Minnesota Heartland RR - Eastern Division
Minnesota Heartland Railroad
Modern GN
Back to MHRREAST
Dateline: March 2, 1970 In a surprise move
that has stunned and angered some in the rail industry, a merger (or takeover,
to be exact) took place today that eliminated the proposed Burlington Northern
merger on the grounds that it was setup by the CB&Q to takeover it's
parent companies. The managements of the Great Northern and Northern
Pacific refused to accept these conditions and instead honored the plans
and wishes of their founder and owner (the Empire Builder, James Hill) to
combine the Hill railroads under the Great Northern banner. The Northern
Pacific and Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy were merged into the GN, while
the Spokane, Portland, & Seattle, Colorado & Southern, and Fort Worth
& Denver railways are to continue their existence as subsidiaries of
the New Great Northern system. All companies are to be controlled by
Great Northern, Inc., a holding company, with the rail assets controlled
by the Great Northern Railway Co.
The bulk of the merger plans were voted on to remain in effect as a
guideline for the new company. Duplicate facilities will be combined
and/or eliminated as needed. Operations will be centered on the GN's
practices with the main Chicago to Pacific freight artery to be a combination
of CB&Q (Chicago to Twin Cities), NP (Twin Cities to Casselton, ND),
GN (Casselton to Sandpoint, Id), NP (Sandpoint to Spokane), and GN (Spokane
to Seattle) or NP/SP&S (Spokane to Pasco on to Portland). It
has been further decided that after the combining of facilities and duplicate
routes, that no abandonments be allowed until all efforts have been exausted
to locate more business on the lines. In the Hill tradition,the new
Great Northern will take a more active roll in the development of the areas
it serves. Substantial efforts will be made to retain the traffic
base and resources of the new railway's territory. Bill B (Author)
Dateline: March 2, 2002 An additional
merger with the ATSF remains an unlikely rumor.
