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Great Northern October 1952 Timetable

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 19, 2023

Great Northern gave up on using E7 locomotives for its transcontinental trains in 1950, replacing them with F3s and F7s while consigning the E7s to non-mountainous trains such as the International and Red River. In early 1950, GN timetable covers still showed an E7 next to an F3, but by the time the streamlined Western Star replaced the Oriental Limited, the covers showed two F3s as shown here.

Click image to download a 26.0-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable.

Great Northern was not the only railroad to be disappointed in E units for mountain service. The Santa Fe, which had purchased E units before the war for the Super Chief and El Capitan, only purchased F units after the war. Southern Pacific, which operated many trains on relatively flat ground as well as in the mountains, bought a handful of E7s and E9s, but also had hundreds of F units. Continue reading →

Great Northern 1951 Ticket Envelope

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 17, 2023

Most ticket envelopes are pretty ho-hum, but this one stands out. For one thing, what looks like a mailing label on the front is actually a cellophane window with pictures of the Empire Builder and Western Star locomotives printed on the inside, a little Easter egg for passengers to find when they remove their tickets from the envelope.

Click image to download a 719-KB PDF of this ticket envelope.

The envelope also features pictures of mountains in Glacier Park and images of a skier, horseback rider, Blackfeet Indian, and fly fisherman — all things people would see if they visited GN’s hotels in and around the park. The other side has a map of the GN through which you can faintly see the pictures of the locomotives. Continue reading →

Great Northern January 1949 Timetable

Posted on September 22, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 24, 2023

When Great Northern introduced its streamlined Empire Builder in 1947, it used five pairs of E7 locomotives to haul the five twelve-car train. These were illustrated by five locomotive noses on the 1947 timetables. The old heavyweight Empire Builder consists became the revived Oriental Limited, and the steam locomotives used to pull this train were soon replaced by F3 Diesels.

Click image to download a 24.9-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable. Update: Cover fixed.

The cover of this 1949 timetable illustrates this contrast but does so in a slightly confusing way. The E7 locomotive, notable for having its goat logo over an orange background, is shown over the words “Oriental Limited” while the F3 locomotive, whose goat logo was on a green field, is over the words “the Streamlined Empire Builder.” As of 1949, the reverse was true: the Empire Builder was still pulled by E7s and the Oriental Limited was powered by F3s. Continue reading →

Stop off at Glacier National Park

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 17, 2023

Passengers on Great Northern trains were allowed to stopover at Glacier National Park at no extra rail fare, at least when this booklet was issued. The booklet briefly describes one- to seven-day tours people could take in the park, but unfortunately does not list the prices of each tour.

Click image to download a 2.0-MB PDF of this 8-page booklet.

The booklet doesn’t have a date but offers a few clues about when it was issued. First, it lists GN agents including A.J. Dickerson as passenger traffic manager and E.H. Wilde as general passenger agent. These two held those positions from about 1928 to 1937, after which Wilde was replaced by someone else. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough GN timetables from the 1930s to compare the other agents’ names. Continue reading →

Columbia River Special Astor Medal

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Train LoverOctober 16, 2023

We’ve previously seen a photo of one of the replicas of an Astor medal that I found on line. I’ve since acquired my own copy of one of these replicas and the photos here are much clearer.

Click image for a 2.3-MB PDF of the front and back of this medal.

The original Astor medals were made in about 1832 for members of the American Fur Company working in the upper Missouri River to give as gifts to Native Americans. Only seven medals are known to exist today; five are in museums and two are in private hands, one of which has sold for more than $200,000. Continue reading →

GN’s Replica Verendrye Tablet

Posted on September 19, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 18, 2023

In 1743, French explorers from Quebec reached a point near what is now Pierre, South Dakota and buried a lead plate on a hill to claim the land for France. One hundred and seventy years later, three children playing on the hill uncovered the plate. The plate quickly reached South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson, the man who later conceived the idea of sculpting various historic characters on Mount Rushmore.

Click image to download a 730-KB PDF of this replica of the Verendrye tablet.

In 1925, when Great Northern held the Upper Missouri Historical Expedition, the railway made several hundred miniature replicas to hand out to everyone who went on the trip. I previously showed images of this plate, but have since acquired one of my own. Presenting it here gives me a chance to correct several errors in previous posts. Continue reading →

Upper Missouri Historical Expedition Pin

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 17, 2023

Members of Great Northern’s 1925 Upper Missouri Historical Expedition apparently received a pin such as this one to wear during the trip. It probably made it easier to identify who was and who was not a member of the expedition and thus entitled to reboard the train after each event along the way.

Click image to download a 330-KB PDF of this pin.

The back of the pin says it was made by the Western Badge & Novelty Co., John A. (for Apollonarius) Lethert, president, located at 397 Wabasha Avenue in St. Paul. Lethert founded the company in 1904 and it continued to operate until at least 1976. A building at 397 Wabasha no longer exists, but it was very close to the Wabasha Caves, which were apparently used as a casino and tavern during Prohibition.

The New Pullman-Equipped Oriental Limited

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 21, 2023

As we’ve seen in the last few days, Great Northern engaged in a major public relations campaign when it inaugurated the new Oriental Limited, a nearly-all-steel train, in 1924. We’ve previously seen two booklets issued about this train, and this one is a third. Although I’ve nominally dated them all from 1924, the GN continued to use the phrase, “New Oriental Limited” for several years, and it is unlikely that it would have issued all three booklets in the same year.

Click image to download a 16.8-MB PDF of this 30-page booklet whose cover is by Floyd Wilson.

The first booklet I presented has a painting of the train’s rear platform in a station, probably Minneapolis. The painting is signed “Conaughy,” which would be Clarence W. Conaughy (1885-1965), an illustrator who taught at the Minnesota Institute of Arts. The interior of the booklet is mainly text but with a number of mostly small, somewhat dark and muddy black-and-white photos showing the interiors and exteriors of the train. Continue reading →

A Travel Thought for You

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 16, 2023

After putting the New Oriental Limited into service on June 1, 1924, Great Northern sent a variety of promotional letters, cards and brochures to members of the public. We’ve already seen several of these including one claiming outright that it was the “finest trans-continental train in America.”

Click image to download a 378-KB PDF of this brochure.

This is one we haven’t yet seen but, like the others, it came from the Minnesota History Center. “Transcontinental journeys,” says the card, “require more thought and planning.” On such a journey, the “refinements of travel comfort” found on the New Oriental Limited “have their greatest appeal.” This particular card was printed for Great Northern’s agent in Seattle, while previous cards shown here were marked for agents in Detroit, Los Angeles, Portland, and San Francisco.

The Progress of Railroad Transportation

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 21, 2023

In addition to blotters, GN sent out brochures such as this one (which I found at the Minnesota History Center) inviting people to compare the railway’s new Oriental Limited with a vintage 1861 train consisting of the William Crooks, two coaches, and “a sleeping car of 1859, the oldest ‘Pullman’ in existence.”

Click image to download a 378-KB PDF of this brochure.

The 1859 sleeping car doesn’t appear in the photo shown on yesterday’s blotter, which pictured the Crooks, a baggage-coach, and a coach, the same as can be seen at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum today. As of 1859, George Pullman had not yet made a sleeping car from scratch, and there were plenty of other car manufacturers making sleeping cars including Case, Wagner, Woodruff, and others. Continue reading →