Alex Ramos Photo

The Coast Starlight
2017 - 2022

A glow slowly appeared over the landscape as if the sun or moon were to crest the horizon. Suddenly, the illumination in the distance transformed into a piercing light that shimmered along two steel lines that marked the path ahead. A sense of wonder and excitement overtook me as I anticipated the familiar colors, shapes, sounds and smells of the approaching show of force.

After a minute, the echo of a whistle filled the air to warn all that was in its path-there can be no stopping.

The whistle was the call of #14, the Northbound "Coast Starlight,” twelve cars powered by two locomotives, accelerating towards points north. It was charging through Berkeley, California some twelve hours into its trip from Los Angeles with twenty hours to go before it reached its destination of Seattle, Washington.

It was a call that caught my attention every night as a young boy and sparked my fascination with trains.

I wanted to be on the train.

I wanted to follow the train.

And I did.

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This series was created over the course of more than a dozen roundtrip journeys aboard Amtrak’s “Coast Starlight,” traveling between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. With over thirty years of riding this train, my deep familiarity with the route allows me to anticipate the fleeting scenes that unfold alongside the tracks. The photographs are a record of the people and landscapes in the small towns and larger cities that line the path of this daily train as it threads its way along the West Coast of the United States.

Ceremony at Summit
2019

He who ascends to mountain tops shall find,
The loftiest peaks most clad in clouds and snow.

Though far above the sun of glory glow,
And far beneath the earth and oceans spread,

Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow,
Contending tempests on his naked head,
And thus reward the tolls which to those summits led.

Lord Byron

from: Childe Harold, Canto iii, Verse 45

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May 10th, 2019 was the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. I made a pilgrimage to Donner Pass, California, and hiked to the decommissioned tunnels in which trains had traveled through for 126 years (1867-1993). Thousands of Chinese workers constructed these tunnels by blasting through solid granite with their hands and explosives. Such Herculean efforts were made more impressive by the record speed in which they laid tracks, even through the harsh winters in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. America was forever changed: people and goods could then move across the country in a matter of days. The East was finally connected to the West.

Today, the tunnels serve as monuments, memorializing the blood and sweat of these pioneers. Though mostly left out of historic photographs, blast marks hidden in the shadows of the tunnel walls remind us of the Chinese contribution to the nation and their place in American history.

Bayshore
2020 - 2021

A visual record of one of the largest undeveloped stretches of land just miles south of San Francisco. Once the largest rail yard serving San Francisco and its surrounding areas, it has remained untouched for decades since its closure in the mid-1980s. Contaminated soil, infrastructure limitations, and land use challenges have all contributed to its prolonged stagnation.

In the early stages of this project, I shared the photos with Jeff Brouws, a photographer I have long admired and kept in touch with. He encouraged me to continue visiting the site, and to channel Lewis Baltz’s vision of Candlestick Point. And that I did.