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

ski train The ''Winter Park Express'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on winter weekends between Denver Union Station and Winter Park Resort, Colorado. The scenic route uses the same line as the ''California Zephyr'', climbing into the Front R ...

that ran from

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

, 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 Sun ...

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

Coors Light Coors Light is a 4.2% (US) ABV light beer brewed in Golden, Colorado; Albany, Georgia; Elkton, Virginia; Fort Worth, Texas; Irwindale, California; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. The Ca ...

. 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,

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

, and a retrofitted

boxcar A boxcar is the North American ( AAR) term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most ...

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

History

In 1993,

Les Otten Leslie B. "Les" 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 ...

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 Indi ...

, 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 C ...

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

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...

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