I noticed on another forum that the Empire Builder is soon to be 75 years old, its diamond anniversary. They say there will be celebrations in cities and towns along its route and that Mr. Gunn may ride part of the way.
It is a neat train, and one of the more on-time services. It lacks the glamour of the LA and SF destinations and the scenery is a bit less than that of the CZ, so it sort of gets overlooked sometimes.
But it has a glorious history. James R. Hill, an early railroad pioneer, was nicknamed "the empire builder" and thus the train was so-named.
Of course it was a heavyweight train when it was born in 1929, as that is all there was, but it was streamlined in the 40's, a couple of doses of streamlined equipment actually. I know some new domes were built for it in the early 50's.
Some years ago TRAINS Magazine had an excellent article on it called "The Clean Window Train", which was meant to suggest that"even" the windows, a tiny detail, are without fault.
One of the best sleeping car attendants I ever had was on the Portland to CHI portion of it on Amtrak.
The pre-Amtrak slower, seconday train on its route, the Western Star, received most of the Builders hand-me down equipment as the Builder would get re-equipped or partly re-equipped with new streamlined cars through the years, and thus it, the Western Star, was a respectable train as well.
SO much has been written recently on this forum about dining car conversations with strangers,etc. I have a story my own about the EB. I was seated one night with a father and daughter and they had nothing to say. They sat there in their own worlds,and we said nothing more important than "Please pass the salt". Kind of embarrasing, actually.They did not talk to each other, either.
Next morning, wouldn't you know, I was seated by them AGAIN--good God!! But this time they started talking instantly and none of us could stop---turned out all of us were dye-hard rail fans.
But the problem is, the wife/mother had died recently---she was to have been on the train with them---they were unsure whether to take the trip without her, etc, so they had many, many reasons to be sitting there in world of their own. By explaining their situation to me the next morning they clarified why they had seemed so glum the night before. It is not that they owed me an explanaiton but it sure did help.
Just goes to show you , you never know what somebody is going through through and why they are acting the way they are, including your table companions in the dining car.
It is a neat train, and one of the more on-time services. It lacks the glamour of the LA and SF destinations and the scenery is a bit less than that of the CZ, so it sort of gets overlooked sometimes.
But it has a glorious history. James R. Hill, an early railroad pioneer, was nicknamed "the empire builder" and thus the train was so-named.
Of course it was a heavyweight train when it was born in 1929, as that is all there was, but it was streamlined in the 40's, a couple of doses of streamlined equipment actually. I know some new domes were built for it in the early 50's.
Some years ago TRAINS Magazine had an excellent article on it called "The Clean Window Train", which was meant to suggest that"even" the windows, a tiny detail, are without fault.
One of the best sleeping car attendants I ever had was on the Portland to CHI portion of it on Amtrak.
The pre-Amtrak slower, seconday train on its route, the Western Star, received most of the Builders hand-me down equipment as the Builder would get re-equipped or partly re-equipped with new streamlined cars through the years, and thus it, the Western Star, was a respectable train as well.
SO much has been written recently on this forum about dining car conversations with strangers,etc. I have a story my own about the EB. I was seated one night with a father and daughter and they had nothing to say. They sat there in their own worlds,and we said nothing more important than "Please pass the salt". Kind of embarrasing, actually.They did not talk to each other, either.
Next morning, wouldn't you know, I was seated by them AGAIN--good God!! But this time they started talking instantly and none of us could stop---turned out all of us were dye-hard rail fans.
But the problem is, the wife/mother had died recently---she was to have been on the train with them---they were unsure whether to take the trip without her, etc, so they had many, many reasons to be sitting there in world of their own. By explaining their situation to me the next morning they clarified why they had seemed so glum the night before. It is not that they owed me an explanaiton but it sure did help.
Just goes to show you , you never know what somebody is going through through and why they are acting the way they are, including your table companions in the dining car.
).
