After the glorious, full-color cover on the 1946 annual report, GN returned to process colors for the 1947 cover. At least there are two colors (in addition to black): orange and red, instead of the green used in the 1940-1945 reports.
Click image to download a 25.0-MB PDF of this 44-page report.
Inside, the report expresses pride in the streamlined Empire Builder with several photos and a full page showing excerpts of letters written by passengers praising the train. Thanks to the new train, says the report, passenger revenues from non-military business grew, while overall passenger revenues, including military, declined 18 percent compared with a 32 percent decline for other western railroads.
This year’s centerfold features Wenatchee Valley apples, the “largest apple-producing region in the United States.” Great Northern, it says, has shipped 10,000 trainloads of apples from the valley since 1901. The two-page, full-color map that had been glued in to the back cover of the past seven annual reports was replaced in this one with a one-page map printed on the inside back cover in greyscale with the routes of the Great Northern shown in red.