Perhaps due to wartime shortages, this report is eight pages shorter than the previous three reports. But it follows the tradition started in 1942 in having a centerfold photo display, this time celebrating a half century since the completion of GN’s line to Seattle. The company would continue to include centerfolds in its annual reports through 1958.
Click image to download a 25.8-MB PDF of this 46-page report.
Since completing the Pacific Coast line, the report notes, the company more than doubled the number of miles of rail operations; increased revenues by 1,100 percent; increased ton-miles of freight by 1,600 percent; and increased passenger miles by 1,000 percent. It did so by increasing the number of locomotives by only 120 percent, showing the increased power of the average locomotive.