Days 30-31: The Empire Builder

Chicago-East Glacier National Park

1547 miles - 2489 km

30 hours

2 time zones

Boarded the 2:15 pm Empire Builder at its point of origin, Chicago’s Union Station. The process of boarding a train is quite different in the USA compared to Europe. Theoretically there was supposed to be a computer issuing boarding passes, but the system was down, and boarding proceeded in a most unconventional fashion: all the passengers gathered in the grand hall at Union Station until a man with a microphone standing in the centre of the room called all passengers boarding train 7 or 27 to Seattle or Portland. We then lined up and followed a man holding aloft a sign saying “Track 19”, winding our way single file through the busy station behind the man with the sign, clutching our luggage, pillows, picnics, children, etc. Unfortunately I did not manage to snap a photo of this amusing procession!

Leaving Chicago's Union Station

Pulling out of Chicago

When we reached Track 19 our conductor asked us all where we were going and directed us to the appropriate car, as passengers on American trains are divided by destination, and we boarded those cars without being assigned specific seats. I took the last available window seat in the rear half of the car, as the seats in the front half were all marked “For passengers travelling in pairs only”. Once the train was moving, our car attendant passed by, asked where we were getting off and individually labelled us all with bits of paper over our seats identifying the station where we would be getting off the train. And lastly, only once our trip was underway, a conductor came by and actually scanned our tickets.

A variation on this low-tech procedure was repeated at regular throughout the trip for making reservations in the dining car. If travelling on a budget it's advisable to bring some groceries of your own, but one meal in the dining car is an essential part of the experience of taking a train in the USA. I shared my table with a young couple also on their way to Glacier National Park and a 19-year-old boy who was leaving home. Destination: a stopover in Glacier National Park to visit his sister, and then Oregon to live in a camper, before going on to start a new life in his dream destination, Hawaii. An ambitious plan!

The scenery on this trip across the plains is not particularly dramatic, not as interesting as on the Coast Starlight trip I took three years ago, but it is very impressive just to get an idea of the sheer size of the prairies and how long it takes to get across them. On the first evening we snaked along beside the Mississippi River at sunset, an experience I enjoyed from the lounge car.

Crossing the Mississippi

Stopping at Red Wing, Minnesota at sunset

The lounge car

The lounge car proved to be very popular and impossible to get a seat in for much of the trip, but I was very comfortable in my assigned coach seat as I had no-one next to me except for a few hours on the first evening. The man next to me on that stretch slept most of the time and got off in St. Paul-Minneapolis around 10 pm, before bedtime, and despite announcements warning everyone that we could expect to be making new friends and meeting new bedfellows because the train was full, not many people got onto our car and so I had two seats all to myself for the rest of the trip. Because of this I was able to sleep quite well and spread out during the day, getting some work done when not watching the scenery. The coach class seats are very comfortable, with plenty of leg room, footrests and reclining backs as well as trays for eating and working. I found that by jamming my backpack into the remaining space between the footrest and the back of the seat in front, I could create a fairly large surface on which to lie down flat. In the morning I was woken up by the announcement that the dining car would be opening for breakfast at 6:30, and pulled back the curtain to find a prairie landscape of grassy fields punctuated at regular intervals by little lakes.

North Dakota dawn

North Dakota grain elevators

Occasionally I did get up and go down to the lounge car to stretch my legs, and luckily we had several “smoke and fresh air stops” at which we were allowed to get off the train. The longest was in Minot, North Dakota, where we arrived ahead of schedule and had an hour to walk around town while the train was refuelled, filled with fresh drinking water and emptied of garbage and, presumably, sewage.  There were no businesses open in the town at 8 am, but one enterprising citizen had brought a trailer selling coffee and cinnamon buns down to the parking lot by the train station. I had already had my breakfast in the lounge car and so I enjoyed a brisk walk around the town in the fresh morning air. 

Layover in Minot, North Dakota

Main Street, Minot, North Dakota

Get your Fourth of July wedding supplies in Minot, North Dakota!

In Williston, North Dakota, about to cross into Montana and set the clocks back another hour!

Montana: Big Sky

Crossing Cut Bank Creek

East Glacier: The Rocky Mountains start here.
A good place to get off the train!

After many uneventful hours crossing the plains, suddenly it all started happening: a couple of Trails and Rails volunteers boarded the train and began livening up our journey with their commentary about the Blackfeet people, Glacier National Park, and the wildlife. And, after several false alarms which turned out to be black cows, we were lucky enough to glimpse a herd of buffalo - a rare sight on the plains these days!  At the same time we were unlucky, in that there was a freight train on the other track, between us and the herd of buffalo! So we could only glimpse them between freight cars. Then suddenly we were pulling into the East Glacier stop and it was time to get off the train.

And here I am accommodated for the evening at Brownies' Hostel and Bakery, where I am about to start my bedtime snack: what else? A brownie!

Brownies' Hostel and Bakery