For 1967, Northern Pacific’s calendar featured a painting commissioned by General Electric showing off its U25C locomotive, a six-axle version of the 2500-horsepower U25B. As an advertisement for the locomotive, it was rather late, as the lead locomotive shown in the picture had been delivered in early 1964 and General Electric stopped making this model in 1965.
Click image to download a 2.3-MB PDF of this calendar.
still in service despite being 135 years old.
At 222 feet, the Fish Creek Trestle in the painting is the highest bridge on the Northern Pacific. It isThe painting is by John Gould (1906-1996), who painted trains, steamboats, and landscapes in the Hudson River Valley. In addition to doing illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, he was an “art consultant” for General Electric for twenty years, painting GE locomotives and transit vehicles in their native habitat.