Trip Reports: June 24 to July 11, 2004

by Ted & Sylvia Blishak

The American Orient Express
Lewis and Clark Epic Journey

Saturday, July 3, 2004

Missoula, Montana

After a delicious breakfast while standing in the Missoula station-- during which another rare-mileage tour train, the Montana Rockies Daylight, pulls past us headed for Livingston -- we are on the trail of Lewis and Clark again. This is the anniversary of the departure of their expedition, and we tour Traveler’s Rest State Park, where the expedition encamped for a week before crossing Lolo Pass into Idaho. There is a lecture by actors portraying the two captains, clad in fringed buckskin costumes.

Next we venture to the Historical Society Museum at Fort Missoula, also rich in Lewis and Clark lore. However, we are diverted by a display of an old Northern Pacific Railroad wooden station, which has been moved here and restored, and which has two semaphore towers standing next to it.

Quite by coincidence, there is a meeting of the Montana Gas Engine Society, whose members locate and restore century old stationary engines, usually with a single cylinder, and fueled by gasoline, kerosene, coal gas, or illuminating gas. These engines were ubiquitous on the farms and mills of a century ago, powering everything from flour mills to sawmills. They are on display here today, popping and thumping, safely behind rope fences, piston rods, eccentrics, flywheels, and leather belts flailing away.

Under an adjacent shed, a self propelled steam engine, whistle blowing, is driving an industrial size sawmill. Nearby, a static display of a Shay logging locomotive pulling a flatcar loaded with old growth timber, demonstrates how steam both delivered the logs and processed them into building materials for a growing frontier.

A 1930’s era Forest Service fire tower has been reconstructed on the grounds, along with all of the usual Forest Service furnishings of that era. A short stool inside the tower has its legs set into glass electrical insulators. During electrical storms, the ranger was to stand on this stool, so as not to be electrocuted by any lightning strikes!

Returning to the American Orient Express, we cross the Continental Divide through the Blossburg Tunnel, then descend 18 miles, across two curved steel trestles, into Helena. Once the train is stabled here, we have a choice of an Andrew Gulliford talk, “Lewis and Clark, American Indians, and Medicine”, the piano bar, or a quiet evening in the New York lounge. A rainstorm begins, and by the time passengers are enjoying dinner, a perfect 180-degree double rainbow is arching over the train.

Tomorrow we will tour Helena then go on to Great Falls, Montana, by motorcoach.

Snacks aboard the New York

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