The Great Northern Archive is a collection of information about the Great Northern Railway, primarily during the streamlined era of 1947 to 1970. Highlights of this site include; A complete roster of GN's streamlined passenger car fleet, cross-referenced with photos from the Cordell Newby collection at the joint GN/NP archive, GN accident reports, the 3D GN passenger car modeling project, photos and videos, and more — see more features in the sidebar.
Introducing the Interactive Great Northern system map showing Great Northern's lines active in 1957, plus past abandonments and post-1957 line changes and additions. Clicking on each line segment reveals embedded information from 1957 employee timetables, and other sources, about that segment. Background layers include simple gray, modern OpenStreet map, and topographical relief. Includes a finding tool to locate any of the 2,100+ locations on the GN.
This is a "Beta" release — additions and corrections will be added continuously.
Interactive map showing the information from the Great Northern's document of GN's and predecessor roads' construction progress from 1862 to 1968.
Full-scale Empire Builder lettering PDF files
Page for viewing and downloading full-scale PDF files of Great Northern's Empire Builder style lettering that are produced for lettering applications on prototype Great Northern cars under restoration. The styles and sizes produced here are specifically for the various applications of lettering used on GN passenger cars and locomotives. Included are instructions for lettering dimensions and placement.
The source information for these files includes original Pullman, Great Northern and ACF drawings from the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society Gale Family Library, Great Northern Railway Historical Society, Newberry Library (Chicago) and private collections.
Here's your one-stop resource for exploring the various consists of Great Northern's post-war streamlined Empire Builder and Western Star, compiled from GN consist and equipment diagrams
— with additional data compiled from many other sources.
Mid-Century Empire Builder brochure
The Great Northern produced this brochure in 1949 to publicize the launch of its all-new "Mid-Century" Empire Builder in June, 1951. The Builder had been equipped with all-new streamlined cars just three years earlier, and the new train had proved to be more popular than anticipated — especially for the sleeping car accommodations. Rather than buying more sleeping cars, the GN took the bold initiative to revamp the Builder with new cars, and utilize the additional cars to re-equip their secondary transcontinental train, the Oriental Limited, which would be rechristened as the Western Star. This gave the GN a big competitive edge offering twice-daily streamliner service from Chicago to Seattle/Portland.
Click the cover below to view brochure...
The 'Jersey Builder'
Photos taken by Martin Evoy in 1975-76
Here is a treasure trove of detail photos taken by Martin Evoy III of the former GN coaches that were sold to New Jersey DOT in 1973 for suburban New Jersey commuter service. The cars consisted of six ACF 44-Seat coaches (ex GN, exx UP), four ACF 60-seat coaches, and 25 P-S 48-seat coaches. GN car numbers and details are in the captions. To the photos and roster
Trainmen's Instruction Book - 1950
This GN publication was for Trainmen to instruct in use and operation of equipment in passenger cars such as heating and cooling systems, lighting and signaling.
Click on the cover to see the contents.
More details on the Buelow accident
Additional materials have become available to share (Thanks to Bob Anderson) from the puzzling 1966 head-on collision of the Western Star and Empire Builder at Buelow, Montana, including the ICC report. The mystery remains as to why veteran engineer Barney Runyan passed stop signal indications and ran into the path of the Empire Builder.
GNRHS convention excursion
Aboard the July, 2015 "Earl Currie Limited" pulled by BN SD9 6234 from Osceola Wisc. to Withrow Minn. one way and by GN SD45 "Huscle Muscle" back to Osceola.
Another wreck mystery
Looking for info on the circumstances surrounding this wreck of a GN train in ND, Minnesota or Wisconsin in what looks like the late 1800's or early 1900s....
'50s promo film for Big Mountain
The Empire Builder makes a brief appearance at minute 20:00 in this fifties promo film produced by the GN for the Big Mountain ski resort in Whitefish. Plenty of Mid-Century style!
Along the Columbia River - in HD
This footage was shot from the rear of Amtrak's Portland section of the Empire Builder in July 2010. The video has been reversed and sped up 2X to give a "Cab ride" perspective.
Barriger Library GN photos
There is a veritable treasure trove of 1,300+ GN photos from the John W. Barriger library, now posted on Flickr.
The GN Archive staff took a few days off for a trip to Seattle, then east on the Empire Buider to Essex, Mont. for a 3-day stay at the Izaak Walton Inn. Then back on the Builder for the trip to Minneapolis for a flight home to the GN Archive HQ in Philadelphia.
Steam, diesel and electric make appearances in this GN safety film, Why Risk Your Life?
The film dates from the late forties.
Empire Builder consist - 1955
New to the archives is a blueprit from August, 1955 illustrating the Empire Builder's consist in detail.Click on the image below to view the whole document.
Must see: web site Streamliner Memories has several GN-related pages of interest:
These photos were sent to GN Archive by a reader hoping to find more information about them. The photos come from her grandfather, who worked for the GN as an engineer out of Devil's Lake, N.D.
(Click on the photos for larger images)
The engine is P-2 Mountain #2524, and the derailment happened in cold weather — there is snow on the ground. There also appears to be the end of a clerestory-roofed passenger car in the background.
The 2524 was involved in an accident at Walden, N.D. in 1954, but was on the head end of a 22-car freight and was not derailed, according to the accident report.
Over on YouTube, there is this great trove of 8mm color films by Dave Wilkie, and many have clips of GN diesels and electrics, the Empire Builder, a run on GN's only RDC between Butte and Helena and the Internationals. Click here for a selection of the GN-related videos, and link to many more interesting video by Mr. Wilkie of the NP, SP&S and Milwaukee Road around Seattle.
16-4 sleeper Agassiz Glacier - On display in Douglas, Wyoming
Built by Pullman for the 1950 Western Star, Agassiz Glacier was one of an order for eight 16-4 sleepers numbered 1181 through 1188. They were named; Kintla, Agassiz, Hudson, Chaney, Paradise, Pumpelly, Tahoma, and Two Ocean Glacier. Thanks to Paul Bernath for sharing his photos. See more photos »
Seattle Railroad Pictorial
Kurt Armbrister produced this video showing passenger trains in and around Seattle from the 50's to the 70's, including views of the Empire Builder and Internationals. Also many shots of NP, UP and Milwaukee action in the Puget Sound.And don't miss the shots of the mini-streamliner in GN colors at the Woodland Park Zoo at about 04:30 in the video!
Updates to the accidents pages
The Marysville, WA and Buelow, MT accident pages have been updated with additional info and photos.
An interesting side note to the circumstances of the #27 / #28 head-on in 1952 at Ft. Belknap, MT and the 1966 Empire Builder / Western Star head-on at Buelow, MT is that in both instances, Great Northern president John M. Budd's business car was at the end of the train, and he was uninjured in both accidents.
Essex Montana video
The gnarchive staff had the pleasure of spending 3 nights at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex in July, 2010, and shot this video of trains in and around Essex.
Staying at the Izaak Walton Inn is a must-do trip for GN aficionados, and with the added bonus of BNSF's switch to GN's orange and green colors, it's easy (OK - with the help of a beer or two in fading daylight) to imagine how Essex might have looked in the mid-50's.
"Cab ride" videos
The staff of gnarchive.com had the opportunity to shoot video out the back of the eastbound Empire Builder between Portland and Essex, Mont. These clips have been reversed, and sped up, to give the effect of a high-speed cab ride (Also to conserve bandwidth and make the video a reasonable length).
Columbia River gorge from Roosevelt, Wash. to Portland, Ore.
Tom Biery sends this account of riding the Empire Builder in the summer of 1964 at the tender age of 15 — on his own, just for the ride. He took many photos and provided a traveloue of his adventures.
This was the summer that the GN suffered major diruptions along its line around Glacier National Park in northern Montana as spring thaws combined with days of rain caused flooding and many washouts between East Glacier and Whitefish. The GN detoured its trains vis Great Falls and on to the NP mainline through Missoula, regaining GN rails at Sandpoint, Idaho.
This photo by J.L. Hickey of an ex-GN NW-5 shell at a scrapyard in Council Bluffs, Iowa caught my eye on Trainorders.com, and Mr. Hickey posed an interesting question...
...the ex-GN and BN NW-5 used for a short time by CBRY (Council Bluffs Ry.), all the carbody above the running board, resting on top of another boxcar. Seems kind of a shame, would an old GP-7 underframe with maybe switcher innards fit beneath this carbody? Or I wonder if a certain museum in Duluth, MN could use some extra body parts...
...maybe somebody will see where it is and come to its rescue! The last place I saw these in service was at Minneapolis Jct. enginehouse in 1980, when I was in BN engine training in St. Paul.... I think four of these ended up on Colorado & Eastern in Goodland, KS, and in 1982, Great Western Railway in Loveland, CO acquired two of them.... At a later date, I looked around Goodland, KS, and in the weeds sat two other partially disassembled NW-5's. Though it was worn out from the heavy transfer service in the Twin Cities and breakdown-prone, 994 disappeared from Loveland, presumably to start its last career, on CBRY. Several years later, the other one that sat behind the roundhouse in Loveland was hauled away to go up to Duluth and was the one restored so lovingly - it looks great!
— J.L. Hickey
1947 Science Illustrated
This striking cover illustration from the April, 1947 issue of Science Illustrated has to be one of the best illustations of a diesel locomotive in its time, and happens to showcase a GN E-7. The artwork really shows how the luminous new technology emerged from the soot and black steel of the steam era into the bright post-war future. Sure, the details of the E-7 are very stylized, but the artist really captured the luminous glossy finish of the bright Omaha orange and Pullman green diesel at the moment of its completion, ready to sprint out of the EMD stable into the light.
Streamlined passenger car roster updates
Photos from the Newby collection have been cross-linked to their entries (where available or identifiable) on the Streamlined Cars Roster page »
The primary focus of this site is the streamlined passenger trains of the Great Northern Railway, with a focus on their premier train, the post-war Empire Builder in the years 1947 to 1970.
This site contains details about streamlined passenger car construction and history in general, with detailed drawings showing the differences between otherwise "standard" design cars produced by Budd, Pullman and American Car & Foundry (ACF).
An example is a typical GN coach of the 1100 series, the 1121, a 48-seat day/night coach built in 1947 by Pullman-Standard for the inaugural Empire Builder.
The Great Northern Railway Historical Society had already published a detailed reference sheet by Martin Evoy about the 1100 series coaches, so there was ample material to start from.
Adding another dimension
I started using a 3D drawing program at work several years ago and realized the advantages of the detail and view possibilities available by adding another dimension to a drawing.
Orange and Green lives on! 
Video of ex-GN dome 
This photo by J.L. Hickey of an ex-GN NW-5 shell at a scrapyard in Council Bluffs, Iowa caught my eye on Trainorders.com, and Mr. Hickey posed an interesting question...
