A Rare-Mileage trip on the 'Montana Daylight'

[Hiawatha Pete]

Years ago, I had the opportunity to ride a passenger train on a route that today would be considered "rare mileage" by railfans and thought I might share some pics.

From 1995 until 2004, a tour train known as the ‘Montana Daylight’ used to run over a portion of the old Northern Pacific Railway's (now Montana Rail Link) mainline on a 2-day journey from Sandpoint, ID to Livingston, MT, via Missoula, MT, where an overnight stop-over was made (passengers could overnight in one of the local hotels which along with meal service, was included in the price of the tour).

The Montana Daylight ran on a section of the route of Northern Pacific’s premier passenger train, the ‘North Coast Limited’, which itself ran all the way from Seattle to Chicago, as did it’s replacement – Amtrak’s ‘North Coast Hiawatha’ which ran until 1979.

These pics were shot with a Nikon F60 using Kodachrome 64 slide film and later "hillbilly scanned" by photographing the slide projections with my then-new Nikon D50 digital SLR.

Not my best work - but since neither Amtrak's North Coast Hi nor the Montana Daylight are running anymore, I for one will always cherish these views of a streamlined passenger train running on this now-freight-only line through southern Montana.

Pics from my website at https://northamericabyrail.info/

Cheers, Pete

FIRST, A SHOT OF MY FAVORITE SPOT ONBOARD THE TRAIN. IN THE DOME CAR ON THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT. BEARMOUTH, MT


NOW FROM WEST TO EAST. ON THE EASTBOUND MONTANA DAYLIGHT, DEPARTING SANDPOINT, ID, AMTRAK STATION


NEAR THOMPSON FALLS, MT


DINING CAR ON THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT


LOWER LOUNGE IN MONTANA DAYLIGHT DOME CAR


MONTANA DAYLIGHT DESCENDING EVARO HILL WEST OF MISSOULA, MT. DUST DEVILS IN THE BACKGROUND.


MONTANA RAIL LINK SD19 #651 ON THE POINT OF THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT, MISSOULA, MT


NORTHERN PACIFIC 4-6-0 TYPE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE #1356, MISSOULA, MT


DOME-SLEEPER-LOUNGE CAR ‘BELLA VISTA’ ON TAIL END OF MONTANA DAYLIGHT, MISSOULA, MT


DOME CAR ‘CITY OF LIVINGSTON’, MONTANA DAYLIGHT, MISSOULA, MT


MONTANA RAIL LINK SD19 #652 ON THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT, MISSOULA, MT


ON THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT, LEAVING MISSOULA EASTBOUND


ABANDONED MILWAUKEE ROAD RIGHT OF WAY, RUNS PARALLEL TO MRL - NEE NORTHERN PACIFIC - MAINLINE


MONTANA DAYLIGHT CROSSING AUSTIN CREEK TRESTLE IN MULLAN PASS


LOOKING BACK AT AUSTIN CREEK TRESTLE


ALONG THE MISSOURI RIVER AT LOMBARD, MT


MONTANA DAYLIGHT PASSING UNDER THE OLD MILWAUKEE ROAD BRIDGE AT LOMBARD, MT


LOOKING BACK AT MILWAUKEE ROAD BRIDGE, LOMBARD, MT


REAR VIEW OUT OF DOME CAR, LOMBARD, MT


LOGAN, MT


MEET WITH A BNSF FREIGHT, LOGAN, MT


MODEL RAILROAD ON DISPLAY AT LIVINGSTON DEPOT, EASTERN TERMINUS OF THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT

[AJT]

1. Beautiful, thank you.

[Hiawatha Pete]

3. Thanks for the compliment!

The scenery made the trip

[wryter2000]

2. Wow

I would love to take that trip. Wish they still offered it.

[Hiawatha Pete]

4. Me too...

In 2009 the Obama Administration explored the possibility of restoring the Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha route which would have made that possible.

However all debate about restoring the route became moot once the repubs took the house in 2010. We all know how 'friendly' they are to public transport...

Here is a link to the official Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha passenger rail restoration study. Includes a description of the route and a brief history of the train, I thought it an interesting read but then again I'm a train nut...

http://nrvrc.org/nrvpassengerrailstudy/resources/research/national/Amtrak_North_Coast_Hiawatha_Study.pdf

[Thunderbeast]

5. In the heyday of long-distance train travel

Three routes connected the Pacific Nortwest to the midwest and east coast:

EMPIRE BUILDER: Northern Pacific RR
North Coast Limited: Great Northern RR
Portland Rose: Union Pacific RR

In addition, the Southern Pacific RR operated the Coast Starlight (currently an Amtrak route) connecting Portland and Seattle to California destinations.

[Hiawatha Pete]

10. And only one route today - The Empire Builder

Which I was fortunate enough to ride several times over the last 10 years or so...
Also rode the Coast Starlight was well.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. And Riddership would have doubled

or even more. Had a friend at the time,he and his Spouse had already planned on running a fleet of Shuttle Buses out of Livingston to West Yellowstone from a new Amtrak stop. Every study done,showed the South Route the most Revenue producing as well as increased efficiency in usage of equipment.

[Hiawatha Pete]

13. The North Coast Hi's Southern Montana route hit all the major population centers in Montana

Last edited Sun Jun 14, 2020, 03:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Unlike the remaining Chicago-Seattle Amtrak route which passes them by on the "Hi Line" much further north, although the advantage of that route is that it directly serves Glacier Park.
No reason both routes couldn't be kept other than nickel & diming passenger rail to death in favor of massive funding for highways & air travel. http://allaboardohio.org/2012/09/21/road-air-subsidies-huge-growing-safe-amtraks-are-small-shrinking-attacked/
A restored southern route would provide convenient access to Yellowstone Park like you mentioned...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Thanks for posting these.

Earlier this year, in April, I was planning to take Amtrak from Lamy, NM (south of Santa Fe) to Seattle for one of my science fiction things. It would have been an overnight ride, almost 24 hours, to Chicago, staying overnight at a hotel there, and then two nights on the Empire Builder to Seattle. I'd booked a sleeper car, and was very much looking forward to it. Alas, the thing in Seattle got cancelled and so I needed to cancel the entire trip. Sigh. I am hoping I might be able to take it next year.

I've done long distance trains a couple of times in recent years and just love them.

[Hiawatha Pete]

16. No problem, my pleasure!

Thanks for checking out my post.

I've been on the Amtrak Southwest Chief route through Lamy, NM and on the Empire Builder Chicago-Seattle, both great routes. Likewise I love travelling in a sleeper car.

That's too bad about that cancelled trip. Also hopefully this Covid pandemic gets somehow under control in the not-too-distant future as my wife and I would love to start travelling again too.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Wonderful photos, as always! Great scenery and the trains are amazing.

A lot of what looks like high desert in these photos.

And the water! Scarce, precious and gorgeous.

Thanks again for taking us along!

[2naSalit]

12. Ther is high desert

on the eastern and western bases of the Rockies, this route kind of skirts the eastern front along the mountain range complex.

[Hiawatha Pete]

14. Indeed as 2naSalit mentioned, this area is in a 'rain shadow'

Being the east end of the Rockies which tend to block precipitation from the coast.

Thanks for the compliment & for checking out my post!

[3Hotdogs]

9. Nice.

The only thing nearly as cool as that, there used to be a tourist railroad that ran about 10 miles from Flemington, N.J. to Lambertville, N.J. Lambertville - New Hope, Pa. are sister towns and both are tourist traps, but great places to walk around.

The railroad ran on weekends. Anyways, I heard rumor that if you asked and signed a release, you could ride in the compartment with the engineer and fireman. This was a steam engine. I asked, signed and got on. The thing that stood out to me, the fireman had to constantly shovel coal into the boiler. I visualized the firemen loading the boiler and sitting back for about an hour or so. Then shovel more coal into it. Not so.

This was before cell phone cameras and i wasn't anticipating riding in the engine compartment so I had no camera with me.... still a good memory. After all, how many people got to do that?


The train no longer runs because the rail bed is weak.

[Hiawatha Pete]

15. That's awesome!

Congrats on being in a very exclusive club - most railroads won't let you anywhere near the cab, waiver or not.

The older steamers had to be shoveled by hand, whereas the last generation of steam had mechanical stokers [sort of like a corkscrew feed]. If I were a fireman I'd definitely want to be on one of latter ones!

About 10 years ago as part of a cross Canada trip I was on a tourist railroad on Vancouver Island and they offered me a cab ride so I took it. It was an oil fired steam locomotive so no shoveling. I have a few pics on my website at https://northamericabyrail.info/canada-west/the-rocky-mountaineer/, you'd have to scroll way down to see the thumbnails.

That's too bad about the rail bed, I'd love to do one more cab ride. Lucky for you you'll always have those memories...

[elleng]

17. Thanks; nice trip!

I was among several who represented Montana Rail Link in regulatory matters some years ago, and visited their offices in Missoula with my family.

[Hiawatha Pete]

19. No problem, Thanks for checking out my pics!

Neat how your work involved the MRL and how fortunate that it involved a visit to Missoula, what a gorgeous little town.

[elleng]

20. Lots of good fortune with that work, indeed!

[mike_c]

21. Wow, that brings back memories.

What beautiful photos! When I was a kid we traveled by train a lot, up and down the east coast. Good times.

[Hiawatha Pete]

22. It's amazing the amount of passenger service that used to exist in the US & Canada...

...even as late as the 1970's

Thanks for the compliment & for checking out my pics!