The ''Silver Bullet Express'', also known as the ''Sunday River Ski Train'', was a privately owned and operated

ski train A ski train is a passenger train which is marketed to carry passengers to ski resorts. A ski train may only operate during the winter sports season, or it may operate more frequently and have extra capacity during the winter sports season. Ski ...

that ran from

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

, to Sunday River Ski Resort near

Bethel, Maine Bethel is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,504 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Bethel and West Bethel. The town is home to Gould Academy, a private preparatory school, and is near the Sund ...

. The ski train was owned by Sunday River and sponsored by

Coors Light Coors Light is a 4.2% ABV light American lager beer sold by Coors (currently Molson Coors) of Chicago, Illinois. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. They had briefly produced a different low-alcohol beer by the same n ...

. The train left Portland at 6:45 am, arriving in Bethel at 8:45 am, at which point passengers transferred to buses which would take them to the mountain. The return trip would depart Bethel at 5:15 pm. Amenities included a

dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a passenger railroad car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. These cars provide the highest level of service of any rai ...

parlor car A parlor car (or parlour car outside the U.S.) is a type of passenger car (rail), passenger coach that provides superior comforts and amenities compared to a standard coach. History Parlor cars came about on United States railroads to address ...

, and a retrofitted

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

for carrying skis and snowboards. It operated from 1993 until 1996.

History

In 1993,

Les Otten Leslie B. Otten (born 1949) is the former CEO of the American Skiing Company. Since resigning as its chief executive officer in 2001, Otten has been involved in numerous other businesses and industries, including the Major League Baseball's B ...

who owned Sunday River envisioned a ski train that would connect the mountain with Auburn, Portland and Boston (through a Portland to Boston passenger rail line that never materialized until 2001 in the form of the Amtrak ''Downeaster''). Otten appointed Carl Spangler to head the ski train effort. That summer a set of seven heritage cars was purchased from

Indiana Rail Road The Indiana Rail Road is a United States Class II railroad, originally operating over former Illinois Central Railroad trackage from Newton, Illinois, to Indianapolis, Indiana, a distance of . This line, now known as the Indiana Rail Road's Ind ...

, and the

St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad , known as St-Laurent et Atlantique Quebec in Canada, is a short-line railway operating between Portland, Maine, on the Atlantic Ocean, and Montreal, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River. It crosses the Ca ...

was hired to operate the train. Buses were also purchased from

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of public transport, mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and List of Chicago Transit Authority bus routes, CTA bu ...

to carry skiers from the station in Bethel to the mountain.

References

Transportation in New England Railway services introduced in 1993 Railway services discontinued in 1997 Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger rail transportation in Maine Transportation in Portland, Maine Transportation in Oxford County, Maine Transportation in Androscoggin County, Maine Transportation in Cumberland County, Maine Newry, Maine {{US-train-stub