This is an F45 Locomotive that has been turned into a Luxury Rental Lodge at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex Montana.

1. Luxury Locomotive Lodge: Great Northern 441 Izaak Walton Inn Essex, Montana

2. Then: a roaring V-20 diesel engine. Now: a luxury lodge with plasma TV, fireplace and sofa sleeper

3. Cooling fans in the roof are now skylights to welcome the Rocky Mountain sunshine Master bedroom

4. Picture windows open at the flick of a switch

5. Luxurious bathroom with shower and Jacuzzi

6. Fully equipped kitchen

7. The cab has been restored to better-than-new condition

8. Decked out with 400-year-old antique oak hardwood floors, warm wood paneling and custom cabinetry, Great Northern 441 offers a rustic and inviting interior. It’s a comfortable refuge for a small family or two couples in the midst of a Glacier Park adventure.

9. Built in 1968, this 3,600 horsepower General Motors F45 hauled transcontinental fast freights After 33 years of service – and 7 years of catching rain – it was saved from the scrapper’s torch

10. In 2008-9 it was painstakingly restored by skilled craftsmen at RELCO Locomotives, Albia, Iowa

11. It was the first locomotive in 40 years to be painted in Great Northern’s stunning “Big Sky Blue”

12. In August 2009, BNSF Railway hauled GN 441 1,746 miles from Iowa to Montana Sweetgrass Hills west of Etheridge, Montana

13. Massive sideboom bulldozers were needed to lift 441 onto its track

14. The Izaak Walton Inn is a historic hotel at Essex, Montana, on the south border of Glacier National Park. It was built for the Great Northern Railway in 1939 to host tourists and fishermen in the summer and railroad workers in the winter. It is the only Glacier Park resort that is open year-round. http://www.izaakwaltoninn.com/ 406-888-5700 Photos © Tom Lambrecht & Bill Christopher