Starting in 1957, GN replaced the orange-and-green timetable covers it used in the early 1950s with this blue-and-red cover featuring Great Domes on the Incomparable Empire Builder. Inside, there are some font changes and slight changes in schedules, but the … Continue reading
This menu doesn’t say whether it is for lunch or dinner, but it probably served for both. In 1956, the morning Internationals left Seattle and Vancouver at about 8 am, arriving at the the opposite terminus around noon. Then they … Continue reading
Based on the colors and size, the brochure looks like a companion to Great Northern’s Alaska cruises brochure. But that one dates to 1938 while this Northwest brochure is dated eighteen years later, so the colors are simply a coincidence … Continue reading
Dated January, 1947, this blotter advertises the streamlined Empire Builder, which didn’t begin service until February 7 of that year. Of course, GN had used the locomotives shown in the picture since their delivery in 1945, so the picture didn’t … Continue reading
America’s railroads carried more passengers in 1944 than any other year in history: four-and-a-half times as many passenger miles as in 1937, eight times as many as 1932, and more than twice as many as in 1920, the previous peak. … Continue reading
This simple card lists 1938 fares from Portland to Chicago on the Empire Builder. The one-way coach fare was $39.50–more than $500 today. A lower berth in tourist class was $56.96, or about $750 today, while a lower berth in … Continue reading
This little brochure advertises, without too many details, cruises to “strange Alaska.” After a steamship ride from Seattle, tours were apparently offered on at least seven routes. “Golden Belt Line Tours” went from Seward to Fairbanks to Cordova. “Yukon River … Continue reading
When the Empire Builder replaced the Oriental Limited as Great Northern’s premiere train in 1929, the latter name replaced the Glacier Park Limited for the secondary train. But with the Depression, business dropped off so much that GN was forced … Continue reading
One of the last timetables before Great Northern inaugurated the Empire Builder, this is one of the curious timetables (of which we’ll see more) in which the cover page, shown below, is actually the last page, while the first page … Continue reading
This 52-page brochure is more than twice the length of a 1929 brochure with the same name. Most of the contents of the 1929 brochure can be found in this earlier edition, with some major additions of course. Click image … Continue reading
