A lifetime of watching transport

I often wonder how wistful I might become if we ever moved from our longtime farm here on Great Northern Road to an area where we couldn't hear or see the trains or airplanes. After all, except for my college years and for a while before my marriage, no more than half a mile has separated me from the tracks and the local airstrip. I think I'd really miss the action.

I'd say the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe and Union Pacific tracks to our west might be all of 400 feet away from where I sit. To the east, it would take me no more than five minutes to walk across the field to the airport fenceline. While growing up on North Boyer, I could step into airport land by slipping through the barbwire fence that separated our hayfield from the field where a small air strip ran toward the northeast a few feet away.

More than 40 trains pass by our house every day. Sometimes they block the crossings and back up the traffic for up to half an hour as they wait for an oncoming train to move through the switch track area. Each has its unique whistle sound, squeak, roar, or rumble as it moves north or south, often causing our house to vibrate. Most are freights, but if we're suffering from insomnia during the early hours of morning, we can hear the distinctive whistle of the Amtrak passing through from the coast to Chicago and the east or vice versa.

In 1997, our proximity to trains moved a notch closer when nine freight cars, mostly filled with lumber, thank God, derailed at the Boyer Crossing across from our horse pasture. Debris from the wreck even came flying into our field, and later, a lot of the lumber which was strewn along the tracks after the accident, was dozed into a huge pile in the field. In return for the intrusion, the railroad folks gave us some of the scrub lumber and rebuilt our fence. We're still patching corrals with our stock pile from that incident.

A couple of years prior to that, I wrote an article for a local magazine about Sandpoint being considered "The Funnel" a few years ago. And since it's the weekend and a beautiful sunny day beckons me outward, I'm going to share that piece with readers this morning. It's kind of fun to think about how much the railroads have affected the history of this area. And, by the way, in the ten minutes, I've been thinking and pecking here, three trains have gone past the house.

Hope you enjoy the story and that everyone has a wonderful Sunday wherever you happen to be. Disclaimer: keep in mind that some aspects of the story have changed since its publication in 1995.

The Funnel

from Sandpoint Magazine

by Marianne Love
April, 1995

Sandpoint’s situation along the transcontinental lines inspired a logging industry throughout the early Twentieth Century that saw millions of board feet of logs and poles transported from the surrounding woods to the mills and later to all parts of the country.

Logs left by rail. People came by rail. The town grew. Though the brisk lumber industry of the early century has been replaced by an active tourist industry at end of the century, railroads have continued to remain a key to Sandpoint’s livelihood. And if several locals and a few regional entrepreneurs have their way, the rails may turn the page for a whole new chapter in the town’s history.

During his 40-year career as a railroad man, Sandpoint’s Burlington Northern depot agent Lowell Spletoser has encountered numerous people with little or no clue of how the railroad influences the local area.

“People just don’t realize what impact the trains have on their lives,” Spletoser said recently while ending his work day at the depot just east of the Cedar Street Bridge. “The average people around here don’t have any idea what’s going on around the railroad.”

Spletoser cited a case a few years ago when two women visited the depot where he worked for 18 years in Priest River. While one talked, the other walked around and looked the place over, he recalled. Then she came up and said, “I’ve lived here for 25 years, and I never realized this was even here.”

Spletoser has seen a lot of changes in railroad use and employment since he first signed on as a telegrapher between Spokane and Havre, Mont. During his career, air travel has all but stamped out the once common hustle bustle of passenger trains coming though Sandpoint to drop or pick up travelers at the Great Northern depot on Main Street or the former NP depot where he now works. In their heyday, several daily passenger trains brought most of the early residents to Sandpoint.

For years, going to the depot to watch the trains come in provided local citizenry a simple form of fascinating entertainment. Retired English teacher Joy Anna O’Donnell remembers coming into town on Sundays during the 1940s when she was a farm kid from Wrenco.

“We’d head for town right after dinner,” O’Donnell recalled. “We’d go down, park the car facing the track, and we’d see who got on and who got off.

“The conductor would be standing on the steps hanging on to the handle. He’d always hold ladies’ hands to see they didn’t trip,” she continued. “While this was going on, there’d be guys lugging baggage and freight onto great big rail carts. They’d push it through the big double doors.

“There’d also be people sitting in pullman cars. They’d be staring at us while we were staring at them,” she added. “When it was time to do chores, we’d go home.”

During both world wars, trains transported thousands of soldiers through Sandpoint. In fact, during World War I, a group of ladies formed the War Canteen, which resembled a branch of the Red Cross.

“They met every troop train that came through---and they’d meet them all hours of the day and night,” museum curator Ann Ferguson explained. “Their job was to make the troops comfortable by providing them sack lunches, gum and socks. They’d get them set up for the next leg of the trip.

Besides politicians like President Teddy Roosevelt and then Presidential candidate Harry Truman, the queen of Romania passed though Sandpoint. According to a Nov., 1926 Sandpoint High School Cedar Post article, half the high school came out to greet Queen Marie.

“The special was due at five o’clock and an immense crowd awaited its arrival with impatience. . . ,” the paper reported. “At last the huge train arrived. The crowd cheered. The train merely paused and then went on its way.

“Everybody focused their eyes on the coaches of the royal group. Glimpses of people were gotten and many exclamations of ‘There she is,’ were heard.

“Just who did see the queen is doubtful,” the article continued. “Some say she was sitting near a window surrounded by flowers. Others say she was reading a book. If anyone did see a royal personage, no one will take his word for it.”

One Sandpoint individual, however, did get a full view of the queen and her children Prince Nicholas and Princess Ileana. Former Sandpoint Mayor Les Brown (now deceased) was 12 years old at the time.

“While many people were content to remain back, from the rails, Lester caught the handles at one of the coach doors and climbed aboard, probably thinking the train would stop,” the Cedar Post explained. “Instead, it picked up speed and soon was traveling too rapidly to permit him to safely alight.”

Brown hung on until a crew member discovered him tearfully looking through the window and helped him aboard the train. The experience netted Brown some national publicity, a chance to play beanbag with the prince, and several autographed gifts from the royal family. Upon reaching Spokane, Brown was brought back to Sandpoint by the Northern Pacific.

Nowadays, local depots are all but abandoned. Just two Amtraks pass east and west through Sandpoint in the middle of the night four days a week. Employing several clerks, the depot once served as a ticket office, but no longer.

“We don’t sell any tickets here anymore,” Spletoser said. “They have to get them through a travel agency. One hour before the Amtrak passes through, a security person opens the depot. It’s closed after the train leaves.”

Basically what they get is a warm depot and a train that comes through,” Spletoser’s relief agent Maggie Gendel says.

During Spletoser’s 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift, while filling car orders for local trains, he also fields a fair share of questions about the area from a breed of depot visitors who can spout off technical details about the diesel engines and cars that make up virtually every freight passing through town. Spletoser’s inquisitors are known as rail buffs, and they’re willing to put in time, travel and money to spend hours or days watching the trains pass through an area.

“I get railroad buffs in here from all over the world,” Spletoser said. “Last year people came from Scotland, New Zealand, England and Canada to watch trains.

“Some of them even come and spend up to a week sleeping in their cars in the parking lot out here,” he added. “One guy from Australia came and took 45 rolls of film.”

The Sandpoint area is known to the railroad community as the “Funnel.” The Northern Pacific and former Great Northern mainlines, completed in 1883 and 1892, respectively, pass through the community. The two merged in 1970, and the eastern line of the NP from Sandpoint to Huntley, just east of Billings, Mont., sold to Montana Rail Link in 1988.

Burlington Northern trains travel north of Sandpoint through Bonners Ferry and then head east along the Kootenai River to Whitefish, Mont. The Montana Rail Link system follows the old Northern Pacific route east along the shores of Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork River.

There’s also track belonging to the Union Pacific railroad, which before the mid-1950s was known as the Spokane International. Daniel Chase “D.C.” Corbin, builder of many railroads linking the North Idaho mines to Spokane, developed the Spokane International as his last major project. The line, connecting with a new branch built by the Canadian Pacific, opened for business in November, 1906.

Part of the Union Pacific line now bisects the Sandpoint community along 5th Avenue and HWY 2. The tracks are scheduled to be removed and rerouted later this summer. The Union Pacific’s new route will run on Burlington Northern tracks north of town through McFarland-Cascade Pole Company and then west to Dover where it eventually crosses the Pend Oreille River on its route to Spokane.

Besides the draw of the Funnel, agent Spletoser said the Burlington Northern also has three locals serving the lumber, pulp and grain industries. They run daily to Bonners Ferry, Newport and Athol.

“We’re handling 70-100 cars a day in the Sandpoint area,” he explained. All orders are fed into the computer with a mainframe originating in Overland Park, Kans. When Spletoser ends his shift at the depot, the Spokane Burlington Northern office takes over the night duties. During his day, Spletoser keeps track of the locals and mainline trains called “hotshots.”They’re designated to a certain destination like Chicago,” he explained. “Locals ding around the area.” A local picks up 5-10 cars of grain, goes to a main terminal such as Spokane and make up a destination train of nothing but grain cars.

“Hotshots only stop to change crews,” Spletoser siad. “That will be for just 10-15 minutes at the terminals, which are 300 miles apart.”

With that much current action and with its breath-taking scenery, Sandpoint is a natural draw for the typical railroad fans who show up at the depot. Nationwide, the community has become a destination spot for rail buffs around the world, thanks to an idea hatched by the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce and local train buff Dick Hutter. Hutter, a 56-year-old New York native, has been involved with trains literally since the day he was born.

“My dad was a rail buff,” the Sandpoint realtor said, “When I was born, he had assembled a wind-up train for me and built two metal buildings to go with it. I still have the buildings.”

Throughout his life, Hutter has amassed a assortment of railroad memorabilia which fills display cases, decorates walls and takes up virually every available space at the Sandpoint Realty office on HWY 95 where he works. His collection includes 200 hardbound railway books, 1,000 train magazines and several paintings of locomotives.

A glass display case behind his desk features switch locks and keys, a Portland Rose bridge score sheet, decks of railroad playing cards and a Great Northern seat reservation sign.

“Most of these are gifts,” he says. “People just keep giving me stuff.”

In 1993, Hutter convinced the Chamber to look at the rail fan promotion idea after several years of having it fall on deaf ears.

“I know it sounds like a bunch of crazies---grown men running around chasing trains,” Hutter said. “Unless you’re in it and know the demographics, it’s hard to be serious about it.”

With a nudge from Idaho Travel Council chairman Lorraine Bowman and after gathering demographic data from Trains magazine, the Chamber got serious about Hutter’s suggestion in 1993. Local tourism officials learned that typical rail buffs are in their mid-50s, they have high incomes and they’re well educated. They have families, and they like to read and travel. When they chase trains, they bring their families with them. In addition, they’re history buffs. Their ultimate goal in train watching includes lots of photography.

“They tend to be skilled professionals seeking a ‘concentration-style’ hobby that blocks out the stress of their day,” Hutter explained.

In early 1994 with the help of a $4,000 grant from the Idaho Travel Council, the Chamber printed a rail fans’ guide to Sandpoint and bought advertising in Trains magazine. The Wisconsin-based publication has more than 100,000 subscribers around the United States.

“Phenomenal” is how Chamber tourism manager Carol Novak characterizes the response the small ad elicited.

“It surprised a lot of people,” Novak said. “It’s a specialty market. You know they’re (rail fans) out there, but you don’t know if they’ll respond.”

Since the ad appeared, the Chamber has experienced a virtual field of railroad dreams. They’ve received more than 2,000 inquiries from rail fans across the nation in the past year. In 1995, they’ve expanded their advertising to “Model Trains” magazine, since most rail buffs also build models.

“We’re the only community to actually go after the rail fans,” Novak said. “After our ad appeared, we got lots of calls from other communities who wondered if they should advertise.”

Sandpoint has a unique distinction among railroad buffs because of its blend of railway history, spectacular scenery and its role as one of the busiest mainline viewpoints for freight trains in the Pacific Northwest.

“You take lemons---40 trains going through town---and turn them into lemonade,” Novak said. “Train fans had read and heard about the Funnel and didn’t equate it with Sandpoint until we rant the ad.” She said one gentleman from Northern California spotted the ad, brought his family to Sandpoint and spent three days here. After returning, he called her at the Chamber and asked for another 50 brochures.

“He wanted to give them to the members of his rail club,” she recalled. “He would like them to all (about 20 members) come to Sandpoint together. He said he’d see me this summer.”

“They’re absolutely enchanted with this are,” Bowman said. “Many of them get up in the middle of the night and go down to the depot to check the cars. Snow, sleet or hail won’t stop them.” She noted one story she’d heard about a rail buff who got a room in a local motel featuring a prime view of the water. He complained because he couldn’t watch the trains.

Besides the draw of current rail action in and around town, there’s plenty of rich history available, including the depot itself. The structure was once surrounded by manicured lawns and flowers and tended by a railroad employee. Termed “palatial” when it opened in Nov., 1916 without its “elaborate” furnishings (lost in transit), the depot was constructed with a fine grade of building brick, capped with a green tile roof---itself costing more than $5,000, according to the Pend Oreille Review. The total construction bill for E.J. Rounds Co. amounted to $22,780.08. Now on the National Historic Register and having been remodeled a time or two, the depot still lures its share of visitors.

“People come to Sandpoint, wander around and look at the depot,” agent Spletoser said. “They want to go back a few years. Railroads have a lot of history.” Much of that written local history is available at the Bonner County Historical Museum, where file drawers bulge with newspaper clippings and photographs or posters line the walls amidst local historical displays. A room has also been set aside for a model train exhibit depicting many of the historical lines and structures along Bonner County railroad routes.

Model hobbyists in the Bonner County Railroad Club are working to have the display operational by summer, according to Museum board member and train buff Vern Eskridge. Besides representations of the railway lines, structures will include the NP Depot, the GN Depot at Laclede, the grain elevator on 5th Avenue, the railroad trestle across the lake and the NP round house that once operated in Kootenai. The 33-member group, ranging in age from 13 to 80, started the display about a year ago.

“Everyone has a different interest,” Eskridge explained. “Some lay track; some like ot build scenery and others enjoy constructing cars. . . everybody’s working on it at home.

“The project never really gets done,” he added, “but the permanent display will be rigged so that somebody just needs to flip a switch and it’ll go.”

In addition to the museum exhibits about Sandpoint’s rail past, there’s plenty to be gained from local rail buffs, from currently employed railway laborers or from old timers like 95-year-old Ted Grant who turned into a railroad man in 1942 after working in the woods for more than 25 years. As a Northern Pacific gandydancer, he installed ties and changed rails on the east line to Oden and south to Cocolalla.

“The roadmaster told me I didn’t have to retire in 1965,” Grant said in a 1989 Spokesman-Review interview, “but I’d already made up my mind. I’ve got a gold-stamped certificate that says ‘Retired While Working.’”

Photographs of early steam engines joined the collection of family pictures on Grant’s wall in his home a 1111 Hickory Street. The chance to work full time on the engines eluded him, but he did some volunteer time as a firewatcher.

“I used to fire them in the early years,” he said. “Later they called me to watch them on weekends while they were parked north of town. I never passed up a chance to watch an engine.”

Aware that railroads, scenery, and history are rich commodities for rail fans who visit the Sandpoint area, Pack River Managements and Rail Views, Ltd., are banking on those givens to launch yet another rail project which could greatly affect Sandpoint’s future. With 6 two-day tours starting in late July and ending in early October, Montana Daylight Tours will run trains over the Montana Rail Link system from Sandpoint to Billings. In addition, six subsequent westbound trips from Billings to Sandpoint will be offered.

On each eastbound tour, travelers leave Sandpoint in mid-morning, follow the shores of Lake Pend Oreille along the old Northern Pacific route and end up in Missoula, where they stay at the Missoula Hotel. The next day’s tour takes them past the “Golden Spike” marker, showing the sight of the first completion of the first Northern Transcontinental Railway in 1883. After paralleling the Missouri River, the Daylight train crosses the Gallatin River Valley, proceeds to Livingston and follows the Yellowstone River to Billings,where passengers will stay at the Radison Northern Hotel.

According to Rail Views general manager David Duncan, the restored seven-car train holds 242 passengers. Three cars have restored domes, picture windows, glasstops and table seating. Fares range from $399 per person. Anyone seeking more information can call a travel agent, pick up a brochure at the Chamber of Commerce or call 1-800-519-RAIL.

Duncan views the new venture as a great boon to Sandpoint’s tourism industry.

“Sandpoint--it’s great,” he said. “It’s a natural gateway. Anyone who rides either way has to transfer to other transportation at Sandpoint. It creates an opportunity for extended stays.” Duncan said success this year could mean more frequent departures and adding capacity to the train next year. The possibilities bring smiles to the faces of Chamber officials.

“It’s going to help put Sandpoint on the map,” Carol Novak said. “It has potential; it’s easy advertising for us. It’s for people who like to travel, and we have a beautiful and safe place to look at---it’s not the train yards of Chicago.”