On New Year's Day 2011, weather forced Amtrak to turn the westbound Empire Builder (#7) around near Fargo. To get the train back to Chicago, it was coupled onto the rear of #8. Here the combined train, consisting of 3 Genesis locomotives, a baggage car, 20 Superliners, another baggage car, and 3 more locomotives, approaches the depot in Staples for its first of four stops at that location.
This train, which runs between Chicago and Seattle and Portland, takes its name from James J. Hill, who founded the Great Northern Railroad and extended it from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast.
