The Great Northern Railway Through Time

The Great Northern Railway Through Time takes us on a tour of the American Northwest―the last American frontier―from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington. The Great Northern opened up the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, the dramatic Cascade Mountains of Washington and the Continental Divide at Marias Pass. President James J. Hill intended the Great Northern to be a freight hauling road, but tourists riding on the GN's premier passenger train, The Empire Builder were delighted by the prairie, the farmland, the Big Sky Country, the mountains, and Glacier National Park. The G.N.'s reputation grew. Today, Amtrak's Empire Builder traverses the same territory. The Great Northern Railway Through Time presents photos taken over the course of seventy five years by photographers of the era. The author has provided ample photo captions pointing out features that have changed over the years and features that have ​stayed the same. The early photos are fresh―never before published. The more recent shots were made by twenty of America's finest rail enthusiast photographers.

The Great Northern Railway highlights the changes brought on by economic, political, social, and technological advances, including world wars and tighter government restrictions. Illustrated with more than two hundred maps, period photographs, and drawings, the volume also includes appendixes listing the original track-laying history, track removals, ruling grades on main freight routes, and main line ruling grades from Minneapolis to Seattle.

“A simply fascinating and impressively informative illustrated history” of the British steam railway by the author of The Leicester Gap (Midwest Book Review). The Great Northern Railway was one of 120 companies that ran trains in Britain during the Victorian and Edwardian period. Formed in 1846, it traded independently for seventy-six years until absorbed into the London & North Eastern Railway on 1 January 1923. Operating a network of nearly 700 route miles it ran trains between King’s Cross, London and York, into the Eastern Counties and the East Midlands, the West Riding of Yorkshire, into Lancashire and even south of the Thames. It developed distinctive characteristics, both in the way it managed its affairs and in the appearance of its trains, stations, signals and signalboxes. Numerous photographs were taken, particularly from the 1890s onwards, by dedicated amateurs attracted to the lineside by the sight of speeding steam locomotives in apple green livery, hauling polished teak carriages. Goods trains and the endless procession of coal trains were not such popular photographic subjects, but by searching out these and images of staff, stations and signalboxes, this book aims to capture something of the spirit of a once-great organization in the heyday of Britain’s steam railways. “With the welcome increase in the pre-Grouping scene engendered by projects such as the Hatton’s ‘Genesis’ coaches, books such as this will find a new audience, which is no bad thing.” —Railway Modeller “Vanns certainly presents a splendid collection of period images displaying numerous aspects of the railway’s operations.” —Best of British

Steph Gillett documents the history of this fascinating line, marking the sixtieth anniversary since its closure.

The Great Northern Railway (GN) main line stretched 1,700 miles from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, and was the most northern transcontinental railroad in the United States. In addition, GN branch lines stretched north from the Twin Cities to Superior and the Minnesota Iron Ore Range, and from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Winnipeg, Manitoba; through Montana to Great Falls, Helena and Butte, and from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia. Other popular Great Northern passenger trains were the Badger-Gopher (St. Paul-Superior-Duluth), Dakotan (St. Paul-Minot), Cascadian (Seattle-Spokane), Red River (St. Paul-Grand Forks), Internationals (Seattle-Vancouver) and Winnipeg Limited (St. Paul-Winnipeg). Historic images include 4-4-0 steam locomotive William Crooks, the first steam locomotive to operate in Minnesota. Like other railroads, Great Northern purchased diesel locomotives from Electro-Motive Division consisting of the FT, F3, F7 and E7. Later models were U25B, U28B, U33C, SDP40, SDP45 and the first SD45 named “Hustle Muscle.” Also pictured are boxcab Z-1, Y-1 and W-1 electric locomotives.

Profiting from the Plains looks at two inextricably linked historical movements in the United States: the westward expansion of the great Northern Railway and the agricultural development of the northern plains. Claire Strom explores the persistent, idiosyncratic attempts by the Great Northern to boost agricultural production along its rail routes from St. Paul to Seattle between 1878 and 1917. Lacking a federal land grant, the Great Northern could not make money through land sales like other railways. It had to rely on haulage to make a profit, and the greatest potential for increasing haulage lay in farming. The energetic and charismatic owner of the Great Northern Railway, James J. Hill, spearheaded most of the initiatives undertaken by his corporation to boost agricultural production. He tried, often unsuccessfully, to persuade farmers of the profitability of his methods, which were largely based on his personal farming experience. When Hill�s initial efforts to increase haulage failed, he shifted his focus to working with outside agencies and institutions, often providing them with the funding to pursue projects he hoped would profit his railroad. At the time, state and federal agencies were also promoting agricultural development through irrigation, conservation, and dryland farming, but their agendas often clashed with those of the Great Northern Railway. Because Hill failed to grasp the extent to which politicians� goals differed from those of the railroad, his use of federal expertise to promote agricultural change often backfired. But despite these obstacles, the railroad magnate ironically remained among the last defenders of the small-scale farmer modeled on Jeffersonian idealism. This fascinating story of railroad politics and development ties into themes of corporate and federal sponsorship, which are increasingly recognized as fundamental to western history. As the first scholarly examination of James J. Hill�s agricultural enterprises, Profiting from the Plains makes an important contribution to the biography of the popular and controversial Hill, as well as to western and environmental history.

John Christopher brings together his stunning photography with archive images to tell the story of King's Cross, both above and below street level.

A large federal cash subsidy aided CPR construction of the Crows Nest Pass Railway from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Nelson, British Columbia. The line, completed in late 1898, was designed to en-courage mining and smelting in the Kootenays and to link this region with Central Canada. From 1989 to 1914 the Great Northern Railroad in the United States also built lines into southern British Columbia to tap this valuable mining traffic. The CPR completed a line to Vancouver in 1915, by which time it dominated the regional traffic. However, it still faced competition for this traffic from the Great Northern which had allied itself with the Canadian Northern Railway. John Eagle examines the lengthy and bitter conflict which resulted between the two railways. Eagle provides the first scholarly analysis of the Crows Nest Pass Agreement of 1897. Under this historic agreement, the CPR stimulated prairie agriculture by lowering its freight rates on grain, matching both the lower rates of the Canadian Northern on grain and the rates on wheat established under the Manitoba Agreement of 1901. The development of southern British Columbia also opened a new market for prairie grain and cattle. The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada challenges the prevailing view that CPR land policies were designed primarily to promote settlement in order to generate traffic for the railway. Eagle argues that the railway adopted policies which maximized profits from its agricultural lands so that proceeds from prairie land sales became an important source of revenue for the company.