I don't have the info at hand, but if I recall correctly there was a route between the twin cities and Duluth/Superior, but the service was cancelled years ago.
Some old Amtrak timetables from the 70s show an alternate route from the Twin Cities to the west coast (called North Coast Hiawatha??) but again I don't know specific details.

Minnesota's first train from Amtrak Day 1 was the 'Empire Builder' although it operated between the Twin Cities and Fargo via Wilmar.

The 'North Coast Hiawatha' joined a couple of years later in either 1973 or 1974. It operated on the present Builder route between Chicago and the Twin Cities and then to Fargo via St. Cloud. West of Fargo this train served Southern North Dakota and Southern Montana (Bismarck, Livingston, Butte) before continuing west to Spokane and Seattle. This was the first Amtrak train to operate through the Cascade Tunnel which the current Empire Builder uses.

At various times the Empire Builder and North Coast Hiawatha operated as separate trains between Chicago and the Twin Cities or as combined trains between these two points. During one period, when operational conventional equipment was scarce, the two trains operated on the same schedule between Chicago and the Twin Cities but on alternate days beyond the Twin Cities.....ie: There was a daily departure from Chicago but beyond St. Paul the Empire Builder operated 4 days a week and the North Coast Hiawatha operated 3 days a week.

The North Coast Hiawatha was one of 5 long-distance trains discontinued in October 1979. The Empire Builder shifted to it's present routing through St. Cloud at that time.

The third Minnesota Amtrak train began life as a Twin Cities - Duluth/Superior train named the 'Arrowhead' sometime in the mid 1970's. At some point it was renamed the 'North Star' and extended to Chicago. It may have operated for awhile as a day train but I mostly remember this train as being on an overnight schedule between Chicago and the Twin Cities. It was scheduled so that a passenger could begin a trip in Duluth around supper time and connect to the westbound Empire Builder at Midway Station (or, of course, continue overnight to Chicago). I think it worked in reverse too but I'm unsure if Amtrak would guarantee the connection to the North Star from the eastbound Empire Builder. This train was discontinued about 1983.

A couple of sources you could check to find out more about these trains would be copies of the Amtrak timetables from 1978 to 1982 or so. Another great source would be copies of the Passenger Edition of the Official Railway Guide from this same period.

Sorry to be so wordy.......I grew up collecting and memorizing the early Amtrak timetables......it beat learning algebra!!!

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David Pressley

Thanks for the info notelvis.

Before the merger that became Burlington Northern, the Empire Builder was the Great Northern's #1 (and #2 eastbound) to Seattle/Portland that stopped at Wilmar and Breckinridge MN. It also bypassed Grand Forks and ran a more direct route to Minot stopping only in New Rockford, ND. Times were about the same as the current Builder. #3/4, the Western Star did the St. Cloud and Grand Forks route, and ran about 12 hours behind the Builder (from a 1955 GN timetable).

When Amtrak took over the Builder, they added Morris, MN as a stop on the original Builder route, and used the Western Star route Fargo to Grand Forks to Minot. On my 1977 timetable this was daily.

The Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha used the previous Northern Pacific (North Coast Limited, #1 and #2) route that is now the Builder route through St.Cloud, then on to Bismarck and Billings. In 1977 it ran daily in the summer and tri-weekly otherwise, about 4 hours ahead of the Builder westbound and 5 hours behind it eastbound. The GN Western Star route through St.Cloud was separate trackage parallel to the current Interstate 94, and is now abandoned. Parts of it are a bike trail.

The Arrowhead, later North Star, stopped in Cambridge, Sandstone and Superior. 8am-1120am southbound and 530pm to 850pm northbound in 1977, connecting to the North Coast Hiawatha to CHI. I think this was financed by MN for about $100,000/yr, and dropped in a budget crunch year.

I rode all of the now discontinued Amtrak MN routes in the 70's, when I had less interest in trains. It was just a way to get somewhere. As said in the Joni Mitchell song: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't what you've got til its gone".

quote:

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Originally posted by EmpireBuilder:
TwinStarRocket,

Currently I am going to college about from the twin cities area. My hometown that I grew up in (and shall live there for one more summer before getting into the real world) is located a little less than 50 miles from Morris and 60 miles from Breckenridge. That was one thing that added to my curiosity of wondering where this line once ran, and trying to find out more about it. I have been a long time rail fan (well as long time as one can be just short of their 22nd birthday) yet have somehow never managed to ride Amtrak. That is something I think I will finally be able to change this summer.

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Empire Builder,

A great start would be a ride on the Empire Builder from the Twin Cities to Milwaukee or Chicago. You might want to plan to spend a night at the destination end though. A 4-hour late eastbound train could wreck your day if you're trying to return the same day.

TwinStar Rocket,

Wouldn't it be great today if, at least during the summer months, we had a 'Western Star'? I was last on the Empire Builder in July 1998 (Whitefish to LaCrosse) and the train was absolutely packed. Thanks for your information on how the Western Star made the trip to Grand Forks while the original Empire Builder did not. I had not known that before but will certainly remember that if I'm ever asked!!!

Both routes stopped at Sandpoint, ID and Spokane. The EB went to Seattle thru Yakima and the Hiawatha through Wenatchee. There was no Spokane-Portland service in 1977! Did this come about after the Pioneer was discontinued?

More interesting pre-Amtrak tid-bits: The GN Western Star also did a Havre-GreatFalls-Shelby side trip like it did for Grand Forks. Northern Pacific ran the Mainstreeter to Seattle about 12 hours behind the North Coast Limited where you would see the Rockies by daylight (Billings-Spokane).

The Milwaukee RR ran the Olympian Hiawatha MSP to Seattle via Montivideo, Granite Falls and Aberdeen. That makes 5 MSP-SEA trains in the 50's! This Hiawatha was the only Seattle train to use Amtrak's current route to Chicago. The rest used the Burlington down the east bank of the Mississippi to Savanna IL.

And don't forget me, the Twin Star Rocket, run by Rock Island RR MSP-Texas (North Star state to the Lone Star state).

The early AMTRAK version of the North Coast Hiawatha took the current route CHI-MSP-FAR, then the old NP route to Seattle, and the EB took the current route all the way through. For a while in the 70's or early 80's, after the North Coast Hi was discontinued by AMTRAK, the EB took the route through Willmar, Breckenridge, and Morris to GFK, but AMTRAK service never returned to the old North Coast Ltd/North Coast Hi route. Also, during the ealy 80's, the EB was routed from Spokane to SEA via Yakima and Ellensburg for a while (I rode that route a few weeks after Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980, and remember seeing ash all over everything in Yakima Canyon!). I don't remember when the current Portland section of the EB began service through Pasco.

Also, back in the early AMTRAK days, the EB took a different route from Wenatchee to Seattle, and instead of going through the Cascade Tunnel, like it does now, it went through the Stampede Pass Tunnel and entered SEA from the south somehow, since there was a station stop in East Auburn, where the EB then picked up the present UP route that the Coast Starlight now takes and entered Seattle from the south, not from the north as the present train does.

OK, so you got all that? Hah!

There was no Spokane-Portland service in 1977! Did this come about after the Pioneer was discontinued?

I'm thinking the Portland section of the Empire Builder was added in 1979 at the same time the North Coast Hiawatha was discontinued.......hold on a sec...

No.....I'm wrong on that. Looking back in the Official Guides I've saved the Portland section was not running in February 1981 but it did appear in the November 1982 guide.

Thanks for your reply. You clarify for me why Minnesota seemed to lose interest in funding the 'North Star'.

I wasn't real clear in my post regarding the eastbound Builder meeting the North Star and I apologize for that. Where I was trying to go with that line of thought was that I couldn't remember if the eastbound Empire Builder's schedule at that time got it into the Twin Cities early enough for a passenger to travel from, say Havre, MT to Duluth, MN by connecting to the 'North Star' at Midway Station.

Again, sorry for the vagueness, I was trying to say too much and took a shortcut.