Train trip to Portland, Oregon, and back on the Empire Builder by jgn on Saturday, June 20, 2009 in Travel

View inside car on the Empire Builder train

A week from today I'm taking a train trip with my family from Boston, Massachusetts to Portland, Oregon; the leg of the trip from Chicago to Portland will be on Amtrak's Empire Builder train.

For Father's Day (well, a couple of days early) my wife and daughter gave me a couple of books to read about the Great Northern railway. The first one is All Aboard for Glacier, by C. W. Guthrie ( Amazon). I can recommend it without reservation; it is packed with great pictures and anecdotes, and tells the story of James J. Hill, the entrepreneur who greated the Great Northern, the building of the tracks, the founding of Glacier National Park, and the evolution of passenger rail service.

I've just started the other book, which is Claire Strom's Profiting From the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West ( Amazon). It looks more academic, but promises to be interesting as well.

In the following weeks I'll be making more posts regarding our preparation for the trip and the trip itself.

All aboard!