It’s always been a bit of a puzzle to me why the Great Northern didn’t use the “as-delivered” paint scheme for its E-7 Diesels when it put those locomotives into service pulling the 1947 streamlined Empire Builder. The orange-and-green colors … Continue reading
The coffee shop car was something new on Great Northern’s 1947 Empire Builder. Great Northern’s heavyweight Empire Builder and Oriental Limited had a lounge car open only to Pullman passengers and a diner that was mainly patronized by sleeping car … Continue reading
We’ve previously seen Charles Russell’s painting “Desperate Stand” on a 1954 Western Star lunch menu (as well as a 1956 Western Star dinner menu). This menu from my collection is for lunch on the Empire Builder. Click image to download … Continue reading
This beverage menu, which I photographed at the Minnesota History Center, was printed for the streamlined Empire Builder in 1949. The Pullman logo at the bottom of the front cover indicates that Great Northern had contracted out lounge-car service to … Continue reading
We’ve previously seen this menu cover on a Western Star menu, but the format was first created for the 1947 Empire Builder. Looking it over now, I have to say it is a masterpiece of design. Click image to download … Continue reading
By 1949, Great Northern was using menus with Charlie Russell paintings on the cover for the streamlined Empire Builder. But when the train began operating in 1947, the menus were simpler, with a sketch of the train on the cover … Continue reading
Great Northern distributed this slightly-smaller-than-tabloid-sized newspaper at the 1949 Chicago Rail Fair. However, a note at the top states that this particular edition was printed after the fair and admits that “a minor portion” of the paper “is obsolete due … Continue reading
The five trains on the cover of this ticket envelope–really more of a ticket folder–is the first clue that it was for the 1947 Empire Builder, as Great Northern advertising made much of the fact that the railway had purchased … Continue reading
Here’s a used ticket envelope from the 1947 streamlined Empire Builder. The inner flap of the envelope has a photo of a spectacular mountain in Glacier National Park. The ticket agent wrote on the outer flap that the passenger spent … Continue reading
The 1947 Empire Builder was Great Northern’s greatest train (at least, up until 1951, when the railroad replaced the train with an entirely new train). Many illustrations advertising the 1947 train showed five locomotives representing the five complete train sets … Continue reading
