Following another good visit with my friends in Glenwood Springs (Breakfast in the
Hotel Colorado this time), I flew up to Portland transferred via MAX train and bus directly to the train station. It’s been awhile since I’ve been through Portland and I look forward to one of these days staying long enough to join fellow FTer
opushomes for a fine Portland Ale.
The reason for my relocation to Portland is to take a ride on the
Empire Builder, one of the most famous passenger trains in America. Operated by the Great Northern Railway, the
Empire Builder commenced service in 1929 and soon became the railroad’s flag bearer. The train is named in honor James J. Hill, the Great Northern’s president at that time. Hill reorganized several failing railroads into the Great Northern Railway and so himself became known as The Empire Builder.
The route of the
Empire Builder runs 2,220 miles from Chicago to Seattle, though a separate section splits at Spokane and continues down to Portland, 2,257 miles distant. My journey, traveling east from Portland to Milwaukee will take about 44 hours and take me through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. I’ve got a First Class roomette booked and am definitely looking forward to what ought to be a great trip! But then, aren’t they all?
The Portland city bus dropped me directly across the street from the station and I paused to take a picture of the elegant building before heading inside.
Portland’s historic Union Station has been serving northwest rail passengers since 1896. It is a beautiful building that only serves to heighten the excitement of taking a train trip across country aboard one of America’s premier trains. Here are some pictures of Portland’s Union Station.
Amtrak’s Metropolitan Lounge ~ Portland Union Station
Amtrak’s Metropolitan Lounge in Portland may not be as large as its counterpart in Chicago, but it sure is a lot nicer. Maybe it’s just because I’m a big fan of natural light, but I felt the overall ambience of this little lounge was far superior to the larger lounge in Chicago. The lounge attendant even had a freezer available where I could pre-chill my Full Sail Ales.
Boarding was announced at 4:15pm. There were only about six of us traveling in First Class out of Portland, but the lounge attendant assured me that the train would be nearly full by the time we reached Minot, N.D.
Because the main portion of the
Empire Builder departs from Seattle, tonight’s section out of Portland was a fairly small train comprised of a Genesis I engine, a Superliner II Sightseer Lounge, two bi-level coaches and, at the rear of the train, a Superliner sleeper. The dining car and another six or seven coaches and sleepers depart from Seattle at the same time we do. Later this evening we’ll quite literally “hook-up” in Spokane and then continue as a much larger train all the way into Chicago.
I was greeted at the door to my sleeper by D.L. Martin, without a doubt the most polite and conscientious car attendant I have ever had the good fortune of knowing. He showed me to my room and once it was determined that I was already familiar with the operation of Amtrak’s sleepers, he offered me a welcoming bottle of “Champagne” which he delivered shortly to my room. Here are some pictures of the boarding process:
Departure out of Portland was right on time and soon we were rolling smoothly across the many bridges and rivers necessary for northbound passengers to escape Portland. The Willamette and Columbia Rivers are crossed, along with numerous wide sloughs. Twenty minutes later we pulled into Vancouver, Washington just as the sun was setting.
From Vancouver, the
Empire Builder rolls eastward along the banks of the mighty Columbia River. This is one of the prettiest portions of the journey, one that I’ve enjoyed many times during earlier trips made during the summer and fall. Unfortunately, this being winter, there was no longer enough daylight to be able to appreciate the spectacular views. I’ll just have to come back and do it later in the year, then!
Meals are inclusive of the fare for Amtrak’s First Class passengers. However, because this train does not have a proper dining car until Spokane, First Class passengers are offered a choice of three cold dinners (Chicken, Beef or Salmon). Mr. Martin presented all three meals for my inspection and informed me that he’d be happy to serve me in my room or I could get a dinner in the lounge car. I’d never taken a meal in my room before and decided to try it out. Not as convivial as a proper diner but enjoyable and tasty nonetheless. I accompanied my meal with a nicely chilled Full Sail Ale. Here’s the picture:
Shortly after dinner I paid a visit to the lounge car but our load out of Portland and Vancouver was so light this evening that there were only a handful of quiet readers. I like a good book as much as anyone, so I decided to return to my room where a bucket of ice cold ales and John Lescroat’s latest awaited.
I called it a night about an hour out of Spokane. My bed had been made up about an hour earlier and between lying down to read and the gentle rocking motion of the train, I was soon comfortably sleepy.
I slept well, too. I didn’t even wake up at the long station stop in Whitefish, Montana. We were now on Mountain Time, so I reset my watch, grabbed a quick shower and headed up to the diner. Until the arrival of the new Superliner Fleet in 1982, showers were generally not available to U.S. rail passengers. My sleeper had been refurbished at Amtrak’s Beech Grove shops a few years earlier and now featured the new modular bathrooms and shower. Here are some photos:
The only downside to Amtrak’s meal service is the standardization of their long distance dining car menu. Overall though, the meals I was served were tasty and for the most part well presented. For a copy of Amtrak’s national menu, click
HERE
Unfortunately, due to my late awakening, the time zone change and a hot shower, I had to rush in order to make last call for breakfast. Though the Railroad French Toast with Sausage was worth the rush, I was eating breakfast and chatting with an elderly couple from Rugby, N.D. (They’d lived there for 46 years and still didn’t know the origin of the name), as we passed through Glacier Park and some of the most dramatic scenery of the trip. Not that it mattered all that much as the conditions were less than optimal for fine photography. Low clouds and light snow was the order of the morning. Nevertheless, here are some photos I managed of Glacier Park and eastern environs.
An announcement was made when we rolled across Marias Pass, at 5,213 feet the highest point on the route, but the lowest Rocky Mountain rail crossing in the United States. As one might imagine, it was all down from here for the
Empire Builder. The scenery soon flattened out into hundreds of miles of low rolling hills and open fields as we rolled across the high plains of Eastern Montana and North Dakota. It remained so until the next morning when we departed St. Paul, MN and began to parallel the frozen Mississippi River. The scenery through here consisted of attractive farmhouses accented by large trees and the occasional hill. We crossed the Mississippi at Lacrosse, Wisconsin and I determined that I would have to return and ride this train westbound later in the spring.
Our arrival in Milwaukee was right on time. Before leaving, I thanked my car attendant for his excellent service and gave him a somewhat more than generous tip. He deserved it though. I’ve ridden about one hundred Amtrak trains and he was the best employee I’ve ever encountered. Thanks, D.L.
The best one way fare between Milwaukee and Denver was offered by Frontier Airlines. My A319 was smartly liveried in Frontier’s silver billboard livery highlighted by a leopard on the tail. Service on the 2 hour and 20 minute flight to Denver consisted of a pass with the beverage cart followed by another cart offering a variety of items available for purchase. Click
HERE to see what’s available. For entertainment, a variety of television programs and movies are available for $5.00 to $8.00. I had a good book to read for free but did shell out $3.00 for a portion of Hector’s surprisingly good chips and salsa.
So, there you have it, folks. I must apologize for writing in a somewhat more abbreviated style than I usually employ. That said, I got this report finished just in time. Tomorrow at 6:00am I report to the hospital for cervical spine surgery, after which the use of my laptop will be severely curtailed for a couple of weeks. Anyway, I look forward to returning to international destinations next year and with that will come another trip report.
Until then, I wish you all happy travels!