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This
week marks the 90th anniversary of continuous service by the Empire
Builder passenger train. The first
Empire Builder was launched on the CB&Q from Chicago on June 10, 1929, but
the generally-recognized anniversary of the train is June 11, the day it first
departed from St. Paul and Seattle on its “home” road, the Great Northern. June 11 was the date of the numerous celebrations
staged for its 75th anniversary in 2004.
An
Empire Builder timeline is available at:
Noted
artist J. Craig Thorpe has created another of his masterpieces to celebrate
this milestone in the history of the Empire Builder. The painting features a current version of the
train near the site of Meriwether Lewis’s “Camp Disappointment” (where the
Great Northern erected an obelisk monument to commemorate, which still stands
today) on the Blackfeet Reservation between Cut Bank and Browning. The painting is currently on display at the
Glacier County Historical Museum in Cut Bank, and will remain there through
late summer when it will journey to Kalispell to be included in a railroad-themed
art show at the Hockaday Museum of Art.
If you’re in North Central Montana – perhaps going to or from nearby
Glacier National Park – the Glacier County Historical Museum is worth a
stop. It is open weekdays through the
summer. Its curator is Dennis Seglem,
who is the son of ex-GN and ex-GN telegrapher Norm Seglem, who still alive and
well. Dennis is an expert on local
railroad history, and the museum also includes the interlocking plant from the
Cut Bank station, which remained in service until January 1983 as Montana’s
last manual interlocking. The museum is
located about a mile northeast of town at 107 Old Kevin Highway (to access from
U.S. Highway 2, cross the BNSF main line at the crossing on the east end of
town and head north; the museum complex will be to your north or left after the
road takes a 90 degree swing to the east).
The
goal of painting is to increase awareness of the importance of the legacy and
value of Amtrak’s long distance trains, which is especially important now, as
their continued survival is challenged not only by the current Amtrak
management which has sent mixed signals about their willingness to support such
service, and by a need for new equipment as the current Superliner cars are
approaching 40 years in continuous use.
To
their credit, Amtrak is selling a print at their company store:
The
print “selling out” at their company store would be a good message to Amtrak
that the Empire Builder and long-distance trains in general are still valued by
the American public.
The
print will be available at the “Rail Fair” July 21 at the Great Northern
Railway Historical Society Convention being held in Fargo, North Dakota at the
Holiday Inn, 3803 13th Avenue South.
The
print is available by mail by contacting me at: empirebuilder1475@gmail.com
The
print is available at these “Brick and Mortar” locations right now:
Minnesota:
Minnesota Transportation Museum / Jackson Street Roundhouse, 193 Pennsylvania
Avenue East, St. Paul 55130.
Montana:
Havre Chamber of Commerce, 130 5th Avenue, Havre 59501
Montana:
Shelby Chamber of Commerce, 100 Montana Avenue, Shelby 59474
Montana:
Glacier County Historical Museum, 107 Old Kevin Highway, Cut Bank 59427
Montana:
Cut Bank Pioneer Press, 19 South Central Ave., Cut Bank 59427
Montana:
Glacier Park Conservancy, Belton/West Glacier Amtrak Station, West Glacier, 59936
Montana:
Stumptown Historical Museum in the Whitefish Amtrak/BNSF station, 500 Depot Street,
Suite 101, Whitefish 59937
Washington:
Great Northern and Cascade Railway (ex-GN Skykomish depot), 101 5th
Street North, Skykomish 98288
Washington:
Burien/Seattle/Tacoma: Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive, 425 S.W. 153rd
Street Burien 98166
Oregon:
Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates (AORTA), Portland Union
Station Suite 253, 800 N.W. 6th Avenue, Portland 97209 (Open noon to
100 PM each Wednesday and by appointment.)
--Mark
Meyer
__._,_.___ Posted by: Mark Meyer <vermontanan@aol.com> __,_._,___ |