I wake up again at 5:52 at a siding in Libby, not the actual station. A freight passes we continue. We then proceed into the station, arriving at 5:58, all I see is concrete and the tactile warning strip on the platform looking down at the top of the window. My friend is fast asleep, (he completely slept through Spokane) I remember the scenery from my last overly late trip. We depart at 6:00.
I fall back asleep in until Whitefish.
At 7:41 we arrive in West Whitefish with some work equipment.
We arrive in Whitefish at 7:43. I get photos of the now completed renovated platform. No stools required anymore! We have a good photo stop walk and get the all aboard at 8:02.
- 8:04 – We slowly leave Whitefish, I snag the rear window. The line has tons of greenery.
- 8:08 – East Whitefish. We slowly gain speed leaving the P20 zone behind
- 8:11 – See some elk and increase speed up to at least 60 from the speed limit signs I’ve now deciphered.
- 8:16 – A river joins us. We slow down.
- 8:17 – Pass Corkeley going slower. We start rising up along a cliff and go through a tunnel. We’re along a cliff.
- 8:35 – A double spot at West Glacer. I get photos of us leaving the tiny ADA platform.
Now its time for breakfast. We head to the dining car and sit down with a mother and son (Dad joins them at an adjacent table shortly thereafter). They are experieced Amtrak riders but have just spent their first night in coach after booking too late with the Portland Sleeper sold out. There going to Glacier, Yellowstone and then heading back to the Bay Area where they live on the California Zephyr. The breakfast special is a breakfast burrito. I decide to try it. It is surprisingly good and were all amused with the tiny half, separate container that is my ration of Avocado (Guacamole).
At 10:09 we arrive East Glacer. It is specifically announced as NOT a smoke stop. Unlike my last trip in Summer back in 2006. A large tour group is getting on. They have their blue Rail Tour pouches around their necks with their names and hometowns in them. Some are in coach, some the sleepers. There a Chicago loop: Zephyr to Salt Lake, bus tour to the national parks, back on the Builder to Chicago.
- 10:29 – We slowly leave Glacer behind
- 10:32 – Skip Browning as I get some rear window photos. Glacer fades into the distance as we slowly leave.
- 10:58 – Final call for coach passengers wanting to order the famous chicken dinner that is made in a restaurant in Havre and suppliments the dining car since all the coach passengers who want to dine in the diner can’t possibly be accommodated. I notice we now have only two locomotives, our first 98 is leading. I guess it was swapped out in Spokane, hence the extremely long delay without HEP.
I don’t get back to our room in time for the rear window leaving Cut Bank (we stop at 11:03). I got some photos from the lounge. Then we pass a giant model of an Antarctic penguin leaving this little town that is announced by the Trails and Rails Guide.
11:15 – We pass a nice large wind farm to the south. Then tractor sales.
We arrive in Shelby 4 minutes early at 11:30 Excellent. Our attendant first says are car wont platform and we walk up to the next coach. It turns out he can safely open the door. I get a complete photo essay of the station. I step into the depot and have a funny conversation with the station agent who says “I decorated it myself.” She means she put some of the Amtrak issued posters up. The interior isn’t all that memorable. We also get up to the front of the train and get our locomotive photos. The all aboard announcement and whistle comes 3 minutes early at 11:40.
- 11:43 – “Coach Attendant please check your watch and pick up your stools” our actual departure time, we keep sitting.
- 11:47 – Part of the train pulls up. The conductor is clearly mad were not going to have an on time departure.
- 11:54 – Pass a sign for “Shelby-America’s Western Crossroads”
- 12:02 – Announcement that the dining car is at capacity and to go now for the wait list if you wish to dine with us for lunch. (We were debating going now), guess our time will be decided for us. I hope to get Havre and not be stuck in the diner.
- 12:14 – Lothar
- 12:23 – Chester
- 12:25 – Last call for the wait list for lunch
- 12:27 – Grind to a stop in Big Sky County at West Beuton.
- 12:32 – Greely with an elevator (grain that is). It has a siding with some chemical cars waiting for us to pass a freight train.
- 12:41 – Rudyard, there is a coal train on a siding (split due to a grade crossing with CN Locomotives. Pass MP-100
- 1:07 – See a pronghorn
- 1:10 – Pacific
I have lunch and order the soup and salad. The Clam Chowder is extremely mediocre. I ordered it once before and found it better. I guess they’ve changed their soup company. I do run out in the middle of the meal for about five minutes during our service stop at Havre to get some more pictures.
- 2:00 – They do the return to your seat/room for dinner reservations we go and sit in our room and enjoy the Montana Prairie on this lazy day going across it. I go back to our sleeper and notice an Amtrak take-out container of cookies have been left out. I don’t know if there Amtrak issued cookies or a touch by our attendant who really is excellent. The best one of the trip!
- 2:31 – Come to a stop for freight traffic as the conductor announces
- 2:38 – Hear the freight, it pulls up. I bet its too long for the siding.
- 2:50 – We finally speed up. The Stewart finally comes, we’re clearly the last sleeper to get reservations since they only have 5, 5:30, and 8:30, all mountain time. We choose 8:30 since were about to go to the wine and cheese tasting.
- 3:11 – Passing a double stack still in our sleeper. They announce to come to the diner for the wine and cheese tasting but I’m desperate to get Malta from the rear window.
- 3:13 – announcement for Malta with no station work.
We arrive in Malta with one platform and two tracks in the station. Train #7/27 is waiting to go the opposite direction. I get some amazing photos. There is a small board to get across to the opposite platform.
I then walk the six coaches to the dining car where the spread is set up for the wine and cheese tasting. Everything is disposalbe, both the wine glasses (two of them, one for the two reds, one for the one white). My friend has sat down with an elderly but interesting couple coming back from Glacier (that are not part of the tour group). The cheeses are on one plate to share. They pour three wines stopping to give bottles away with trivia questions. Most are silly and not train related. The last one is “How Many States does the Empire Builder Pass Through” Robbie answers correctly (going through the states in order) and a a bottle of 14 Hands Vinyards Canernet Sauvignon is ours to enjoy either in our sleeper or with dinner! The tasting is faster than that on the Coast Starlight. The staff is clearly feeling rushed with dinner to get to. They end the tasting with “Raise your Hand if your having dinner?” and a friendly “Get out so we can get ready for it.” We walk back to our sleeper through the coaches and I have this feeling that everyone is looking at me wondering why on earth does this guy have a bottle of wine in his hand. The bottle fits perfectly in the little indentation in our sleeper designed for water bottles. I don’t have to worry about it tipping over! Had I been alone I would have saved the wine and brought it to my friends as a hostess present. Robert won it so that won’t happen.
- 4:27 – 7MM Ranch.
- 4:34 – Through a tiny town, over another stream
- 4:45 –Keep going through the endless fields and another empty siding
- 4:51 – Fraser, Montana, with some MOW equipment
- 5:08 – Get the announcement for Wolf Point and that were approaching. We will double-spot the train there, first for a sleeper, then for the coaches.
- 5:15 – First stop for Wolf Point. I get the back window photos for the second as we pick up good speed. We go back to the fields.
- 5:28 – Pass another double-stack and single trailers along the Hi-Line. I see some standing water.
- 5:38 – A bunch of cars In a field
- 5:40 – See the Missouri River off in the distance
- 5:49 – The beginnings of the badlands off in the distance as we go over a green swamp
- 5:56 – Slow on a siding for some trailers and double stacks. I’m sitting in lounge overhearing a communications line worker commuting from Kalispell back to Williston, he has a family in Kalispell who want to move to the boom town with him but he is living in a man camp.
- 6:08 – Pass another freight
- 6:10 – See some mini badlands. There is a fiddle and guitar playing in the lounge strumming on and off. We pass more water.
- 6:22 – My phone updates itself, we’re getting close to North Dakota and Central Time.
- 6:24 – I think the last grain elevator in Montana. Start seeing oil horses. We’re making good speed. My phone keeps going back and forth from MDT to CDT in this service poor area.
- 6:31 – Really get between the badlands and see the Missouri River. There quite a few trees in the riparian zones around the river.
- 6:36 MDT/7:36 CDT – See Fort Union Historic Trading Post. This is the border between Montana and North Dakota. 22 Miles to Williston. Then the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone River.
- 7:40 – See more oil industry and a new loop that fills up cars with oil along the tracks.
- 7:45 – Start seeing tons of trailers dotting the landscape. All the heavy equipment makes it clear that something is going on. We keep following the river.
The train arrives in Williston at 7:57 and it isn’t announced as a smoke stop but the crowds waiting to board make it clear that you can get away with using it as a smoke stop. There is a large family in our sleeper getting off. Our attendant asks if we will platform. We go to the next coach and join the hoards of coach passengers getting off for their smokes. I get pictures of the platform but don’t get the interior of the depot. Its a little bit too far away. Our attendant opens our sleeper but clearly wishes otherwise, were in the middle of a switch although were at the very end of the platform. We get the all aboard at 8:00 standing by a more forward coach. The train starts to move and I notice our attendant still on the platform. There clearly double-spotting the train. We walk back to our sleeper and a few more passengers have boarded. Our chatty attendant says that really wasn’t safe.
- 8:22 – Keep going through the green fields of Western North Dakota.
- 8:26 – Wheelock and pass a train with what we think are pieces that will form a wind turbine.
- 8:28 – Keep going through water soaked fields.
- 8:29 – Ray as the towns become more frequent. We cross a wide body of water with someone swimming and its elevator.
- 8:40 – We pass the man camp in Tiaga with an announcement for it then an oil pipeline.
- 8:41 – Pass a crude holding site.
- 9:02 – The sun sets as we keep heading east.
- 9:09 – West Stanley, first the elevator.
- 9:12 – Stanley there about six people getting on, we see the conductor scanning on the platform.
We leave and continue through the fields as it gets dark. 9:30 (for our 8:30MDT dinner reservation) comes and goes and our attendant is worried. At 9:40 he comes in with Dining Car Come into the 2730 Sleeper. They then annouce the call for 8:30 dinner reservations.
We dine with two women traveling alone in the coaches. We bring the wine bottle and there stunned we’ve brought our own until I explain the story. The server regonizes us and the bottle from the wine tasting and asks us how many wine glasses. Both of our dining companions deny our offer for a glass and we get two real wine glasses and the attendant asking if she or us should open the bottle. We order the steaks, its nice and rare. Our companions order something cheeper. We stop in Minot (10:05 to 10:25) after ordering and I excuse myself to get a few photos of a station stop basically in the dark. Were the only ones ordering dessert and I’m too full for anything except finally trying the vanilla gelato. It’s perfectly good but I miss the Haagen Daz. Dinner takes us until 11:00pm CDT and we still have a couple glasses of wine left.
We return to our sleeper and finish the wine. The room is not made. I assume our attendant has forgotten about us. I think I remember how to make the room (but the tipsiness of the wine won’t help the cause). We close the curtains and enjoy the darkness of night in a sleeper. Our excellent attendant soon comes through and comes to the door. He apologizes for not making the room but Robbie has left his computer out and he didn’t want to touch it. He makes our room as we stop in Rugby at 11:29. I see its small BNSF station house and a line of passengers boarding. We wish him goodnight. I learn he is Chicago based and is clearly ready to be home. I ask and also learn that he doesn’t do the same-day turn in Portland getting the night off.