Empire Builder - History

History

The original Empire Builder was inaugurated by the Great Northern on June 11, 1929, and displaced the Oriental Limited as the railroad's premier train. The new train was named in honor of railroad tycoon James J. Hill, known during his life as "The Empire Builder" who reorganized several failing railroads into the Great Northern Railway and extended the line to the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century. The service was altered to carry additional passengers during World War II. After the war, new streamlined, diesel-powered trains were placed into service. This postwar service began on February 23, 1947. The train was fully re-equipped again in 1951.

The schedule of the route was optimized to allow riders views of the passing Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountain landscapes of Glacier National Park, a park that was established through the decisive lobbying efforts of the Great Northern. After it was re-equipped in the 1950s passengers viewed the route through its three dome coaches and one full-length "Great Dome" car for first class passengers.

There were two significant train wrecks involving the Empire Builder in the Great Northern era:

• In 1931, an eastbound train near Moorhead, Minnesota traveling at nearly 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) was struck by a tornado which derailed the train and flung one of the 83-ton coaches 80 feet (24 m) through the air, resulting in one death and 57 injuries.
• In 1945, the Builder was operating in two sections (two trains immediately following each other) due to heavy wartime traffic. The second section plowed into the stalled observation car of the first in Michigan, North Dakota, killing 34. See Michigan train wreck for more information.

Since its inception service has run from Chicago to Spokane, and split into Seattle and Portland sections (except during the Amtrak era between 1971 and 1981, when there was no Portland section). Prior to 1971, the Chicago to St. Paul leg of the train's route was operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad via its mainline along the Mississippi River through Wisconsin. The service also used to operate directly westward from the Twin Cities before turning north in Willmar, Minnesota to reach Fargo. The Spokane-Portland section of the train was historically operated by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway.

After 1971 Amtrak assumed operation of the train and shifted the Chicago to St. Paul leg to the Milwaukee Road mainline route through Milwaukee along the route formerly used by the Hiawatha trains to the Twin Cities and Pacific Northwest.

In the January 2011 issue of Trains Magazine, this route was listed as one of five routes to be looked at by Amtrak in FY 2012 and examined like previous routes (Sunset, Eagle, Zephyr, Capitol, and Cardinal) were examined in FY 2010.