When Great Northern introduced its all-steel Oriental Limited in 1924, it sent one of the train sets on an exhibition tour together with the William Crooks and passenger cars that were its contemporaries. This blotter, which is similar to ones made for St. Paul, Minot, and other cities, presents this as an educational opportunity when of course it was really just an advertisement for GN’s new train.

Click image to download a 797-KB PDF of this blotter.

The image in the blotter is based on a Great Northern publicity photo taken in one of the railway’s Twin Cities yards. Other than the removal of the background, the photo has been only slightly edited for use on the blotter.

Click image for a larger view.

In addition to “all steel,” the blotter notes that the new train is “Pullman equipped.” This is because, until the introduction of this train, GN handled its own sleeping cars rather than contracting them out to Pullman like most other railroads. The only other U.S. railroad I know that continued to operate its own sleeping cars after 1924 was the St. Paul road.