Articles

Proposed Reference Sheet
Ted Doyle

Two and one half years after the Montana Line had been completed, traffic had grown to the point that the western expansion could continue. February 1, 1890, the St Paul, Minneapolis, & Manitoba was leased to the Great Northern. On October 20, 1890, the Great Northern began the 815 mile Pacific extension from west of Havre, Montana, to Puget Sound. The first problem was getting over the towering Rockies. Based on his reading of early explorer’s reports, Hill felt that there had to be the right pass out there. Ever since the Lewis and Clark expedition, one had been rumored and Hill sent John F. Stevens to find it. On December 11, 1889 the obdurate Stevens reached his objective. Marias Pass, at an elevation of 5,215 feet is the lowest point on the continental divide from Canada south almost to Mexico. Less than two years later, on September 14, 1891, Great Northern’s rails reached the summit.

Local passenger service was offered on the Pacific extension as the Haskell Pass tunnel was being built. Great Northern began running trains No 3 & 4 through Kalispell on August 17, 1892. The consist included sleepers, day coaches, dining cars and free Colonist cars. Once passenger service was extended over the Pacific extension, service between Havre and Butte became trains 23 & 24. Both trains still carried the same equipment daily: sleepers, day coaches, dining cars and free Colonist cars. Train No. 23 met No 3 at Havre where the Butte and Great Falls sleepers were exchanged, and the reverse occurred as eastbound No 4 met No 24. Coach passengers walked across the platform.

As the Haskell Pass tunnel was being driven, GN track layers continued on the west slope reaching the Kootanai River at Jennings in 1891. Following the Kootanai through the Cabinate mountains to the Idaho panhandle, the line crossed into Washington at Newport. Turning south at Newport, it followed the Little Spokane River past Scotia Hill towards Spokane Falls. On June 1, 1892, the railway arrived at Spokane, coming down a one percent grade, from what was later called Hillyard, and used a portion of the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern right-a-way along the north bank of the Spokane River. By 1890, the OR&N had become the Pacific division of the UP, but was carrying traffic to Portland for the GN, & NP as well as the UP. GN had good relations with OR&N, using its ornate Spokane depot located on the north bank of the Spokane River between Howard and Division streets between 1892 and 1902. It was directly across the Spokane River from Havermale Island, the site of Great Northern’s terminal in later years. By 1892 time changed westbound at Minot, North Dakota, from Central to Mountain and at Troy, Montana, from Mountain to Pacific.

The OR&N connection at Spokane offered a 24 hour trip to Portland. Westbound GN Number 3 arrived in Spokane at 6 AM to connect with OR&N’s Number 6 which departed at 7 AM. Number 6 reached Pendleton, Oregon at 6:50 PM where it connected with westbound train No 1, the Pacific Express. Number 1 arrived in Portland Union Depot at 7:25 AM the following morning Eastbound, the Atlantic Express, train number 2, departed Portland at 7:30 PM, reaching Pendleton at 5:42 AM. There, connects were made with No 5 which arrived in Spokane at 7:15 PM. GN’s number 4 left for St Paul 15 minutes later at 7:30 PM. The scheduled through time between St. Paul and Portland in 1892 was 84 hours. The N.P. by this time had terminated its OR&N connection, routing its trains from St. Paul via Tacoma to Portland, with a running time of 101 hours, or 17 hours longer than GN.