Glacier National Park Railfan ?

[Conrail8124]

My wife & I are planning on taking Amtrak up to the park for a few days in the last summer. What can I plan on as far as doing some railfanning? Any hotspots?

[Hawko]

Sorry I don't know anything about Glacier Park, but here are a couple of points of interest to check out while you are traveling through Eastern Minnesota.

Explore the Amtrak Depot in the Twin Cities on your way back home. There are usually a couple of Milwaukee Road passenger cars and some private cars stored there. Also the Minnesota Commercial runs a lot of Alcos through there. The Empire Builder goes right past several busy yards in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The largest is the BNSF Northtown facility in Minneapolis.

Between La Crosse, Wi and the Twin Cities Amtrak runs on the CP River Sub. Lots of long stretches of track right along the Mississippi River. There is a good chance you will see several trains running on the BNSF St. Croix Sub. on the Wisconsin side of the river.

[Otto Vondrak]

The Great Northern heritage drips down the walls here: http://www.izaakwaltoninn.com/

"Izaak Walton Inn offers the best in Glacier National Park Lodging. There are a variety of activities offered including Hiking, Red Bus Tours / Jammer Tours, White Water Rafting, Backcountry Skiing, Cross Country Skiing and more. We are also your source for Amtrak Vacations and Amtrak Lodging. Contact us today to plan your next Family Vacation or for information on Going to the Sun Road, Marias Pass, Goat Lick, Middle Fork Flathead River, Hotels in West Glacier, Caboose Rentals, Caboose Cabins, Empire Builder and more."

[CoveredWagon]

Wow, I am running late here, like two years. Anyone railfanning around here probably would like the ambiance of the Izaak Walton. I suppose it's way more spendy than when I stayed there while on a gang back in 1978.
I would recommend you rent a cheap car at the airport in Glacier or depot in Whitefish, that's all you'll need, big enough to hold your camera gear. And you should also have bear spray, the magnum kind. The pass itself is a difficult fan because it's a pass, plus the train schedules are not friendly to the late riser. The east side to Shelby is probably more friendly because the road access is better.
When I get motivated, I usually plan on some serious hiking, either into Belton Canyon between Nyack and West; or the Paola tunnels, or up in the snowshed district -- for the pictures most other fans are too lazy to get. There are spectacular possibilities, but they are WORK.

[davidg40]

The Empirebuilder went through there, when I was a kid we would go to Elensburg Washington to visit realtives. The park was beautiful, I remember one year they had a early snow storm, we had to make several attempts to get up to the Depot .The train had a slight hill to climb and the Empirebuilder could not make the grade to climb to the top easily, due to the snow. we eventually got there though