Sandpoint: All Aboard

Riders Ken Johnsen, left, and Phil Edminster, in Gonzaga shirt, next to wife, Sharon, get a program from Joe Legner, center, as they settle in their dome car for a recent  trip to Montana. They rode a special  train assembled near Sandpoint for the attendees from the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association convention in Spokane.

About 50 trains chug through Sandpoint each day, night and day.

Almost all carry cargo – grain, windmill turbines, airplane fuselages, even Barnum and Bailey circus elephants.

Near midnight, and then again at 2:32 a.m., Amtrak’s “Empire Builder” drops and collects passengers; Sandpoint boasts the only Amtrak stop in Idaho.

“Railfans” from throughout the world travel to Sandpoint to train-watch and photograph trains roaring across the bridge over Lake Pend Oreille. It’s a magnificent meeting of water, mountain and machine. Rebecca Nappi, SR. Full Story.

I have never ridden a train. Have you?