Articles

Proposed Reference Sheet
Ted Doyle

TRANSCONTINENTAL PASSENGER SERVICE 1886 — 1929

Early transcontinental passenger service offered by the Great Northern Railway is a story which parallels the growth of the Northwest. Starting in 1886, the St Paul, Minnesota & Manitoba Road offered connecting service to Puget Sound over the rails of the Canadian Pacific. The service between St. Paul and Vancouver, known as the Manitoba- Pacific Route, continued until July, 1893. In 1888, a second route to the west coast, called the Montana-Pacific Route, was opened via Butte and the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. However, Great Northern stopped promoting the route in l890. The St. P M &M portion of the route, known as the Montana Express, to Great Falls and Butte flourished. By 1892, direct service to Portland via the OR&N connection at Spokane was inaugurated.

Six months elapsed from the completion of Great Northern's line between Seattle and St Paul on January 7, 1893, and the commencement of transcontinental passenger service. The first train that left Seattle on June 18, 1893 carried no name and was simply known as numbers 3&4. In 1895, Great Northern began calling the train the Limited. The more familiar Great Northern Flyer name was applied in 1899, and the train was renumbered from 3&4 to 1&2 in 1903. The Great Northern Limited name was used briefly in 1905, until the renowned Oriental Limited name was adopted in December. In starting its transcontinental business, Great Northern faced stiff competition from the Canadian Pacific, Union Pacific and especially the Northern Pacific. To build traffic, Great Northern began an ambitious immigration program to populate its route.

The emigration program pursued by Great Northern was a success. By 1903, traffic and business warranted a second transcontinental train. The Puget Sound Express westbound and Eastern Express was added, assuming numbers 3 &4. GN changed the train's name three times in twelve years. In 1906, 3&4 became The Fast Mail; in 1910 they became The Oregonian; and finally in 1915 the name The Glacier Park Limited appeared, promoting its on line tourist attraction.

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition was held in Seattle in 1909. For the expected traffic, The Oriental Limited was refurbished and a third transcontinental train entered service, between Seattle and Kansas City via Shelby, Great Falls and Billings. The train to the Missouri Valley was initially called the Northwest Express westbound and The Southeast Express eastbound. The westbound's name was changed to The Great Northern Express within a few months. Although a third transcontinental line was completed in 1916 between Spokane and Vancouver, B. C., revenue passenger operations never operated over it.

BACKGROUND

The Manitoba Road was pushed westward along the banks of ten great rivers, across the great plains of Minnesota and North Dakota, through the Montana and Idaho Rockies, and then over the Washington’s Cascade mountains to Puget Sound and Seattle. According to Arthur Dubin:

" The nations most northerly railway, serving a sparsely populated territory and labeled "Hill’s Folly" by disbelievers was an immediate success. Every component was first rate. The longest tangents, easiest curves, heaviest rail, and finest equipment - Jim Hill would tolerate nothing less. Great Northern’s 1905 advertising proclaimed ‘To have a new way across America is itself a great achievement and it becomes doubly so when it is coupled with the fact that the way is the shortest, easiest and most interesting route across the continent. This is the case of the youngest and already one of the greatest transcontinental lines, The Great Northern Railway.’"

The Great Northern Railway was James J Hill's great adventure. Of all the lines reaching the Pacific, his was unique in receiving no federal subsidy or land grant and in never falling into receivership. Hill’s railroad was built without bribery, graft or chicanery. To build his line, Hill took his St. P. M. &M. where the traffic was - first up into the Red River and Manitoba wheat fields, then to the Dakota rangelands, later to Montana’s copper mines, to the timber forests of the Pacific slope and finally to the Pacific ports. Hill stressed attracting settlers and emphasized economical passenger transportation. To Hill and the Great Northern, colonization was the key to expansion. Hill built the railway first, then put his energy into creating traffic for his trains. The "pay as you go" philosophy shows through at every step. He built, paused to let traffic grow, then reinvested the profits in new lines. The success of this plan for rapid expansion depended upon quick and sound colonization. In addition to populating the Northwest, what really mattered was that GN had the best route between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound. GN embarked on a program to upgrade its mainline. With lower operating costs and faster passenger schedules Great Northern prospered and avoided bankruptcy. By 1901, it was able to purchase the NP and CBQ.

LINES WEST

Great Northern’s early timetables refer to three lines: the Montana line, the Oregon line, and the Washington line.