Greetings from St. Paul where I finally arrived yesterday at 2:50pm almost 8 hours late! Had I been going all the way to Chicago I would have even gotten a free dining car dinner. This was announced just before we arrived in St. Paul.
The trip was a real adventure that I will remember forever and gave me a (hopefully) extremely rare spectacular daylight crossing through Idaho along Cocolalla Lake (near Sandpoint, Idaho) and the Kootenai River (I followed the same river farther north on the Rocky Mountaineer, although the Canadians spell the name differently) through China Rapids Canyon, only visible by railroad or by floating down in a boat, along the Idaho and Montana Boarder all normally passed through in the dead of night. This portion of the trip was made even more memorable from the narration in the lounge car of a native son of the area going to Libby, Montana who told me the names of everything we passed along this portion of the trip and pointed out the major highlights. The other rare daylight scenery going through eastern North Dakota and Minnesota was less impressive but we definitely got odd looks blocking traffic going through the center of Fargo and the reason that Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes was definitely affirmed from the number we passed.
The place the major lateness occurred (we arrived in Spokane only an hour late at 1:20, after leaving that late from Portland) did not even happen to my section of the train but to the Seattle section when it got caught behind a disabled freight train going through the Cascades between Everett and Leavenworth, Washington. The downside to this was that we were stuck on the platform in Spokane locomotive-less since the locomotive had to be immediately detached to take the Portland section of train number 27 arriving from the east right on time back down to Portland. I was able to watch the break-up happen from the platform since the Spokane platform is an island with two station tracks. This meant we were stuck in the dark on the platform with only battery powered emergency lighting that eventually failed during the night. I was unable to sleep in my two seats (never had to double-up the entire trip!) because of a symphony of snoring going on around me. I tried to make the most of my stay in Spokane and went for a 3am walk through the sleeping city including enjoying some pancakes and coffee (which I never normally drink and it kept me up throughout the next day and all the bonus scenery) in an all night eatery. The other amusing moment was when I found myself stranded in the Sightseer Lounge car (where I had gone to sit and try to sleep away from the symphony of snoring) when all of its power (including the battery back-up) failed, and I could not re-open the door to get back to my coach. This meant I found myself going downstairs and opening the window (there really easy to open, wish I could open it for photos in route) to attract the attention of an employee (who’s job is to service both trains in Spokane) on the platform who understood completely that the compressor for the air release door had failed upstairs because we had been stopped for so long, a let me off. This door between cars was having problems for the rest of the trip and it remained permanently on open.
The other downside to the lateness were the few fresh air stops the train made and I only got one bonus one that is normally in darkness getting pictures at Grand Forks, ND (I once visited the station by car), with Whitefish, Montana the only other stop as well as Havre, MT which we arrived in at 7pm after it had gotten dark. I did try to get photos of the stations normally passed through in the dead of night from the train and think I was rather successful. I’m definitely going to compile everything along with all of my notes in a photo heavy TripLog of the rare scenery I saw in daylight while riding the extremely late Empire Builder.
Overall it was quite a fun trip considering the lateness with few over grumbling passengers, most just taking it in stride. Some legitimately nervous about connections since the train did not arrive in Chicago until 11:00pm last night (just looked it up on Amtrak’s website) meaning even the Lake Shore Limited left before it had arrived (on time at 9:30, an hour and a half too long to wait). I have a feeling Amtrak was handing out quite a few hotel vouches for the night but those going to Michigan I talked to were told they would end up on a bus.
The trip was a real adventure that I will remember forever and gave me a (hopefully) extremely rare spectacular daylight crossing through Idaho along Cocolalla Lake (near Sandpoint, Idaho) and the Kootenai River Canyon, only visible by railroad or by floating down in a boat, along the Idaho and Montana Boarder all normally passed through in the dead of night. This portion of the trip was made even more memorable from the narration in the lounge car of a native son of the area going to Libby, Montana who told me the names of everything we passed along this portion of the trip and pointed out the major highlights. The other rare daylight scenery going through eastern North Dakota and Minnesota was less impressive but we definitely got odd looks blocking traffic going through the center of Fargo and the reason that Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes was definitely affirmed from the number we passed.
The place the major lateness occurred (we arrived in Spokane only an hour late at 1:20, after leaving that late from Portland) did not even happen to my section of the train but to the Seattle section when it got caught behind a disabled freight train going through the Cascades between Everett and Leavenworth, Washington. The downside to this was that we were stuck on the platform in Spokane locomotive-less since the locomotive had to be immediately detached to take the Portland section of train number 27 arriving from the east right on time back down to Portland. I was able to watch the break-up happen from the platform since the Spokane platform is an island with two station tracks. This meant we were stuck in the dark on the platform with only battery powered emergency lighting that eventually failed during the night. I was unable to sleep in my two seats (never had to double-up the entire trip!) because of a symphony of snoring going on around me. I tried to make the most of my stay in Spokane and went for a 3am walk through the sleeping city including enjoying some pancakes and coffee (which I never normally drink and it kept me up throughout the next day and all the bonus scenery) in an all night eatery. The other amusing moment was when I found myself stranded in the Sightseer Lounge car (where I had gone to sit and try to sleep away from the symphony of snoring) when all of its power (including the battery back-up) failed, and I could not re-open the door to get back to my coach. This meant I found myself going downstairs and opening the window (there really easy to open, wish I could open it for photos in route) to attract the attention of an employee (who’s job is to service both trains in Spokane) on the platform who understood completely that the compressor for the air release door had failed upstairs because we had been stopped for so long, a let me off. This door between cars was having problems for the rest of the trip and it remained permanently on open.
The other downside to the lateness were the few fresh air stops the train made and I only got one bonus one that is normally in darkness getting pictures at Grand Forks, ND (I once visited the station by car), with Whitefish, Montana the only other stop as well as Havre, MT which we arrived in at 7pm after it had gotten dark. I did try to get photos of the stations normally passed through in the dead of night from the train and think I was rather successful. I’m definitely going to compile everything along with all of my notes in a photo heavy TripLog of the rare scenery I saw in daylight while riding the extremely late Empire Builder.
Overall it was quite a fun trip considering the lateness with few over grumbling passengers, most just taking it in stride. Some legitimately nervous about connections since the train did not arrive in Chicago until 11:00pm last night (just looked it up on Amtrak’s website) meaning even the Lake Shore Limited left before it had arrived (on time at 9:30, an hour and a half too long to wait). I have a feeling Amtrak was handing out quite a few hotel vouches for the night but those going to Michigan I talked to were told they would end up on a bus.