Great Northern Railway (U.S.)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Great Northern Railway | |
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 Great Northern route map circa 1920. Red lines are GN; dotted lines are other railroads. |
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| Reporting marks | GN |
| Locale | St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington |
| Dates of operation | c. 1890 – 1970 |
| Successor line | Burlington Northern |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | St. Paul, Minnesota |
The Great Northern Railway (AAR reporting marks GN), running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington — more than 1,700 miles (2,736 km) — was the creation of the 19th century railroad tycoon James J. Hill and was developed from the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The GN route was the most northern transcontinental railroad route in the United States and was north of the Northern Pacific route. The GN was a privately funded transcontinental railroad, refusing federal government subsidies for construction (though some of its predecessor roads received land grants). The GN was the single transcontinental railroad avoiding receivership during the 1893-1897 depression.
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[edit] History
The GN was built slowly to prolong exposure for local farmers, cattle drivers, lumberjacks, etc. Contests were held to promote interest in the railroad. J.J. Hill used early promotional incentives like feed and seed donations to farmers getting started along the line. Contests were all-inclusive, from largest farm animals to largest freight carload capacity.
The GN had branches that ran north to the Canadian border in Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. It also had branches that ran to Superior, Wisconsin and Butte, Montana. The GN eventually grew to a system of over 8,000 track miles.
The GN mainline crossed the Mississippi River on the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis, near the Saint Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi. The bridge ceased to be used as a railroad bridge in 1978 and is now used as a pedestrian river crossing with excellent views of the falls and of the lock system used to grant barges access up the river past the falls. The GN mainline reached Puget Sound at Seattle in 1893.
In 1931 the GN also developed its "Inside Gateway" route to California that rivaled Southern Pacific's route between Oregon and California. The GN route was further east than the SP route and ran south from the Columbia River in Oregon. The GN connected with the Western Pacific at Bieber, California; the Western Pacific connected with the Santa Fe Railroad in Stockton, California and together the three railroads (GN, WP, and ATSF) competed with Southern Pacific for traffic between the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest.
In 1970 the GN became part of the Burlington Northern Railroad in a merger. The GN's routes are now owned by BNSF Railway, which uses paint schemes partly inspired by those of the GN.
[edit] Passenger service
The Great Northern operated various passenger trains but the Empire Builder was the GN's premier passenger train. The Empire Builder was named in honor of Great Northern's railroad tycoon founder James Hill, who was considered an "Empire Builder".
[edit] Named trains
- Empire Builder Chicago-St. Paul-Seattle-Portland
- Western Star Chicago-St. Paul-Seattle-Portland
- Dakotan St. Paul-Minot
- Winnipeg Limited St. Paul-Winnipeg
- Red River Grand Forks-St. Paul
- Gopher St. Paul-Superior/Duluth
- Badger St. Paul-Superior/Duluth
- Internationals Seattle-Vancouver, B.C.
- Cascadian Seattle - Spokane
- Oriental Limited Chicago-St. Paul-Seattle
[edit] Unnamed trains
RDC Great Falls-Shelby, Great Falls-Billings, Great Falls-Butte
- Seattle-Portland
[edit] Amtrak's Empire Builder
Today, Amtrak's Empire Builder uses the line, running mostly on ex-GN trackage (between the Twin Cities terminal and St. Cloud, Minnesota; Moorhead, Minnesota and Sandpoint, Idaho, and between Spokane, Washington and Seattle.
[edit] Further reading
- Sobel, Robert (1974). "Chapter 4: James J. Hill", The Entrepreneurs: Explorations within the American business tradition. Weybright & Talley. ISBN 0-679-40064-8.
- Wilson, Jeff (2000). Great Northern Railway in the Pacific Northwest (Golden Years of Railroading). Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0-89024-420-0.
- Hidy, Ralph W.; Muriel E. Hidy, Roy V. Scott, Don L. Hofsommer (2004). The Great Northern Railway: A History. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4429-2.
- Yenne, Bill (2005). Great Northern Empire Builder. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI. ISBN 0-7603-1847-6.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Great Northern Railway Historical Society
- The Great Northern Empire — Then and Now
- Great Northern Railway Page
- Great Northern Railway Post Office Car No. 42 — photographs and short history of one of six streamlined baggage-mail cars built for the Great Northern by the American Car and Foundry Company in 1950.
- Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading in the Days of the Caboose, written by former brakeman, conductor and trainmaster William J. Brotherton
- Great Northern Railway route map (1920)
- University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collections:
- Lee Pickett Photographs Over 900 photographs documenting scenes from Snohomish, King and Chelan Counties in Washington state from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Includes images of the Great Northern Railway.
- Transportation Photographs An ongoing digital collection of photographs depicting various modes of transportation in the Pacific Northwest region and Western United States during the first half of the 20th century. Includes images of the Great Northern Railway.
| Current (operating) Class I railroads of North America |
|---|
| United States: AMTK, BNSF, CSXT, GTW, KCS, NS, SOO, UP - Canada: CN, CP, VIA - Mexico: FXE, TFM, KCSM See also: List of USA/Canada/Mexico Class I Railroads, List of USA/Canadian Class II Railroads, Class III railroad, Class 2 Railroads in Canada, Short-line railroad, List of United States railroads, List of Canadian railroads, list of Mexican railroads |
