JOPLIN, Mont. – The Seattle-bound Empire Builder passenger train, which departed Winona at 8 p.m., Friday, derailed in a barren stretch of track in northern Montana. Initial reports said three passengers were killed and 30 injured. Two locomotives were hauling the consist of 10 cars. Eight cars went off the tracks some skidding on their sides. The derailment about 4 p.m. near Joplin, on a 100-mile remote stretch between Shelby and Havre. The speed limit on passenger trains in the area is 79 mph, although slower speeds are specified when trains bunch up and where gandy-dancer crews are working the rails. The Empire Builder, listed as Train 7, begins its journey at the Amtrak hub in Chicago. The train goes to Minneapolis-St. Paul and then on the old Great Northern’ Hi-Line, skirting the Canadian border through North Dakota and Montana. The train splits in Spokane, one section to Seattle, the other to Portland. U.S. Highway 2 parallels the route. Because the trip is 1-1/2 days. Amtrak has four or five Empire Builders in operation, some westbound, some eastbound, at any given time.

A legacy train

The Empire Builder is a long-distance train operated by the national rail service Amtrak. From Minneapolis-St. Paul to the West Coast it traverses the heavily trafficked Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline as a guest carrier. BNSF controls trains on its system nationwide from a high-tech center in Houston, Texas. The train’s name, the Empire Builder, derives from the nickname of James Hill, who built the railroad and opened up the Pacific Northwest as an “empire.” The namesake train went into service in 1929.