Sandpoint, Idaho Thinks It Can Promote Trains To Tourists

SANDPOINT, Idaho - For 10 years, this lakeside tourist town has tried to get the Union Pacific Railroad to relocate tracks that bisect it.

Now, tourism officials hope to cash in on the 50 trains that rumble through qg medi06the city each day.

"It's our way of turning lemons into lemonade," Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce member Carol Novak said. "There's a whole community out there who are fascinated with trains and are serious about their hobby."

The Idaho Travel Council provided a $4,400 grant to print brochures and run an advertisement in Trains Magazine, a Waukesha, Wis.-based publication with 107,000 subscribers.

It's working, Chamber executive director Jonathan Coe said.

The chamber by Monday had logged 50 calls from train buffs in Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Vermont.

Sandpoint is a railroad "funnel," where the former Great Northern and Northern Pacific main lines meet, making it one of the region's busiest main lines.

"It's definitely something Sandpoint should be marketing," said Trains editor Kevin Keefe. "People will show up to watch trains and these folks spend money."