We’ve previously seen a 1958 brochure advertising Great Northern’s dome-laden Empire Builder. This undated brochure is similar but from a year or two earlier. The two share many of the same photos and graphics, but the covers are completely different, … Continue reading
While Great Northern applied the term “great domes” to all its dome cars, the railway’s full-length domes were certainly greater, at least in terms of weight (more than 90 tons) and cost ($325,000 vs. $225,000 for the short domes). They … Continue reading
With seven gorgeous interior photos emphasizing the bright red upholstery and other cheery colors in the train’s decor, plus an exterior photo showing the full length of the train on the south boundary There is a law of patent protection … Continue reading
Great Northern’s tiny brochures covered such destinations as Alaska, Glacier Park, Portland, the Canadian Rockies, and the East. But it also issued this six-panel brochure featuring the railway’s premiere train. Though dated 1964, it may be a reprint of one … Continue reading
The train portrayed on the front of this ticket envelope looks like the Empire Builder between 1955, when the dome cars were added to the train, and 1962, when GN simplified the locomotive color scheme by deleting the bottom orange … Continue reading
The Seattle World’s Fair gave passenger service on the Great Northern, and presumably the Northern Pacific, a reprieve not granted to many other railroads. It didn’t hurt that the Milwaukee Road–afraid that its money-losing Olympian Hiawatha would actually make money … Continue reading
Since the bulk of the population is in the East and the bulk of the nation’s scenic beauty is in the West, most advertising by western railroads was aimed at eastern audiences. But sometimes westerners had to go east, so … Continue reading
Like its cross-border rival, the Canadian Pacific, the Great Northern published a brochure advising photographers how to take photos through the tinted glass windows of the dome cars. But where the Canadian Pacific brochure merely advised photographers to account for … Continue reading
Here are a couple of posters using Hedrich photographs, one of which we’ve already seen on a postcard. I’m not certain whether these posters were distributed to members of the public, Great Northern customers, or just used in GN offices … Continue reading
Although domes were first added to the Empire Builder in May 1955, the Great Northern didn’t place this two-page spread in National Geographic until October. This is probably because the ad featured the full-length dome which wasn’t included in the … Continue reading
