(The following article by Steve Brown was posted on the Dallas Morning News website on April 16.)
SHELBY, Montana — Across the dirt parking lot, the Oasis Bar & Casino beckons with the neon promise of “Dancing” and “Live Bait.”
But I have only 15 minutes to spend here in Shelby, hardly enough time to pick up some night crawlers and do the two-step.
“Don’t leave the platform,” warns Gary Young, the sleeping-car attendant. “When the conductor yells “Aboard,’ we are out of here.”
For most folks, “here” would qualify as the middle of nowhere.
High-plains towns such as Shelby, 35 miles south of the Canadian border, Cut Bank, Mont., and Williston, N.D., aren’t on the usual tourist itinerary.
But if you’re riding Amtrak’s Empire Builder, you’ll get to see them along with more than 2,000 miles stretching across the northern edge of the United States.
Yesterday, I’d boarded the train in downtown Seattle, and by tomorrow afternoon we’d be in Chicago.
The 48-hour ride on one of the world’s storied trains takes you from Puget Sound to the Rockies and across the plains to wind up just blocks from Lake Michigan. Some of the trip follows trails blazed by the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Along the way, you’ll glide for miles along the oceanfront, catch the sunrise near Glacier National Park and watch Chicago’s skyscrapers rise at the end of the line.
The Empire Builder has been hauling passengers between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest for more than 75 years.
Much of the route follows the original path carved by legendary railroad tycoon James J. Hill, whose rail lines opened the Pacific Northwest to commerce and tourism.
While the Empire Builder’s luxury streamliner passenger cars of the 1950s are long gone, the recently refurbished Superliner cars Amtrak runs on this train are the best the government-owned rail system has to offer.
The double-decker cars are comfortable, with plenty of room to walk about. Each train has a dining car and a separate lounge car with snack bar.
The sleeping-car accommodations range from the smallest roomettes (best for a single traveler) to a family bedroom with room for four. The sleepers include a changing room and shower.
If you opt to travel in coach, don’t expect sardine-style seating. Amtrak’s entry-level seats are almost as big as what the airlines sell as first class.
The Empire Builder is one of just two Amtrak long-distance trains to offer full dining-car service. This year, most of the rail system is trading custom-prepared meals for made-ahead, warmed-over fare served on disposable plates. (Pray tell, who did the customer research for this change?) But the menu on the Empire Builder still includes choices ranging from cooked-to-order steak and salmon at night to French toast and Western omelets for breakfast.
But dinner in the diner isn’t the reason for taking the seven-state passage.
You’ll get to see Glacier National Park and the mighty Mississippi River and spend two days visiting with a cross-section of passengers. On this trip, I met some nice retired folks and families, a businessman who eschews air travel to ride the rails and spring breakers going home from a ski trip.
Train travel is a great equalizer. There are no classes or stations in life. Discussions usually revolve around scenery, the train schedule and previous rail trips. Locked together for two days in a steel can, most people wisely avoid talk about politics, religion and such.
About half the folks in my sleeping car were making the full run to Chicago. Others were leaving the train in Fargo, St. Paul or Milwaukee.
I spent much of the trip reading in my room and watching the countryside slide by the window. At night, the two oversize chairs combined to make a comfortable bed. And a pull-down bunk overhead has room for a traveling companion who doesn’t mind a squeeze.
When you get bored with the perspective from the sleeper, the lounge car has a curved glass roof that provides panoramic views.
One of the best station breaks was in Whitefish, Mont., where the old Great Northern Railroad depot has been restored as a tourist center and museum.
We had about 20 minutes here before the train resumed its journey east — enough time to mail some postcards and pick up a newspaper.
Whitefish is the main jumping-off point for Glacier National Park, which offers skiing, fishing and hiking and is a year-round recreation draw. You could arrange the trip to spend a few days here and continue on with the Empire Builder.
The train also stops at the historic Izaak Walton Inn in nearby Essex, Mont. Built in 1939 for the Great Northern, the hotel is complete with four “caboose cottages” built out of original rolling stock.
After leaving the mountains, the Empire Builder opens up for the dash across eastern Montana and North Dakota into Minnesota. The prairies here reminded me of West Texas and stretch north to the horizon and Canada’s border.
The train arrived in Chicago only about 15 minutes behind schedule. The city’s Union Station is just nine blocks from South Michigan Avenue and the Art Institute.
A vacation that started with fresh oysters on the waterfront in Seattle ended with deep-dish pizza on Wabash Avenue.
Home again, what will stick in your mind are mental snapshots out the train windows: wet snow falling in downtown Spokane, a full moon over a prairie farm, bald eagles startled out of a tree along the tracks in Minnesota.