Great Northern’s heavyweight Empire Builder, 1929-c1939

 

Fred Klein, 2010, 2016

The Great Northern refurbished its premier Oriental Limited train in 1929, and named it the Empire Builder in honor of James J. Hill, known as the empire builder for his role in founding a railroad that aided in the development of the northwest United States. The EB operated between Chicago and Seattle (Tacoma), with the Chicago Burlington and Quincy hauling the train between Chicago and Minneapolis. This was a grand train and each car was lettered “Empire Builder” whether it was owned by the Great Northern, the GNs partner the Chicago Burlington and Quincy, or was owned and operated as a sleeper by the Pullman company. The 1929 cars were all metal heavyweight construction built by Pullman Standard.

 

After launching in 1929, the great depression kept train sizes modest during the 30s, but the train sizes soared into multiple sections during World War II. The train continued for decades through several remakes and streamliners, and continues as an Amtrak train running a similar Chicago to Seattle route. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Builder.

 

Inaugural run on the stone arch bridge at Minneapolis on June 11, 1929 from Strauss’s Great Northern Pictorial volume 3, page 15 (GN photo).

 

Empire Builder at Whitefish, Montana in 1933 from page 241 of Lucius Beebe’s and Charles Clegg’s The Trains We Rode, Promontory Press, 1965 (H.H. Avery photo).

 

The Great Northern S2 4-8-4 Northern locomotive used th haul the Empire Builder from 1930 until the arrival of diesels. Photo taken at Summit Montana on August 5, 1938, by Otto Perry.

 

Modeling Heavyweight cars in N scale is more difficult than lightweight streamline cars because fewer model types are available. Yet, because most heavyweight cars are painted the same dark Pullman green color and have similar shapes and construction, slightly different window arrangements are often less noticeable. If one is prepared to accept similar car types and substitutions, a decent train can be made. The inaugural train consist listed here was published by John Strauss in his book Great Northern Pictorial vol. 3 on page 16. Here is the 1929 prototype and model consist.

 

 

Power and head end

 

The inaugural train was pulled by a P2 4-8-2 mountain type steam locomotive, but as soon as the distinctive S2 4-8-4 Northerns were available in 1930, they took over the Empire Builders. They were distinctive with the air pumps mounted in front of the smokebox and with the “glacier” paint scheme of green and silver. The model of the S2 (one of the most prototypically accurate in my train) is by Concor-Kato. This model is a good puller and handles the train beautifully. The head car on the EB was a 70’ baggage-RPO combination or a 70’ baggage lettered “Empire Builder”. I use a 60’ RPO made by Microtrains and an 80’ baggage car made by Rivarossi. GN did have both 80’ and 70’ baggage cars, and substitute cars would be lettered for Great Northern from the baggage car pool. This could be a prototypical as well as a model substitution if the train has a high mail need during the holiday season.

 

Coach section

 

All coaches were lettered Empire Builder, and the owning road (Great Northern, Chicago Burlington and Quincy, or Spokane Portland and Seattle) should appear at the top ends. Decals of small roadnames are not available. The prototype coaches were built by Barney and Smith in 1914 with 23 square windows, but the models are Pullman Standard coaches with 22 rectangular windows. Models of heavyweight coaches are available from Con-cor and Microtrains, but many must be re-decaled from Great Northern to Empire Builder.

 

Tourist Pullmans and diner

 

Next, the consist contains three 16-section tourist Pullmans for economy travelers. 16-section sleepers are not available in N scale, but I substitute re-decaled 12-1 cars that have fewer paired windows than the prototype, but give a similar impression. The third Tourist car is a re-lettered parlor car that has a very similar of paired windows as a tourist car. The car has not yet been re-lettered from “Pullman” to Empire Builder”. The EB diner sat 36 passengers. I use a re-decaled Rivarossi diner built to a Santa Fe prototype.

 

Pullman section and observation lounge

 

After the diner, the EB placed the non-tourist Pullmans for first class passengers. The 1929 prototype train carried two 8 section-2 compartment-1 drawing room cars. This car is not available in N scale, but I substitute a 10 section-1 drawing room-2 compartment car. The Empire Builder used these 10-1-2 Pullmans before 1929, and the Microtrains cars are prototypical for the EB, but not after 1929. The models are Microtrains cars, Hidden Lake with factory lettering and General Crook as re-decaled. The last Pullman is a 12 section-1 drawing room, prototypically modeled by Microtrains and factory lettered Glacier. The Empire Builder’s last car is an Observation with an enclosed solarium lounge instead of an open end platform. I’m sure the severe northern winters influenced GN’s decision to build an enclosed car. Unfortunately, the window arrangement of Rivarossi’s observation model does not match the GN prototype, but I lettered the car with the prototypical name James J. Hill anyway. I could not resist replacing the end platform of the Rivarossi car with the end windows of another observation car, and adding dual train name boards as on the prototype.

 

 

References

Dubin, Arthur, Some Classic Trains, Kalmbach, 1964.

Strauss, John, Great Northern Pictorial volume 3, Four Ways West, 1993.

Wayner, Robert. Passenger train consists 1923-1973, Wayner Publications.

 

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