First of all, most conductors are very nice and will not give you trouble for having a radio on the train. It is decent though to wear an earphone and not have it blaring across the train. The Amtrak Coast Starlight from Seattle to LA hits Northern California early morning. Not until 0800 does it reach Sacramento! There are usually two conductors on the train with radios; not including the engineer. One in first class and the other in the rest of the train. As the conductor walks by, check out his radio. The screen is very easy to read and will have 4 digits on it. The first two digits are the first AAR channel number. This can be anything from a clear channel for the conductor and engineer to talk or conductor to a special police agent. The last two digits represent the road channel. Most of the time on the Coast Starlight line, the conductors have UP Road channels #1 and 2 on because they switch between them throughout California. Around Oakland I hadn't figured out their system yet and lost their traffic for a while. I was listening in the blind for a long while. Finally I got the nerve to ask a conductor what his radio is on. He looks at it and says 22-14. He smiled like I would have no idea what it meant. But I thanked him and started pluggin stuff in. Now, channel 22 I had no idea why he had it plugged in but 14 was the road channel. I heard nothing on 22 and this was in Salinas. On his second round he eyed me and noticed my radios. He winked and smiled. And I had about 10 people in the sightseer car interested in listening and were gathered around me the whole way down.
The sightseer is excellent to sit back and setup your listening post. Great natural light for quick display and map reading and there are holders for little things like pens and notebooks. The seat swivals 360 degrees and is usually above the lounge and next to the dining car :) And the view is spectacular. If you ride the Coast Starlight you MUST sit on the west side of the train. That is where the senic side is. There are some moments on the east side, especially north of San Luis Obispo going through the tunnels near Cuesta Pk. Travelling through Vandenburg Air Force Base is the best experience of being up close! Bring a camera or a camcorder is better. Numerous Space Launching Complexes that were originally for the Shuttle until the program was abandoned and moved to Kennedy in Florida can be seen in the base. There are many silos in the ground as well for the famous MinuteMan Cruise Missiles that Vandenburg is known for and mysterious hangers scattered throughout the base which covers at least 20 miles of the train trip. It lasts about 45 minutes as the train goes between 15 and 30 mph through the base. Just before you leave the base heading south you can see the Titan II and IV launching pads right next to the tracks. A great picture area!