Passenger trains between Billings and Livingston will roll again

The once-familiar cry of "All aboard!" will be heard again next month at the historic Northern Pacific
Depot on Montana Avenue in downtown Billings.
Montana Rockies Rail Tours, based in Sandpoint, Idaho, will be offering roundtrip train rides from Billings
to Livingston on Sept. 14 and 15.

By ED KEMMICK
OF THE GAZETTE STAFF

"We’ve been trying to get the train down to Billings for the last year or two, and with everything they’ve done
at the depot, we’re pretty excited," said company President Marcia Pilgeram.
She is excited for personal reasons as well. Pilgeram, a native of Trident, just north of Three Forks, said
her grandfather had a secondhand store on Montana Avenue from the 1930s until 1958.

Montana Rockies Rail Tours has been in business for eight years, Pilgeram said, offering weekly
excursions between Sandpoint and Livingston during the summer, as well as motorcoach tours of Yellowstone,
Glacier and Grand Teton national parks, all coordinated with rail connections.
The company has also had a Christmas train, running from Missoula to Paradise and back, as well as
some popular excursions between Thompson Falls and Sandpoint.

Passenger trains haven’t served Billings since Amtrak discontinued service on the southern line through
Montana in 1979.
Pilgeram said her company has the largest collection of stainless-steel Streamliner passenger cars in the
country. The classic cars from the 1940s and ’50s include coach, Vistadome and sleeping cars, in addition to a
lounge car and a "beautiful, fully restored dining car" decorated with 1920s-era lithographs of Yellowstone
National Park scenes.

The trains will be staffed by car attendants, a porter, a conductor and a "great bartender," Pilgeram said.
"We try to keep those traditions alive."
Also on board will be Bill Taylor, of Missoula, an author and train expert who "knows every mile marker on
the railroad inside and out." He will provide narration on railroad history over the PA system, Pilgeram said, and
his wife, Jan Taylor, will engage in one-on-one interpretive talks with passengers.

People boarding in Billings can either return the same day or spend Saturday night in Livingston and return
to Billings on Sunday. People boarding in Livingston Saturday would have to spend the night in Billings if they
wanted to return to Livingston by train on Sunday.
Stops in Billings and Livingston will feature tours of both cities’ restored Northern Pacific depots.

Fare is $99 for adults and $59 for children, free to those
under 4. Exact arrival and departure times will be posted
later, but the tentative times for each day are:
9 a.m., depart Billings.
11:30 a.m., arrive in Livingston.
2:30 p.m. depart Livingston.
5 p.m., arrive in Billings.

The excursions make use of track owned by Montana
Rail Link, Pilgeram said. In mid-October, Montana Rockies
Rail Links is planning to offer excursions between
Sandpoint and Billings on a train pulled by a steam engine.
Pilgeram said virtually every adult who rides the trains talks about the old days when rail was king, or they
mention some member of their family who used to work for the railroad.
"It’s wonderful to get these trains moving around Montana again, especially to give the children an
opportunity to ride," she said.

Ed Kemmick can be reached at 657-1293 or [email protected]

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/08/24/build/local/76-train.inc