Empire Builder

Two nights tracing the Great Northern’s empire: skirting Glacier National Park along the Montana Rockies.

Named for James J. Hill, the magnate who drove the Great Northern through to Puget Sound, the train has carried his nickname since 1929. It hugs the upper Mississippi below Wisconsin’s bluffs, crosses the North Dakota prairie in darkness, then gives a whole afternoon to the mountains, topping the Continental Divide at Marias Pass: at 1,589 m the lowest crossing between Canada and New Mexico. At Spokane a Portland section drops away to run the Columbia River Gorge.

Stations

1. 0 kmChicago Union Station
2. 28 kmGlenview
3. 138 kmMilwaukee
4. 241 kmColumbus
5. 286 kmPortage
6. 314 kmWisconsin Dells
7. Show 30 more stations

   1. 386 kmTomah
   2. 452 kmLa Crosse
   3. 494 kmWinona
   4. 594 kmRed Wing
   5. 658 kmSaint Paul Union Depot
   6. 778 kmSaint Cloud
   7. 883 kmStaples
   8. 982 kmDetroit Lakes
   9. 1,061 kmFargo
   10. 1,181 kmGrand Forks
   11. 1,317 kmDevils Lake
   12. 1,409 kmRugby
   13. 1,507 kmMinot
   14. 1,593 kmStanley
   15. 1,699 kmWilliston
   16. 1,870 kmWolf Point
   17. 1,949 kmGlasgow
   18. 2,054 kmMalta
   19. 2,194 kmHavre
   20. 2,362 kmShelby
   21. 2,401 kmCut Bank
   22. 2,454 kmBrowning
   23. 2,475 kmEast Glacier Park
   24. 2,522 kmEssex
   25. 2,565 kmWest Glacier
   26. 2,601 kmWhitefish
   27. 2,763 kmLibby
   28. 2,898 kmSandpoint
   29. 3,004 kmSpokane
   30. 3,195 kmEphrata
8. 3,279 kmWenatchee
9. 3,314 kmLeavenworth
10. 3,470 kmEverett
11. 3,496 kmEdmonds
12. 3,524 kmSeattle King Street

The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them.

Along the way

• Upper Mississippi bluffs
• North Dakota prairie
• Marias Pass — 1,589 m
• Glacier National Park’s southern edge
• Cascade Tunnel descent to Puget Sound

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 1809794 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 55 m of them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 12 m from it
• Checked against the running timetable via Amtrak: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of the Empire Builder to Seattle
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Empire Builder?

The Empire Builder runs 3,550 km from Chicago to Seattle.

How long does the Empire Builder take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 46 h for the 3,550 km. That is an average of 77 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 127 km/h.

Who runs the Empire Builder?

Amtrak.

How old is the Empire Builder?

The line has been in service since 1929. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How high does the Empire Builder climb?

1,589 m above sea level at its highest point.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗