Fall Colors Private Rail Car Adventure

***Cocktails and Hors duerves before arrival in Chicago*** Drinks of all kinds will be served all day. The eastbound Empire Builder No. 8 Departs St. Paul-Minneapolis at 8:50am and arrives Chicago at 4:45pm. For the first 140 miles the tracks follow the Mississippi River. You will see fertile farmland, riverbank towns, barges and restored paddlewheel boats. You also see a system of federally-funded dams and locks that tame the mighty Mississippi. The river is the second longest in the U.S., with a length of 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.

🍽 breakfast, lunch

The train crosses the Mississippi then enters Hastings before crossing over the Vermillion River. Approximately 55 minutes after departing St. Paul-Minneapolis a short station stop is made at Red Wing, Minnesota. Named after a Dakota Chief and home to the famous Red Wing Shoes this pretty town traces its roots back to an original French fort built here in 1723. Soon the train will pass by Lake Pepin. As the Chippewa River meets the Mississippi on the Wisconsin side, the resulting backwaters form beautiful Lake Pepin. Our next stop is at Winona, Minnesota about 75 minutes after departing Red Wing. Sugar Loaf Mountain seen on the right was a ceremonial meeting place of the Sioux. Winona is also the stained glass capital of the U.S.

Photo By Steven Brown

Our next stop is La Crosse, Wisconsin and at this point, the river is wide, quiet and immensely scenic. Soft tree-covered mountains to the east will sharpen to rugged limestone bluffs and a few miles south, the train enters Wisconsin as it crosses the great river for the last time. French trappers used to watch Indians playing a game on the fields here and dubbed the game “la crosse.” The town is located at the confluence of the Black, La Crosse and Mississippi rivers. We then follow the La Crosse River for the next 25 miles.

Next we pass through Tunnel City as the train approaches sudden steep hills and then enters a 1,350-ft. tunnel. Just east of this tunnel is Tomah Lake and soon the train makes another stop at Tomah, Wisconsin. You will notice the local Chamber of Commerce is headquartered in a railroad car. Next we pass through Camp Douglas. On both sides of the train, you see the beautiful sandstone rock formations carved by the flow of the Wisconsin River. Mill Bluff State Park is on the right. At Mauston on the left you will notice Lake Decorah, formed by a dam across the Lemonweir River.

The Tunnel At Tunnel City, Wisconsin

The Tunnel At Tunnel City, Wisconsin

Early afternoon we make another stop at famous Wisconsin Dells. The red sandstone canyon is as glorious to play in as it is to look at. Boating and rafting attract tourists from all over. With 18 indoor and three outdoor waterparks, it proclaims itself the waterpark capitol of the world. The Wisconsin River has left miles of striated rock formations of which you can see from the train. 20 minutes after departing Wisconsin Dells the train makes another stop at Portage which was once a regular stopover for traders and settlers.

Wyocena is the home of the Grande Cheese Factory – Wisconsin produces more than 20 percent of the nation’s cheese. The dam on Duck Creek forms Wyocena Lake. Next we make a short stop at Columbus before crossing over the Crawfish River before passing through Watertown and crossing the Rock River three times. Passing through Pewaukee the scenery gives way to lakes and sprawling farmlands. Pine Lake and Okauchee Lake are on the left. Pewaukee and Ocono-mowoc Lakes are on the right.

Our last stop in Wisconsin is at the city of Milwaukee home to famous beers and beer gardens which were brought here by the German immigrants. Watch for the famous Miller Brewery just before crossing over the Menomonee River. You will have a glimpse of Lake Michigan just south of the station. Soon we pass through Franksville called the kraut capitol of the world and also is home to Six Flags’ Great America Amusement Park.

Soon we enter the state of Illinois and our last station stop prior to Chicago which is Glenview which is punctuated by older farms and industrial complexes. As we pass through Niles you can see their replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right.

Finally we arrive in Chicago at 4:45pm. The railroad route between Chicago and St. Paul once was part of the vast Milwaukee Railroad now owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern Railroad except for the last few miles into Chicago running on Metra (Commuter Rail Division of the Regional Transportation Authority.

***Cocktails and Hors duerves Shortly after departing Chicago *** Drinks of all kinds will be served all day. The Northern Sky will be attached to Amtrak's westbound Empire Builder No. 7 departing Chicago at 3:05pm arriving St. Paul-Minneapolis at 10:56pm.

🍽 dinner

Northern Sky History

The Northern Sky is a former Union Pacific 9003 dome car. In 1955 Union Pacific became the last of the transcontinentals to invest in dome cars, labeled Astro-Domes by the UP's Passenger Traffic Department. Built by American Car & Foundry.  

February and April of 1955, the American Car & Foundry's St. Charles, Missouri plant near St. Louis completed a total of 15 (9000-9014) blunt-end observation-dome-lounge cars for the Union Pacific. ) The first five, 9000-9004, were delivered for service on the City of Los Angeles, operated over the rails of the Union Pacific and the Milwaukee Road between Los Angeles and Chicago. The City of Los Angeles disappeared with the startup of Amtrak on May 1, 1971. But the 9003, one of the comparatively few cars built specifically for this train, is still very much active almost 25 years later.

As constructed, the car seated 24 in low-backed divans in the dome, each offset at a 10 degree angle toward the outside to improve even more the already excellent viewing from the dome. On the main level, a card room at the head of the car seated five. There was room for nine in a cocktail lounge which also had a bar, beneath the dome. Seating capacity in the observation lounge was 19. The observation cars assigned to the City of Los Angeles had a Gold Quartz theme, used in two tones of green and gold on a beige background in the drapery material in the cocktail lounge. The back of the bar in the cocktail lounge depicted the Golden Spike Ceremony at Promontory, Utah.

Just one year after they went into service, all 15 observation cars were reconfigured for mid-train service, most often, it would appear, operating coupled between the dining car and sleeping cars in the train.

The original Auto-Train picked up the 9003 from the Union Pacific in 1973. Auto-Train rebuilt it into "Maxi-Dome" coach 903 with 24 revenue seats on the main level, 20 revenue seats in the dome, and a bar and small lounge under the dome. Auto-Train expired on the last day of April, 1981, and AUT 903 passed into private ownership following the December 8, 1981, auction of Auto-Train equipment at Sanford, Florida. Late in 1988, Northern Rail Car Corporation purchased the car from Classic Rail Travel.

In mid January, 1992, David Hoffman, a successful Wisconsin State highway contractor purchased the ex-Union Pacific 9003. Northern Rail Car would rebuild the car. The result is that this car is extremely functional, its components flow well. Essentially, the car has bedrooms downstairs with a lounge theater, and dining and entertaining in the dome section for 16 persons.