Articles

Proposed Reference Sheet
Ted Doyle

In December, 1905, the Oriental Limited , was inaugurated as Great Northern's flagship on a 60 hour schedule westbound, and 64 hour eastbound schedule over the 1,814 miles between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound. In 1906, GN acquired its first Atlantics and Pacifics. The Pacifics powered the Oriental Limited across the more difficult Cascades and Rockies while the 4-6-0s and 4-4-2s were used on the more level divisions. With the Oriental, the GN had a train to match the NP’s North Coast Limited in style and features.

After becoming the first U.S. railroad to serve the Orient in 1896, Great Northern’ traffic grew and the railway completed its docks at Smith's Cove in 1903. Steamships and trade with the Orient continued to be one Great Northern’s sources of traffic and the train’s new name stressed this connection. The Oriental Limited fulfilled Hill's dream of direct rail-water connections between the Middle West and the ports of the Far East. The Steamships. MINNESOTA and DAKOTA were both placed in service in 1905, the year the Oriental was originated, and both called Seattle their home port. These ships, and the NYK arrangement, firmly established Great Northern in the far-east trade.

In 1909 Seattle hosted a World's Fair; The Alaskan-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition. It ran from the first week of June until the third week of October drawing four million visitors. Hill actively supported the fair and spoke at opening ceremony.

The Oriental Limited was re-equipped for Exibition. The reequipped train’s consist continued to include a baggage-mail-express car, day coaches, tourist sleeping car, smoking car, dining car, standard sleepers, and the library-compartment observation car between St-Paul and Seattle. The cars were electrically-lighted, replacing the gas lamps. GN also began making made a distinction between day coaches which were carried Seattle- St Paul run and the reclining chair cars that were being carried between Spokane and Portland. The smoking cars appeared to been another type of coach. For the 1909 train twenty H-4 Pacifics, with a tractive effort of 35,690 lbs arrived. On May 23, 1909 the Oriental Limited’s route was extended to Chicago over the rails of CB&Q, two years before the North Coast Limited’s route was extended in 1911. The new schedule was faster eastbound and slower westbound than 1905. Additional upgrades and newer equipment continued over the next decade, until the First World War. The first Mountain type locomotives, class P-1, with a huge 60,900 lbs tractive effort arrived in 1914 and were intended for Marias Pass and the Cascades.

After the USRA era, a refurbrished steel-sheathed Oriental Limited was added in 1922 when Pullman took over sleeping car operations. In 1924 Pullman furnished a completely new luxurious Oriental Limited which was proclaimed an "Aristrocrat of the Rails". The Oriental remained Great Northern’s flagship until 1929 when the Empire Builder was introduced.