This timetable introduces two new trains: the Mid-Century Empire Builder, which used completely new equipment, and the Western Star, which was a new name for the equipment from the 1947 streamlined Empire Builder. It is hard to know which was … Continue reading
This timetable was published nine months after the January timetable shown here three months ago and has the same front cover. When writing the today’s post, I was embarrassed to discover that the cover of the PDF for that one … Continue reading
We’ve previously seen Great Northern booklets advertising dude ranches from 1939, 1940, 1949, and 1950. This one appears to be from 1927 and is the nicest of the lot. Click image to download a 13.1-MB PDF of this 44-page booklet. … Continue reading
Here’s a menu that was used in the Glacier Park Hotel on Tuesday, August 3. The menu doesn’t state what year it was used, but August 3 fell on a Tuesday in 1915, 1920, 1926, 1932, and 1937. The Glacier … Continue reading
A century ago today, Great Northern wished its customers “a joyous Christmas and a happy and successful New Year” with this blotter. After a minor post-war recession, the United States had enjoyed rapid economic growth in 1923, and that growth … Continue reading
I’ve only posted a few pocket calendars here in the past as they are generally more oriented to freight customers than to passengers. This one from the Great Northern mentions that the railroad is both “Great for Freight” and “Great … Continue reading
In 1950, Edmonds was a small town of about 2,000 people working in sawmills and other factories. By 1960, however, its population had nearly quadrupled, and nearly tripled again in the 1960s, as Seattle workers sought single-family homes in low-density … Continue reading
As mentioned yesterday, Great Northern began using this timetable cover, featuring two F3 locomotives, in June 1951 to commemorate the inauguration of the Western Star. In 1954, it added a banner above each of the locomotives to announce that the … Continue reading
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
Great Northern gave up on using E7 locomotives for its transcontinental trains in 1950, replacing them with F3s and F7s while consigning the E7s to non-mountainous trains such as the International and Red River. In early 1950, GN timetable covers … Continue reading
