Leslie Ragan’s painting of the dome-laden Empire Builder wraps 1-1/4 inches around the back cover of the 1955 report. Incongruously, the rest of the back cover shows an iron ore strip mine in the Minnesota hills, no doubt on Great … Continue reading
This year’s front and back covers at least relate to one another, as the front shows the new Hillyard yard office at twilight while the back cover shows the view from inside the same office. The building is a modern … Continue reading
The cover photo of this report shows a machinist turning a wheel, an important job on a railroad but not one likely to bring a flutter to a potential investor’s heart. The photo wraps about 2-1/4-inches around the back cover, … Continue reading
The 1952 annual report has a wrap-around cover, but unlike the 1946 and 1951 reports, the photo only extends about 1-3/4 inches on the back cover. Still, I’m including a PDF of the full cover below. Click image to download … Continue reading
Ralph Budd’s son, John, became president of the Great Northern in May, 1951, so this is the first annual report that signed by him rather than Frank Gavin, who stayed on as chairman of the board. The wrap-around cover shows … Continue reading
After 1949’s boring cover photo, this one is particularly exciting, especially for passenger train fans. It shows the streamlined Internationals, which entered service in June of 1950. The two train sets built by American Car & Foundary would have passed … Continue reading
And the winner of the most boring cover photo on a Great Northern annual report in the 1940s is . . . 1949! Seriously, the bridge under construction in the photo could be anywhere; it could be a highway bridge. … Continue reading
The 1948 cover uses orange and green to depict the streamlined Empire Builder. It’s not four colors like the 1946 cover, but its better than just green and black, which is what the title page (page 3) uses to portray … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Departing from the black-and-white cover photos of the previous five years, the 1946 annual report introduces the streamlined Empire Builder with this gorgeous color cover, which wraps around to the back (see the full cover below). This is the same … Continue reading
