Train trip

Wednesday, December 5, I took Amtrak's Empire Builder train to North Dakota.

The train was scheduled to arrive in Whitefish at 7:22 am - early for me. Before I went to bed at 2 am the night(morning?) before I called Amtrak's automated "Julie" and 'she' said the train was on time.

The alarm clock woke me suddenly 3 hours later. I called "Julie" and learned the train was 36 minutes late. Well... I'm up. Might as well finish packing and then take the extra time to double check stuff.

It was good that I did not try to catch a few more minutes of sleep as I found that even working steady I did not have any extra time. With no time to double check I learned - after arriving in Minot - that I forgot a loaf of pumpkin bread, a stalk of celery, and the rest of my broccoli from my garden. Must still be in my refrigerator?

It was good the train was late as I needed every minute of the extra half hour. Jan's SUV didn't have a clock that I could find so I didn't know the time as I drove. I would be arriving shortly before the train was scheduled to leave if it was on time. What if the train suddenly made up time? I had a lot of stuff and I was counting on being able to check the three large suitcases.

Only one other vehicle was in the train station's parking lot when I arrived and only one person sat in the lobby. Unusual, as usually there are lots of people at this train station each time I used it.

As I was getting my train ticket and checking my three suitcases a woman came and stood in line behind me. I didn't recognize her at all but it was one of my neighbors, of whom I had met this past Spring when gathering signatures about the proposed housing development up the road. She recognized me and spoke to me and I still couldn't place her until she told me her name, Linda. In my defense I was a bit frazzled and in a rush as I still had to attach a nametag to one of my checked suitcases and then load the rest of my (carry on) luggage onto a hand cart.

I had to use two handcarts because I had lots of carry on luggage. I am so happy Amtrak is not like the airlines. Amtrak has lots of storage room above the seats for luggage and also a place on the first level. And people riding on the train tend not to bring much carry on luggage. This is counter intuitive as most train trips last longer than airline flights.

From experience I knew about where the train's passenger cars would stop on the platform and I pushed my two fully loaded carts over there. One cart held the box of carrots, box of beets, and the bags and bags of newspapers and magazines. The cart creaked as I pushed it.

In the past I have had trouble with weight limits for my checked luggage as the limit per suitcase is 50 lbs. Last year my luggage weighed in the 40 -50 pound range and woman ticket agent made sure to weigh each suitcase and, even though I was "legal", told me the suitcases seemed heavy. She placed HEAVY tags on my suitcases. This year my suitcases weighed 43, 40, and 37 pounds. I had a male ticket agent, and although he was older, he never fussed about my suitcases' weight.

The air temperature was in the 20s F with no wind so it was fine to stand outside to wait for the train. I didn't have long to wait as the train arrived a short time after I got my carts positioned.

This time of year there are not many travelers. I easily found a pair of seats positioned in a good section of the car with a good position of windows with no window divider to ruin the view.

Once I lugged all my stuff on board and placed them either on the first level or above my seat I sat down. The adrenaline almost immediately drained out of me and my 'only three hours of sleep' caught up to me. Still, I never fell asleep until the train was out on the Plains and the mountains could no longer be seen.

As the train neared Marias Pass I went to the observation car so I could see the scenery on each side of the train. I took my camera and took some photos.

Surprisingly not many people were in the observation car. Either they were familiar with the scenery and didn't care, else they were late sleepers. I did talk with a 50-something fellow from San Fransisco for a while. He had traveled extensively by train in the U.S. but this was his first trip on the Empire Builder. After seeing the mountains, he said he wanted to come back and visit Glacier Park, which he had never seen. 50-something and never seen Glacier Park... some people have not lived life.





As we approached Browning, Montana a woman the San Francisco man knew came and sat near me. He moved over to a seat next to her. Heh, heh... for a man, talking with an interesting woman beats talking with a man most anytime.

This was her first trip on the Empire Builder. As we headed out on the prairie she was enchanted by the view. There was no snow once we left the mountains and the ground was a yellow from the grass. She loved the look. Okay... Usually non-prairie people don't like the look of the prairie.





The train passengers were either old and retired or young 20-somethings. The 'train' photo above captures the reflections of the two extremes. On the right side of the window you can make out an old man. He was an old retired military man but he looks like an old mountain man now. Gruff, grizzly, and interesting. The redhead is a young - what we would call in my day - hippie girl. She was a little clueless. She traveled with a man her age who wore a knit cap made from yarn. He must have had long hair as the back of his hat looked to be holding something. The 'mountain man' and the 'hippie girl' struck up a long friendly conversation.

Linda and her boyfriend were traveling to Havre and it turns out they selected to sit seats a few rows in front of me. I chatted with them for a while.

Havre is a refueling stop so most people got off to stretch their legs or have a cigarette. There is an old steam locomotive at the west side of the station and someone placed Santa Claus in the locomotive. I took a photo of the old Great Northern Railway logo.

Overall the train trip was a quiet and uneventful ride.

Photo 1: conductor at Malta, Montana train station
Photo 2: Malta, Montana
Photo 3: passengers boarding my train car at Wolf Point, Montana



At Glasgow several men boarded my car as it was the one in front of the station door. They were all going to Minot. One old retired man was returning to Minot after driving a car to a Glasgow dealership. He drives cars to make some extra money and to have something to do in his retirement. He has driven as far a New York, South Carolina, Texas, and California.

The other two men were railroaders for the BurlingtonNorthernSantaFe railroad. An older man and young 20-something. They were 'deadheaders' and were traveling to Minot to pick up a train to drive to Glasgow. The U.S. government and the railroad union have limits on the hours railroaders can work and sometimes the railroad has employees catch Amtrak to go get a train or return from delivering one. The route these guys work is "Havre - Minot". You'd think the railroad would be coordinated enough to have them deliver a train to Minot then take a train back to Havre. *shrug*

This seemed to be the first time the younger man had done this as he asked questions. The older man has worked for the railroad since 1974 so he was an old hand at it.

These guys sat in the row behind me and by the time we reached Minot I had had enough of the older guy. When there was cell phone reception he was on a cell phone apparently talking railroad/union stuff with other people ("Huuuuh?" *grunt* "You don't say?!" "Huuh?" *grunt* ... over and over for minutes on end). I just love listening to loud one sided call phone conversations. When there was no cell phone service he was telling old railroad stories to his co-worker. I doubt he realized it, but from his actions in his stories he came across as a major jerk.

We were sooo close to Minot when the train stopped before crossing the Trestle Valley bridge. I could see Minot's lights in the valley to the NE. Apparently the switch's light was red when it should have been green. Since Amtrak had the big accident in Chicago the week before when a train ran red lights, they are super cautious now. I guess someone had to go outside the train, walk across the bridge, and throw the switches.

Even after we crossed the bridge we drove slowly to Minot. It seemed as I could run faster than what the train was moving. A freight train going our way passed us at high speed. Why can't we go that fast?

I arrived in Minot 40 or so minutes late and arrived shortly before 10 pm. While we earlier had traveled between lightly snow covered and dry ground across Montana, sometime after dark we crossed into definitely snow covered ground. There is plenty of snow on the ground in Minot.

A long day with little sleep and I was definitely tired when I got to my mother's house.