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I was at the SBA station today to pick up my tix for a quick SBA/FUL/SBA Surfliner trip next Wednesday and caught the NB Starlight #14 as it pulled in and departed 29 minutes down.
There was a "Cascades" locomotive in the #2 spot and there WAS a Parlour Car. It took me a moment to realize that the sleepers would now be at the end of the train.
It didn't look like a huge number of people boarding for a Friday in what's left of Summer. Perhaps 25 in the coaches and half that in the Sleepers.
Frank in smoky and ash covered SBA
smitty195 Member # 5102
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Hey Frank,
Do you know what's up with that big fire? I was a little surprised when I saw the huge header of smoke when I was in SBA on Sunday. Hasn't that thing been burning for quite some time now?
dbg Member # 5799
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Started on the Fourth of July...still evacuating people. My firefighter friends tell me they plan on stopping it at the ocean but which particular ocean has not been determined.
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Holy smokes! (pun intended) :-) That's one heckuva fire!
sbalax Member # 2801
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The Zaca Fire is burning in the back country and started on 4 July as dbg said. There were evacuations in the Paradise Road area near Santa Ynez but those folks have, for the most part, been let back into their homes. As far as I know there has been minimal structural loss. East Camino Cielo, which runs along the ridgeline has been closed from Gibraltar Road to the Ventura County line. The fire is generally burning east not and not towards the ocean or Santa Barbara. At least for now. They are doing backfires on the Eastern edge and hope to stop it there early in September. 100,000 acres was the last figure I saw, much of it terrain not burned in recorded history.
We've had a couple of bad days of smoke and ash but today is clear, sunny and warm. The ash is still out there on the vegetation, streets and roofs and will be until we get a good rain. Let's hope this year is wetter than last and earlier rather than later.
There have been some spectacular white plumes including one the other day that was estimated at 22,000 feet.
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