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Even though the GP-30 was, in a sense, obsolete before it was produced, Great Northern features it again on the cover of its annual report, just as it did in 1963. Click image to download an 14.1-MB PDF of this … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Annual report
Freight revenues grew in 1963 but passenger revenues began an irreversible decline after the boom from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Despite the decline, Great Northern purchased nine “modern” coaches from other railroads to replace older coaches used on GN … Continue reading
The timing isn’t exactly right, but the style of the cover painting on this annual report looks similar to the paintings used in some of Great Northern’s 1965 advertisements. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t give us any clue about who the … Continue reading
Great Northern saw a decline in freight revenues but an increase in passenger revenues in 1961. Grain was and always had been Great Northern’s most important commodity, and a poor harvest in 1961 was responsible for most of the drop … Continue reading
The 1960 annual report represents a departure from previous reports in several ways. First, it is a bit smaller, being closer to 8-1/2-by-11 inches than the 9-by-12 format that had been used since 1940. Second, it has given up all … Continue reading
Starting in 1942, Great Northern’s annual reports had dedicated the centerfold pages to some specific theme: the latest Empire Builder, some industry or region, or some specific aspect of freight service. The 1959 report is something of a transition as … Continue reading
Unique among Great Northern’s annual reports, this one has a fold-out flap on the front cover. One side has a table of contents for the report while the other lists officers and directors. Click image to download a 16.6-MB PDF … Continue reading
Hayden, Stone was a securities firm that, after a series of mergers and acquisitions, is part of American Express today. This report appears to have been commissioned by the Great Northern to provide potential investors with an independent review of … Continue reading
In the mid-1950s, the trend was to turn boxcars into rolling billboards advertising the railroads that owned them. In 1956, Great Northern experimented with ten different paint schemes that were so bright they became known to employees as circus boxcars. … Continue reading
Someone has “photoshopped” a wide-angle image of a GN F7 on top of a photo of the west entrance to the Cascade Tunnel. I’m only an amateur graphics artist, but the image is almost painful for me to look at. … Continue reading