Articles

Proposed Reference Sheet
Ted Doyle

Increasing population along the line caused a boom in Great Northern’s traffic with passengers, immigrants, iron ore, grain, cattle, apples, and lumber all increasing. In 1899, a second train, numbers 7&8, was added between St Paul and Havre. Initially it carried only day coaches but by 1903 it was offering a buffet and tourist sleepers. In 1903, growing maritime commerce through Puget Sound ports generated sufficient traffic and business in both directions to warrant a second transcontinental train. The Puget Sound Express westbound and Eastern Express was added, assuming numbers 3 &4. A general train renumbering occuyred in 1903, the Flyer became numbers 1 & 2, and numbers 7&8 were assigned to the overnight Winnipeg train.

GN changed the train's name four times in twelve years. In 1906, 3&4 became The Fast Mail , in 1910 it became The Oregonian, and finally in 1914 in was renamed The Glacier Park Limited. The new Puget Sound /Eastern Express ran as the companion train to the Great Northern Flyer, providing service to the principal cities half a day apart. The Expresses offered evening departures from St. Paul and Seattle. Numbers 3&4 connected with trains 153/154 at Havre for the Butte connections.

In 1904 the Great Northern Flyer carried numbers 1&4 and the Express carried numbers 2 & 3

On the east end, the Puget Sound /Eastern Express extended transcontinental service to Breckenridge, and Willmar. North of Fargo, the train followed the new line, built in 1903, between Casselton, Mayville and joining the mainline at Larimore. The Flyer continued to operate via St Cloud, Grand Forks, and Devil’s lake.

Advertisements announcing the train stated that the trains had all new equipment. In February 1904, ten additional E-8 speedsters were acquired. Like the earlier group, numbers 1060-1069, had 73" drivers and a tractive effort of 23,540 lbs. Great Northern stated that it now operated two first class transcontinental passenger trains over its routes to the Northwest. Lettering for both trains was identical and equipment was interchangeable.

Great Northern, however, continued to have problems crossing the Cascades. In 1903 more than 100 of number four’s passengers were almost asphyxiated when a coupler broke, stalling the train in the tunnel.

In May 1906, the Puget Sound and Eastern Expresses became the Fast Mail. The Fast Mail was a popular song in 1890 and as noted previously, the naming of passenger trains was a gimmick of advertising people of the period. The Fast Mail, like the Expresses was a complete first class train with coaches, sleepers, smoking and dining cars. However an observation was not carried. For clarification, trains number 27 & 28 commenced operation on October 4, 1909, and were known as mail trains on the Great Northern, carrying no passengers. In 1910, when the Fast Mail was renamed the Oregonian, GN employees began calling No 27 & 28 the Fast Mail.

In 1906, GN acquired 35 H-2 Pacifics with 69" drivers and 33,090 lbs tractive effort. These were the most powerful passenger locomotives to date. 50 class J-1 were also acquired for dual service and were used on the Fast Mail and the Oriental Limited. Both the J-1 and H-2 each had a couple of locomotives fitted with a superheater as an experiment. Both shared the same tractive effort and many of the same details.

In 1907, GN built a new line from Casselton to Atena where it joined the mainline. The Fast Mail followed this route, in both directions while the Oriental Limited traveled via Grand Forks.

Problems in the Cascades continued. In December 1907, Pacific 1438 pulled train #4 out of Skykomish and was caught in the tunnel by two avalanches, one ahead and one behind. On February 22, 1910, local train #25 and mail train #27, neither of which carried a diner, were stuck by a blizzard at Wellington. The storm intensified stranding the trains for eight days. On March 1, 1910 they were destroyed by avalanches, with a loss of 98 lives. Great Northern was extremely sensitive to the unfavorable publicity generated by this disaster. Shortly after the accident, the town of Wellington was renamed Tye and subsequent Great Northern advertising noted that Great Northern no longer routed its trains through Wellington, having relocated its line through the town of Tye. Although it was mail train number 27, not the Fast Mail, number three, which was involved in the wreck, the public made no distinction. By July, because of the unfavorable publicity generated by the Wellington wreck, the name was withdrawn and did not appear in public time tables again until the 1930’s.

Transcontinental connections to Portland via the OR&N were offered until 1909. On May 3, 1909, SP&S started service from Portland to Spokane. The initial 1909 SP&S route used NP trackage from Marshall to the NP station in Spokane. The GN Portland connection at Spokane shifted from the UP station which was north of its Havermale Island depot to the NP station which was south of Havermale Island. The long awaited SP&S/GN connection became a reality in June 1910 when the tunnel under the Greenwood Cemetery near Ft. Wright was finished. The first SP&S train from GN Depot operated on June 5, 1910. Number 3&4's name was changed from the Fast Mail to the Oregonian on July 3, 1910. The Oregonian provided direct service to Portland with sleeping cars cut out at Spokane for Seattle and carried on GN locals #25 & #26. The operation was opposite to Oriental, whose Portland sleepers were cut out for transfer to the SP&S. The through St Paul-Portland service lasted until mid-1911 when it was routed to Seattle and Portland cars were cutoff at Spokane. As noted above, another factor in renaming the train was probably the Wellington Disaster in March, 1910.

After 1912, when the shorter Surrey cutoff was completed, the Oregonian and Oriental both used this line. The Oriental traveled through Grand Forks westbound and New Rockford east bound. The Oregonian went through Grand Forks eastbound and New Rockford westbound. The Willmar line was longer than the St. Cloud and was combined with the Surrey Cutoff. Because of their respective schedules, the Oregonian carried more sleepers westbound and the Oriental carried more eastbound. The Oregonian offered an observation only between Seattle and Spokane. After the Oregonian’s name was changed to the Glacier Park Limited, the pattern of alternating routes through North Dakota and Minnesota continued until 1931 when numbers 3 & 4 ceased to operate as a transcontinental train.

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The Glacier Park Limited was inaugurated on April 25, 1915 to promote its online scenic attraction as a tourist destination. Since the Park’s opening in 1910, Great Northern's advertising stressed the Glacier Park's unequaled scenery and easy access to Glacier National Park. The railway realized that its transpacific freight routes were secure and far more revenue would be generated by travel to Glacier Park than to the Orient.

To attract tourist business, compartment observation cars were carried between Seattle and Spokane in the summer months. Open observation cars were added for the runs through the Cascades and around the south edge of Glacier Park. The number of sleeping cars varied with the season and direction of travel. Its scheduled times through the major cities meant that more sleepers were carried eastbound. Since both the Oriental Limited and Glacier Park Limited carried identical gold leaf lettering reading Great Northern, the equipment was interchangeable. Pullman operation of sleeping cars on the transcontinental Glacier Park Limited was instituted in 1922.

The growing Northwest was generating express traffic for eastern markets. Express reefers often carried eastbound for N. W. fruit produce and Alaskan salmon. Between May 26, 1918 and May 30, 1920, when the Great Northern was governed by the United States Railway Administration, the Glacier Park Limited was not operated.