By Railfan & Railroad Staff

An F45 locomotive that was turned into a luxury lodge in Montana is once again hosting guests while the nearby Izaak Walton Inn is closed for renovations. 

“Great Northern F45 441” started its life on the Santa Fe in 1968. It was later sold to Morrison Knudsen and leased to the Utah Railway in the 1990s. After it was retired, it was sent to Metro East Industries in East St. Louis, Ill., to be scrapped. But Tom Lambrecht, then-General Director of Locomotives for BNSF Railway, found it and came up with another idea. After Metro East carefully gutted the locomotive’s interior, it was sent RELCO in Iowa, where the car body was carefully restored and made to look like a GN F45 in the road’s iconic “Big Sky Blue.” In August 2009, the locomotive was moved west to its new home near Montana’s Izaak Walton Inn. 

Upon arrival in Essex, the locomotive was lifted onto a short stretch of track built next to the lodge. Then the gutted interior of the locomotive was turned into luxury accommodations with room for up to four guests. While everything from the rear of the cab back looks like a bedroom and living room (with big picture windows looking out on BNSF’s Hi Line Subdivision) the locomotive’s cab appears almost as it did when the locomotive was built, with the control stand and other items still in place. For years the Izaak Walton Inn has managed reservations for the F45, as well as a caboose owned by Lambrecht. But with the iconic railroad lodge closed for renovations this year, Lambrecht has decided to put the F45 and caboose on Airbnb this summer. Reservations started being booked this month. 

For more information, visit GN441.com and visit Airbnb to make a reservation.