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About The Train

Safety Checklist

Please practice the following safety precautions when traveling on any MRL Passenger equipment.

• Maintain handholds until footing is firmly placed on platform
• Use handrails when traversing stairways
• Keep hands out of pockets while walking
• Use extra care and watch footing when passing between cars
• Fire extinguishers and first aid kits are located throughout the train
• Smoking is prohibited

Silver Cloud - 101

The Silver Cloud was originally one of ten chair cars built for the General Electric Company by Pullman Standard of Chicago. Delivered in 1950, GE used them for a special train, ‘More Power to America’, that made a nationwide tour with exhibits pertaining to the generation and transmission of electric power.

Following this, all ten cars were sold to the CRI&P in 1951. The railroad finished them as 72-seat coach cars, numbered them, applied names and put them in service in 1952. In 1953 the 352 was converted to a business car and renumbered 101. The pride of Rock Island, the car was assigned to the then president of the railroad, J.D. Farrington. As part of the railroad’s bankruptcy in 1979, car 101 was sold to the Dovetron Corporation and moved to Los Angeles to be renamed Felipa.

Montana Rail Link purchased the car in 1988 and completely rebuilt it at the Missoula Car Shop. The name Silver Cloud was applied to the car while retaining the number 101. The Silver Cloud was placed in service in 1990 with its first official use in a train occurring with Stone Container Corporations ‘Recycling Express’ from Laurel to Schilling, Montana.

MRL Domes 104 & 105

Above: Northern Pacific Train No. 25, North Coast Limited, car 550, dome car being boarded at Butte Montana. August 19. 1954. Photograph by Ron V. Nixon; courtesy of the Museum of the Rockies Photo Archive.

In 1953 the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Spokane, Portland & Seattle and the Northern Pacific ordered ten dome coaches to re-equip the ‘North Coast Limited’. The cars were later sold to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) when that company took over operations of most of the nation’s intercity passenger service in 1971.

The two cars were used on the North Coast Hiawatha from 1971 to 1979 and then saw sporadic service based in Chicago until put into storage about 1992.

Montana Rail Link purchased the cars in 1995. The first use on MRL was an employee special, the Buffalo Express. The cars continue to be used regularly for company business and are renovated on a regular basis.

At right: Northern Pacific Train No. 26 with Vista Dome on Butte Hill near Lime Spur, Montana, 1962. Photograph by Ron V. Nixon, courtesy of The Museum of the Rockies Photo Archive.