Great Northern Empire Builder, 1951-1955

Fred Klein, 2001, 2010, 2016

This is the second streamlined incarnation of the EB called “The Mid-century Empire Builder”, which was completely rebuilt in 1951.  It had successfully operated since its heavyweight introduction in 1929 and the first streamlined edition in 1947.  This is a long train, typical of those running in the summer. The Empire Builder paint scheme is one of the most admired railroad color schemes, and my personal favorite.  This is a good train to model prototypically because most of the cars are available with nearly accurate off-the-shelf models, and sides for the remaining two cars are available from Brass Car Sides.  Con-cor chose Great Northern as the approximate prototype for its smooth-side cars, which makes it much easier to assemble this train.  Con-cor put skirts on all of its cars, but most of the GN cars did not have skirts.  Con-cor used un-prototypical Pullman green plastic for its GN passenger car trucks, which I repainted.  Also, Con-cor mirror reversed the sleeper and diner cars, apparently because of a production slip up.  See the page on smooth side passenger cars for more detailed prototype comparisons.

 

The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy handled the train from Chicago to St. Paul, generally pulled by three F or two E8 units.  GN took the train on to Seattle, and the Portland cars were split off in Spokane for transport by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad.  Cars were owned proportionally by these three railroads.  This consist represents the train between St. Paul and Spokane, and with minor adjustments, between Chicago and St. Paul.  It was very important to GN to keep a train with only the Empire Builder colors, and cars of other colors are unusual.  The exception is that the CB&Q sometimes used its own silver baggage and RPO cars in the Chicago to St. Paul run, but I have not seen photos of this.  Except for baggage and RPO cars, cars assigned to the EB were lettered “Empire Builder”.  Other GN trains carried “Great Northern”, but of course substitutions were made for equipment failures.  The best reference I have found for the Empire Builder is Great Northern Pictorial volume 3 by John F. Strauss. 

 

The mid-century Empire Builder west of Marias Pass, Montana. From page 90 of Great Northern Pictorial volume 3.

 

The Empire Builder on April 16, 1954 east of Havre, Montana. From page 85 of Great Northern Pictorial volume 3.

 

The original 1947 cars were numbered in the 1100 series.  Cars in this 1951 train were numbered in the 1200 series.  Dome cars were added in 1955 and numbered in the 1300 series.  The 1955 cars were mostly inherited from the 1951 train, but some were rebuilt 1947 cars which either kept their 1100 numbers with new names, or got new 1300 series numbers. 

 

Don’t get confused by GN’s car names, which are taken from features along the route.  The lunch counter diners are called “… Lake”, but full diners are “Lake …”.  1947 sleepers are “Glacier” and “Pass”.  In 1951 the “Glacier” series was dropped and the “Pass” series replaced by very similar “River” cars.  The 1947 “River” observations therefore had to be replaced by 1951 “Mountain” observations.  A new 6/5/2 sleeper in the “Pass” series was introduced in 1951 bearing no similarity to the former “Pass” cars.  The former 1947 “River” observations returned in 1955 as “Coulee” cars minus the buffet but with 2 extra rooms and 6 roomettes.  Got it?  Just remember that the “River” name runs through it, the “Pass” name gets passed on, but “Glaciers” melt and “Mountains” erode.

 

 

 

Head end section (St. Paul to Spokane)

 

Three F3 units from GM’s Electomotive Division powered the train, modeled here by Kato F3s.  The Kato units are factory lettered with Roman letters typical of the early FTs, rather than the later Empire Builder lettering.  I have not seen any photos of F3s with this Roman lettering and I don’t know if they were used on F3s.  The diesels are followed by the baggage-RPO (numbered 37-42, built by AC&F in 1951).  The mail sorting section of the 85’ car is now 60’, double that of the 1947 RPO.  Passenger baggage would probably be in the baggage-dorm car.  The prototypical baggage-RPO model is from Kato.  Mail volume, and contracts from the post office increased with time and often required additional storage mail cars.  The 50’ mail box-car was custom painted by Ernie Guise, and the 85’ Con-cor baggage car was re-lettered to reflect the prototype.   These head end cars are all GN prototypes (see the smooth side prototype web page). 

 

Coach section

 

The next car is the baggage dormitory, numbered 1200-1205, built by ACF in 1951.  Additional passenger baggage space was needed to make up for the space lost in the RPO when the mail section increased.  The model has sides from Brass Car Sides, and was custom painted by Model Railroad Customizing.  The first coach is a 60-seat short-haul coach for passengers riding short distances and not needing the leg room of the long-haul passengers.  The six cars in series 1209-1214 were built by ACF in 1951.  The windows were long so that two rows of seats could be by a window.  The Con-cor coach model is prototypical for this short haul coach.

 

Next are the three 48 reclining seat coaches for long-haul passengers.  Eighteen cars were built by PS in 1950 and were numbered 1213-1231 and SPS 350.  One of these coaches was switched into the Portland section of the EB at Spokane.  The Kato coach models are similar to the GN prototype, but have one less coach window (only 11) because the model is a 44-seat coach.  The models have small lavatory windows that the GN prototype did not have.  The Kato models were painted by Model Railroad Customizing before the Kato factory-lettered coaches were available.  The three coaches ran the vestibules in the forward-back-forward position.  The reason is that men’s and ladies rooms were then adjacent to each other in the next car: in case one was occupied you did not have to walk an entire car length in search of another.

 

 

First Pullman section

 

The next car is the ranch car (coffee shop-dinette-lounge).  Six of these were built by ACF in 1951, numbered 1240-1245, and named “… Lake”.  The prototypical model was made with sides from Brass Car Sides and custom painted by Model Railroad Customizing (Ernie Giese) as “Hidden Lake” #1242.  The 36-seat diner is another ACF car of 1951, numbered 1250-1255 and named “Lake …”.  Unlike the lunch counter cars, “Lake” is the first part of the name.  The almost prototypical model is by Con-cor.  Like the sleeper, the diner is a mirror-reversed model.  I wonder if the Con-cor diners get left-handed faucets and bottles that open to the right?

 

The first of six sleepers is a 7-duplex roomette, 4-section, 3-bedroom, 1-compartment car built by PS in 1950.  They were numbered 1260-1274 and named “… River”.  The Con-cor model is an exact mirror image of the 8-duplex roomette /4-section /4-bedroom sleepers built by Pullman in 1947 for the Great Northern 1947 Empire Builder.  The 1950 7/4/3/1 car is very similar to the 1947 8/4/4 car, but the 1950 car omits the porter’s small window near the door because he now rated his own roomette.  The reversed 1947 model is close enough to the 1950 prototype for me, and the two sides of the car are rough mirror images anyway. 

 

The next sleeper is the 6/5/2 (6 roomettes, 5 double bedrooms, 2 compartments) made by PS in 1950.  The series was numbered 1370-1384 and named “… Pass”.  “Jefferson Pass” is a custom painted model with sides from Brass Car Sides.  One of the River and one of the Pass cars were cut out at Spokane for the Portland train.

 

Second Pullman section

 

 

Two more 7/4/3/1 “River” sleepers followed.  I re-lettered the first Con-cor car as “Fraser River”.  Great Northern sleepers typically ran with the doors toward the rear, but I reversed one of the cars to show both sides.  The full consist had two more 6/5/2 “Pass” sleepers.  Dawson Pass #1162 is a 1947 EB car removed from the EB in 1951.  Dawson Pass was re-lettered “Great Northern” in 1951 because it was used on other trains such as the Western Star.  There must have been an equipment failure for it to return to its former position on this 1951 EB train.

 

The last car is a full observation-buffet-lounge.  Six of these cars named “… Mountain” and numbered 1290-1295 came from ACF in 1950-51.  The giant windows must have been grand.  The Con-cor model is a near exact GN-EB prototype.

 

 

REFERENCES

Anderson, Willard, “It takes money to make money” in Trains of the 1950s, Classic Trains special edition no. 12, 2013.

Randall, David, From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

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

Yenne, Bill, Great Northern Empire Builder, MBI Publishing, 2005.

 

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