In the mid-1950s, the trend was to turn boxcars into rolling billboards advertising the railroads that owned them. In 1956, Great Northern experimented with ten different paint schemes that were so bright they became known to employees as circus boxcars. … Continue reading
Someone has “photoshopped” a wide-angle image of a GN F7 on top of a photo of the west entrance to the Cascade Tunnel. I’m only an amateur graphics artist, but the image is almost painful for me to look at. … Continue reading
The covers of Great Northern’s timetables had been predominately orange since 1947 when it introduced the streamlined Empire Builder. They stayed orange, with F-unit locomotives replacing E units, when the dome cars were introduced in 1955. Click image to download … Continue reading
Leslie Ragan’s painting of the dome-laden Empire Builder wraps 1-1/4 inches around the back cover of the 1955 report. Incongruously, the rest of the back cover shows an iron ore strip mine in the Minnesota hills, no doubt on Great … Continue reading
Just to make sure there is no mistake, the masthead for this issue of the Goat says it “is not an employee magazine” but is for people interested in industrial traffic and travel by the railway. Being another winter issue, … Continue reading
This year’s front and back covers at least relate to one another, as the front shows the new Hillyard yard office at twilight while the back cover shows the view from inside the same office. The building is a modern … Continue reading
The cover photo of this report shows a machinist turning a wheel, an important job on a railroad but not one likely to bring a flutter to a potential investor’s heart. The photo wraps about 2-1/4-inches around the back cover, … Continue reading
This menu has no prices, so it was for tourists on the American plan. Except for the Finnan haddie, it is pretty conventional with eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, griddle cakes, and a variety of cereals, fruits, and juices. Click image … Continue reading
As suggested by the cover photo, this issue of the Goat emphasizes winter sports. This includes another article about Timberline Lodge in Oregon plus a curious one-page article about skiing at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington. That’s curious because the Snoqualmie … Continue reading
The 1952 annual report has a wrap-around cover, but unlike the 1946 and 1951 reports, the photo only extends about 1-3/4 inches on the back cover. Still, I’m including a PDF of the full cover below. Click image to download … Continue reading
