software bug was fixed in Q4 2010 with a subsequent release of WeatherSnoop.):
A few pecadillos …
I originally installed two regular alkaline AA batteries from my battery bin in the roof-mounted array. In a little more than 24 hours the station was reporting negative temperatures online. I returned home to find that the sensor array was not communicating with the console. I suspected that the AAs were not fresh so I purchased a pack of lithium batteries as recommended by Ambient. Those setting up stations in cold weather will definitely want to opt for lithium cells as they considerably outperform alkaline in sub-freezing temperatures.
The WS-1080 has the ability to set relative pressure in the console to compensate for the elevation of the barometric pressure sensor for installation above sea level. For my location in Santa Barbara, Calif. at approx 125 feet above sea level that works out to about 0.1 inch of mercury. For a station in Denver, that would be more like five inches! WeatherSnoop version 1.7.3, which was included in the WS-1080′s box, seemed to ignore this issue and report absolute pressure. Upgrading to WeatherSnoop 1.7.4 seems to have solved this issue by calculating the corrected pressure based on the site elevation as set in the “My Site” tab in the software.
The rainfall indicator is reporting N/A or -999.00 depending on where you look in Wunderground. My console reads “0.0 inches.” WeatherSnoop’s documentation specifically says that “rain values are not transmitted to WeatherSnoop, even though they are shown on the console.” The documentation goes on to say, “Rain Total for Year – Obtained from the station (interpreted as total since reset).” I am not sure what that means and what the implications are. Since we won’t likely be getting rain in Southern California for at least another two to three months I guess we will have to wait and see.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. I am still working out the kinks and learning how to best keep the station accurate and online and appreciate your feedback.
With the final edition of Intents & Purposes upon us, we welcomed Program Director Daniel Alvarenga and Development Coordinator Ted Coe to reflect on the show and share the uniqueness of KCSB, Santa Barbara’s only non-commercial radio station. Look for more public affairs this summer with Tim and Pav and my possible return to the radio in the fall. Listen to the podcast.
We launched the Red Baron Aviation Web site on June 1. I redesigned the site in WordPress to add blog-like content including a featured article on the home page as well as content management to allow owner/manager Peggy to make updates with ease. Check it out.
Sue Cronmiller, the founding director of the UC Irvine Poetry Academy and Writing LAB at El Sol was on the show yesterday. The collected works of her students as young as 3rd grade from 2003 to 2008 has recently been released in the paperback entitled Mind’s Eye. Sue shared stories of her unique dual-language immersion school and their amazing achievements. Listen to the podcast.
Tim Lister and Rachel Street, project scientists at the UCSB-affiliated Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network joined Tim and me this morning to talk about their exciting discovery of nine gaseous planets in deep space. Their discovery upset the exiting theory about how planets are formed. Listen to the podcast.
The 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was the second in just more than 100 flights of the shuttle fleet. (photo: Wikipedia)
After 9/11 the Bush administration’s knee-jerk reaction was to attempt to stem immigration and tighten airport security. After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s reaction was to stem off-shore drilling. While I personally agree with the decision not to drill in the ocean I am not in favor of knee-jerk reactions, even if they have outcomes agreeable to me. Knee-jerk reactions that are 180 degrees from one’s original stance show poor planning and imply to me that the original decision was made in haste.
Schwarzenegger has known the risks of off-shore drilling for years, yet he continued to support its expansion. This BP spill in the Gulf didn’t change the risk ratio, it merely made it very real for many, many people. It is politically wise for politicians to withdraw support for drilling after this incident but their motivations are suspect. It reminds me of one famous CalTech physicist who discovered that the risk of catastrophic failure of the Space Shuttle was greater than 1 in 100. So-called “NASA experts” at the time had put the risk much much lower saying the shuttle was safe and that the Challenger accident had resulted in serious safety improvements, suggesting that Feynman’s estimates were grossly overstated. Space Shuttle Columbia, the second shuttle to be destroyed in a catastrophic failure was the 113th flight. Had proper research been done and warnings been heeded in the first place the second disaster might have been prevented. Draw whatever parallels you may to our current disaster in the Gulf.
The Internet has quickly evolved into one of our most important national resources. However, a recent court decision may change what you have access to through your online connection. UC Santa Barbara communication researcher and network neutrality expert KK Holland talked with Tim and I this morning about the pros and cons of the issue. Listen to the show.
Had to swap out my iPhone for a warranty replacement. #iCloud lost all my data even though I confirmed before that it had backed up today! [read tweet]2012/05/17
I completed the installation of my new Ambient Weather WS-1080 on Tuesday. The WS-1080 is a relatively inexpensive (
Fellow KCSB programmer and Santa Barbara Independent writer 
