# Empire Builder Chicago-Portland



## greatcats (Nov 23, 2011)

Some of you may have read my two previous travelogues of the past month, eastbound across Canada, and three Amtrak segments, with a big car rental in between to Florida. You were last told that my friend and I had taken the Capitol Washington to Chicago and the highlights were two wonderful concerts by the Chicago Symphony. This past Friday we parted company after a great week of traveling together and he left the Hotel Monaco on Wabash Ave. to take the Blue Line to O'Hare to catch United for Los Angeles. He was gritting his teeth about the flights and assorted hassles, but for several logistical reasons it was necessary for him to fly. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to my trip on the Empire Builder. When we arrived Chicago on the Capitol we took a cab to the hotel, but I decided to rough it to prove that I can still do this, and hoisted my large backpack and towed the roller bag 1.5 miles to Union Station. No sweat, literally! I parked myself in the Metropolitan Lounge and we departed on time. Others have gone into detail about what there is to see on this route; my emphasis here is that I was very pleased with the train and the service of its crew, probably the best service I have received on any Amtrak train. My car attendant was Lawrence, a hefty former construction foreman for Weston Hotels, who was laid off in 2008. He was offered this job by Amtrak and has applied to be a conductor. Lawrence is a very friendly man and was very cordial to his passengers.

I have had some very good dining car crews on Amtrak ( and a few less so ) but this is the smoothest running dining car I have ever experienced on Amtrak. As far as the " enhanced " service goes, the only thing different that I noticed was that there are fresh flowers on the tables and china is in use. ( which was also the case with the plates on th the Capitol, but not the Silver Star. ) The young lady in charge of this diner is Misty from Louisiana, absolutely professional and charming. The young man who was my server at all four meal was Chris. He looks and kind of acts like a football player, but he was highly organized and efficient in his duties. The notable dishes were the steak, the salmon, and at lunch something new, red beans and rice with Andouille sausage, the last being a pleasant and tasty surprise. The wine and cheese event was nicely done, with Washington State wines. I won half a bottle for answering the question of the highest freshwater lake in the world. ( Lake Titicaca. )

There were virtually no mechanical troubles with this train and the delays we had were almost all attributable to freight traffic. Luckily, we missed being disrupted by that freight derailment that occurred sometime after we passed the Glasgow, Montana area. My main criticism of this train is the tacky looking hand lettered signs in some of their sleepers and particularly the lounge car, which is not too severe a criticism.

After we left Browning, I stood in the rear of the Portland sleeper to see if I could catch a glimpse of the closed-for the-winter( sounds like a drive-in movie, doesn't it? ) East Glacier Park Station, being aware that it is 15 miles west of Browning. Sure, enough, the platform was all lit up, but it will not reopen until April. I expected the power to go out on by breathing machine at Spokane. As I said in my last writeup, once per night is acceptable. I was awake for a time at Spokane, but then slept comfortably until Pasco. I then got up as I wanted to see the trip down the Columbia River. The morning was gray, but as we neared Portland, the most beautiful section of the Gorge, the sun came out, for a splendid conclusion to the trip from Chicago, arriving 50 minutes late. By the way, this train was pretty crowded, the more so the further west we traveled. Substantial numbers of people boarded at Minneapolis, Minot, Havre, Shelby, and Pasco. But nobody rides trains anymore, right?


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## greatcats (Nov 23, 2011)

.....always think of something else to add. On the subject of food, ViaRail has a classier dining car in terms of atmosphere and a higher level of cuisine. Amtrak has made great strides, however, in providing good food service and I am not complaining. Since I am a former commuter rail crew dispatcher, the format of Amtrak crew assignments is of interest to me. I was speaking to the Assistant Conductor who boarded in Minot. He is based in Shelby, MT and his work week goes like this: He starts on a Tuesday afternoon at Shelby and works the train west to Spokane and lays over about 24 hours. He returns to Shelby on Thursday and on Friday works to Minot and then returns on Saturday. He said he prefers the western section. Minot to Shelby is Amtrak's longest crew district, 535 miles, which operates with two engineers. An engine crew change is made at Whitefish, which operates with one engineer.


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## TraneMan (Nov 24, 2011)

Thanks for sharing your story!


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