Along with the observation cars with Charles Russell paintings, the Western Star apparently inherited the Empire Builder’s Charles Russell menus. There were originally five observation cars in the series, with one more added for the Western Star, so there must … Continue reading
Because the Western Star was the Great Northern’s premiere train that stopped at Glacier Park, advertising for the train was directly connected with advertising for the park. The Great Northern had built and, until 1960, operated many of the hotels … Continue reading
When the Great Northern purchased equipment for a second transcontinental streamliner, it decided to retire the name Oriental Limited. This had been the railway’s premiere train from 1905 to 1929 and its secondary transcontinental from 1929 to 1931, when it … Continue reading
When in service, the tables on the Empire Builder’s dining car were covered with beautiful white tablecloths into which was stitched a delicate pattern representing sheaves of wheat and the railroad’s initials. I’ll show one of these here if ever … Continue reading
Easily the equal of Union Pacific’s pre-war Little Nugget or Frontier Shack cars, the Ranch car was the most distinctive car on the 1951 Empire Builder, which made it (in the early 1950s at least) the most distinctive car on … Continue reading
Having streamlined the Empire Builder in 1947, the Great Northern Railway demonstrated an optimistic view of passenger traffic when it completely re-equpped it in 1951. This allowed the railroad to use the 1947 trains as a secondary train along the … Continue reading
The Great Northern owned an unusual passenger car called the pendulum car. Manufactured by the Pacific Railway Equipment Company (which apparently existed solely to make pendulum cars), the car was suspended above its center of gravity so that, when going … Continue reading
The Great Northern inaugurated the streamlined Red River between St. Paul and Grand Forks on June 25, 1950–one week after the Internationals began service. The single train made one round-trip per day on the 320-mile route (supplementing the Empire Builder, … Continue reading
In addition to its transcontinental Empire Builder, the Great Northern Railway operated local passenger trains in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. In June, 1950, the railway replaced its heavyweight International, which connected Seattle with Vancouver, BC, with two five-car … Continue reading
Railway Age, the rail industry’s magazine of record, described the “spectacular new equipment” that made up the Empire Builder in an eight-page feature article on April 12, 1947. Noting that the five twelve-car trains that made up the Empire Builder … Continue reading
