Unfortunately, this article is quite incomplete with regards to mentioning all the people involved in making sure Amtrak kept a presence in Sandpoint and agreed to restore the Historic Sandpoint Train Depot with the monies received from the Idaho Transportation Department.

I want to  personally thank all involved, especially everyone on the Sandpoint Historic Preservation Commission for their tireless work and efforts keeping the ball rolling and discussions continuing over the last 3-4 years of this process. Look through the archive of this site (going back to April of 2009) and you will get a flavor of all the work that has been done to get to this point. Hat tip to all the people that had a part in this, I realize and truly appreciate all your efforts. Thank you!!

Special thanks to: Tim Boden, Carlos Suarez, Hellen Newton, Carrie Logan, Kody Van Dyk, John Reuter, Zach Hagadon, The Sandpoint Reader, The Historical Museum, Michael Snedden, Bob Camp, Dann Hall, Bruce Vogelsinger, Jacquie Albright, Krister Allen, Melissa Bethel,  Sue Graves, Brad Granfield, the rest of the Sandpoint Historic Preservation members, all the local citizens who wrote to the City Council to express their support for the depot, Perservation Idaho, Dan Everhart (ITD), Jonathan Hutchison (Amtrak), Mark Meyer, National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP), Nancy Renk, Gale Lister, Jim Hamre, Arther Poole, Barry Green, Jim Walter. Sorry if I missed anyone, I will add more as they arise.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Bonner County Daily Bee from Cameron Rasmusson:

At Wednesday’s council meeting, members approved a letter of agreement between Amtrak and Burlington Northern-Sante Fe Railway Company over the restoration of the depot. While the agreement is still in draft form according to city attorney Scot Campbell, its approval by City Council members is a step in the right direction toward a re-opened and functioning train depot.

Idaho Transportation Department originally supplied $921,664 to Burlington Northern to replace the depot as part of an obligation to keep a regional stop open for Amtrak’s use, according to city engineer Kody Van Dyk. Given the Sandpoint Depot’s dilapidated and inoperable condition and complications from the presence of the Byway, Amtrak officials had resolved to abandon the structure and set up shop elsewhere. Thanks to some persistence from some Sandpoint officials — including an especially diligent effort from … Read the entire article here.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Bonner County Daily Bee from Keith Kinnaird:

SANDPOINT — A cracked and fading jewel in Sandpoint’s crown is finally going to be repaired and polished.

Amtrak officials expect the historic Sandpoint Depot to reopen for passenger use by the end of the year, according to Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman in Oakland, Calif.

The ornate depot was closed to the public in 2009 due to safety concerns regarding the 97-year-old structure.

Graham said Amtrak’s engineering services will be… Read entire article here

All Aboard to Sandpoint, Idaho
Groups Agree to Maintain Train Service and Renovate Historic Depot

For residents of Sandpoint, Idaho, the sound of a train whistle signals a job well done. Following years of uncertainty, the historic Sandpoint Burlington Northern Railway Station (now known as the Sandpoint Train Station) will remain the Idaho town’s train stop after the City of Sandpoint, Amtrak, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway reached a tentative agreement in late June. The written agreement, which officials and residents hope will be finalized this fall, comes after many options for the National Register-listed depot were considered—including abandoning the historic structure and building a new depot outside of town.

“[It would have been] taking public transit away from the public,” says Aric Spence, a local preservationist who led efforts to save the depot. The station was closed in June 2009 after the building’s deteriorating ceiling caused safety concerns, making it a platform-only stop. Originally, it serviced the Northern Pacific Railroad, the first northern transcontinental route in the nation. Today, the Gothic-style depot is the only… Read the entire article.

SANDPOINT — Months of negotiations paid off this week after city officials brokered an agreement on the restoration of the historic Sandpoint Depot.

City Council members Carrie Logan and John Reuter and Public Works Director Kody Van Dyk saw the fruits of their labors after representatives from Amtrak and BNSF Railroad agreed to cooperate in whipping the depot back into shape.

“We worked with really good people from Amtrak and BNSF,” Logan said. “I think they were a little curious at first that we wanted to keep the depot here.”

A vocal and eclectic range of interest groups invested in the depot’s restoration ended that curiosity. Logan said that the depot retains historic, economic and infrastructural benefits for the community. As one of the last vestiges of old Sandpoint and a transportation center, the city has much to gain from its refurbishment.

“There was a lot of community support for this project, and not just locally, but across the country,” Logan said.

Under the current agreement, depot owner BNSF will lease the building and platform to Amtrak, which will then sublease it to the city of Sandpoint. According to Logan, the Idaho Transportation Department will pony up nearly $1 million in escrow funds to pay for the restoration as a requirement of the Sand Creek Byway’s Environmental Impact Statement.

City, Amtrak and BNSF officials are still working out the details of the written agreement. After all the specifics are defined and put to paper, however, the city will begin designing and constructing the depot’s restoration.

Reuter said that Logan and Van Dyk were the instrumental figures in bringing negotiations to a successful conclusion.

“They deserve huge credit for all the work they’ve put into this,” he said.

BNSF Railway Company, Amtrak and City of Sandpoint agree: Historic depot is best alternative for continued Amtrak service to Sandpoint area.

Sandpoint, ID, June 22, 2011:

BNSF Railway Company, Amtrak and the City of Sandpoint have agreed in principle to maintain passenger railroad service in downtown Sandpoint. Fruitful negotiations between the parties over the past two years have culminated in general agreement to refurbish the existing historic depot for continued use as a passenger railroad station.

BNSF, owner of the depot, has agreed to lease the structure and platform to Amtrak. Amtrak, in turn, will sub-lease to the City of Sandpoint. Funds to refurbish the depot come from a one-time payment from the Idaho Transportation Department that fulfils a requirement of the Sand Creek Byway’s Environmental Impact Statement.

Sandpoint Councilmembers Carrie Logan and John Reuter spearheaded the negotiations. “Negotiations are rarely easy, but once BNSF and Amtrak realized how committed Sandpoint was to keeping the depot in town, the parties agreed to make this happen,” according to Logan.

Upon completion of written agreements the City of Sandpoint will begin design and construction of the refurbishment project.

SAGLE — A Montana man managed to avoid injury after a passenger train struck the pickup truck he was driving on railroad tracks early Tuesday morning.

Idaho State Police said Lynn Schedlbauer accessed a private at-grade railroad crossing on the east side of U.S. Highway 95 and attempted to use a side road running along the tracks, but encountered 3 1/2 feet of water and drove onto the tracks headed northbound.

Along came a northbound Amtrak train, which rear-ended Schedlbauer’s 1999 Ford F-350. The heavy-duty pickup was thrown from the tracks and into the flooded access road, state police said.

Schedlbauer, a 40-year-old from Libby, was wearing a seat belt and emerged from the collision uninjured, according to ISP. He was ticketed for trespassing.

State police did not indicate if any passengers or train staff were injured.

The collision was reported at 3:43 a.m. The crash occurred at the Davisville Road turnoff, according to Bonner Dispatch records.

Before 1970, there were three distinct railroads through Sandpoint. (All railroads operated as east and west, but through Sandpoint, they were mostly in a north-or east and south-or west alignment).  The Great Northern (GN) line skirted the town to the west; the Spokane International (SI), which is now Union Pacific (SI) went through the middle of town, and the Northern Pacific (NP) went along the lake.

The GN and NP were both railroads operating between St. Paul/Minneapolis and the Pacific Northwest.  When they merged in 1970 to form Burlington Northern (BN, now BNSF), the focus was to create one main line for traffic off the two railroads using the best of each. Between Casselton, North Dakota (just west of Fargo) and Seattle, the GN line was the chosen routing, except between Sandpoint and Spokane where the NP would be used.  Therefore, connections had to be built at Sandpoint and Spokane to create a fluid main line route.

Sandpoint Diamond where UP and BNSF cross

At Sandpoint, the connection was built from the GN line from just west of the airport (at a new siding called Boyer) east-southeast over Sand Creek to intersect the NP route just north of the site of the current Amtrak station.  This is the main BNSF route today, and the route used by Amtrak’s Empire Builder. On the “new” connection, the route crosses the UP route at grade:

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=48.2869624&lon=-116.5537834&z=15&l=0&m=b

The GN route west from Sandpoint toward Spokane was eventually abandoned between Newport and Dean. BNSF retains ownership between Sandpoint and Dover, but Dover to Newport was sold to the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad.

As traffic on the UP increased, the desire was to move these trains out of downtown Sandpoint, so a connection was constructed from the UP just south of the where UP and BN crossed (per link above) west to meet the ex-GN main line on the west side of Sandpoint.  UP trains would use this route instead of going through downtown Sandpoint, and then would use the ex-GN line to Dover, where a new connection was built between the ex-GN route and the UP route:

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=48.2519981&lon=-116.6212893&z=14&l=0&m=b

This is the current operation today, and UP trains actually operate on BNSF between Sandpoint and Dover.

With regard to the possibility of BNSF wanting to construct a second main track past the existing Amtrak station site, this can be questioned on several fronts:

• Will BNSF construct new bridges over Lake Pend Oreille, Bridge Street, and Sand Creek?
• Would they expect any negative feedback from environmentalists or the public in general?

The main focus should be that the likelihood of constructing a second track over Lake Pend Oreille would be minimal, given the length of the bridge, which is just less than a mile long. This would be very expensive.

An often-touted and less expensive option would be to use the UP routing west from Sandpoint. Currently for about 15 miles from southwest of Spokane through downtown, UP operates on BNSF track. The UP line more or less parallels the BNSF route from Spokane to Bonners Ferry.  (The BNSF route at Bonners Ferry, the route of the Amtrak Empire Builder, continues east into Montana along US 2, whereas the UP route goes to the border to interchange with Canadian Pacific at Eastport, Idaho/Kingsgate, British Columbia.)

UP has long sought trackage rights on BN and later BNSF in this area. Between Spokane and Bonners Ferry, the UP and BNSF routes cross three times, BNSF over UP just south of Athol, at grade in Sandpoint, and BNSF over UP near the community of Deep Creek, west of Bonners Ferry.  Building connections between the two would be exceptionally easy (and non-evasive) at Athol and Bonners Ferry where the two railroads are parallel, or existing connections could be used as in the case of Dover and Spokane.

If BNSF wanted to increase capacity through Sandpoint, the least expensive option would be to simply use their ex-GN main line through the west edge of Sandpoint to Dover, and then the UP route to Athol, where trains could then access the ex-NP route to Spokane. In exchange for letting BNSF do this, UP would probably want to have their trains use BNSF on some or all of the segments between Spokane and Bonners Ferry, but this is something they’ve wanted all along.

There are benefits for both railroads in doing this.  For UP, they would gain a railroad with signals, power switches, and more frequent sidings (or if track was paired, probably a double-track operation).  Now, the UP route is “dark” which means no signaling, and hand-operated switches.  For BNSF, the obvious advantage is not building another bridge. I couldn’t find a length of the UP bridge over the Pend Oreille River at Dover, but it is significantly shorter than the BNSF bridge at Sandpoint:

(These map links are with the same magnification)

Sandpoint

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=48.2621699&lon=-116.5330124&z=13&l=0&m=b

Dover

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=48.2529125&lon=-116.6615868&z=13&l=0&m=b

It appears that the UP bridge near Dover is about 1/3 the length, but that’s really not the point; the point is that the UP line could be upgraded to handle the additional BNSF trains at a fraction of the cost.

Therefore, suggestion that someday BNSF will need to construct another track past the current Sandpoint Amtrak station appears to be exceptionally unlikely.

If you appreciate the ongoing work on this website, consider making a donation using the “Donate” button in the upper right column. Thanks!

If you appreciate the ongoing work on this website, consider making a donation using the “Donate” button in the upper right column. Enjoy the video!

So, where did the signs come from? For many years I have heard rumors about their origin and, until now, there was no visual proof. Drum roll… The current signage on the Northern Pacific Depot came from the Great Northern (GN) Depot located at the end of Main Street.

A good friend recently sent me a link to several photos that were just added to the Great Northern archive and several detail the depot on Main Street. It was strange seeing the photos as I used to walk past the Great Northern Depot all the time as a kid. I can remember sledding right on the other side of the tracks down by “Chuck Slough.”

Here is a small gallery detailing the Sandpoint Depot and signage over the years along with images of the Great Northern Depot at the end of Main Street. Enjoy!

If you appreciate the ongoing work on this website, consider making a donation using the “Donate” button in the upper right column.

Below are two videos of a 6-car BNSF business train that rolled through Sandpoint, Idaho on September 3, 2010. The first video (59 seconds) was taken at West Algoma just south of Sandpoint and the second (36 seconds) was taken at Colburn a little north of Sandpoint. BNSF business cars include: Glorieta Pass, Marias Pass, Missouri River, Stevens Pass, Mountain View and Gerald Grinstein. There are two GE ES44DC locomotives (BNSF 7437 & BNSF 7487) on the head of this train.

Show support for the effort to preserve the oldest remaining active Northern Pacific passenger depot by filling out the “Show Support” form in the right-hand column. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the videos below, you might also like:
BNSF Business Special: 7-Car Westbound, Sandpoint Idaho
BNSF Passenger Special: 14-Car Westbound, Sandpoint Idaho
BNSF Passenger Special: 14-Car Eastbound, Sandpoint Idaho