Not necessarily a recent picture

I’m a retired Customs officer living in suburban Houston, Texas with, Helen, my beautiful bride of 40 years. We have two grown sons, one daughter-in-law and of course, one grandpuppy.

I was born in Boston and developed an early interest in trains because a doubled tracked branch of the New Haven ran beside our house. Watching steam powered passenger and freights parade beside our yard constitutes some of my oldest and happiest memories.

As a young man enamored with rail travel, I rode the overnight trains of the B&M, CNR, CPR D&H, GN, GTW, NP and NYC. In this author’s humble opinion, GN’s trains were always superior to the other lines .

Interest in the Great Northern
My interest in the Great Northern dates back to the 40’s and early 50’s when, as a boy, I gazed at the timetables displayed at the information kiosk in Boston’s South Station. The Great Northern Railway goat herald was always drew my attention. I decided someday to ride the Great Northern and visit the far a way places served by the GN.

Encounters with the Great Northern
In 1961 I had my first encounter with the GN when I was hitching around Glacier Park. Essex, where at the time there were more trains than tourists was a place to watch helpers being cut into eastbounds. On one siding was a long string of work equipment some painted gray others a dark red. All were wood and had black roofs. Surprisingly, I did not even notice a hotel, now called the Izzak Walton Inn. The depot was there and as I recall painted two shades of gray. This was before the 1964 flood and the highway through Essex was more primitive but worth it. At East Glacier, I noted a Pennsy and UP sleeper spotted on a siding and no passenger trains in sight. The only thing wrong was I did not have time to stay and wait for the passenger train.

My second encounter with the GN happened the following year. In 1962, Seattle hosted a World’s Fair and I made a memorable trip south on the mid-day International from Vancouver to attend. Despite the heavy patronage for the Fair, the GN equipment was spotless and the service friendly and courteous. Returning to school as a student at Marquette U. in Milwaukee the following year provided next encounter with the GN. After finishing a summer job in the Canadian Rockies, I booked a roomette on the Winnipeg Limited in its name sake city and made the overnight journey south. At St. Paul, the following morning, a convenient connection was available with the Milwaukee Road's Morning Hiawatha to Milwaukee.

The fourth contact with the GN came as a complete surprise. In the summer of 1964, I held a summer job at Jasper Park Lodge, a resort operated by the CNR in the Canadian Rockies. In July, the Lodge’s entire 350 plus rooms were booked for a convention. The majority of the group was to arrive from Chicago on through special train being routed to Jasper via Winnipeg. I was among the many employees assigned to meet the train and load the baggage. As the special rounded the curve approaching the station I saw in the tow of two green and black CN road engines a matched set of 15 Great Northern sleepers, diners and lounges. The special carried no coaches or head end cars. It was a sight never seen before or since in The Canadian Rockies. For a long time I could not figure out how the GN could spare that much equipment during the peak tourist season. It was only some years later that I read about the great washout at Glacier Park and the GN’s mainline being closed for several weeks.

By 1969, I was finished college, married with a family, and starting a career with the Bureau of Customs at Blaine, Washington. One unpopular assignment with the Customs Inspectors was riding to Vancouver, boarding the International, and working the passengers as we rode south to the border. GN paid the Bureau for this service since it meant a brief stop at Blaine rather than a long delay while the entire train was cleared. While my colleagues hated this assignment, I loved it and frequently 'did them a favor' by trading for it. We usually finished our 'work' long before reaching White Rock and sat in the observation lounge to take in the shoreline scenery. Back then the Port series observations had been withdrawn and International Limited carried a Mountain series, no longer needed on the transcontinental trains. Even at that late date, GN unlike a lot of railways, kept the equipment clean and in good working order. The Observations rode very smooth and were extremely quiet. After the only scheduled station stop at New Westminster, one would have to look out the window to see if we were moving. There was no noise or motion as we slide out of the station. Amtrak continued to operate the Mountain series for a while. I transferred to Seattle a few years later and lost track of equipment on the International.

FOEB, later the GNRHS
In 1972, I noticed an advertisement for a book on Great Northern Locomotives. A few weeks after my copy of Locomotives of the Empire Builder arrived, I received a friendly letter from the late Charlie Martin inviting me to join a club he was forming called The Fraternal Order of Empire Builders. I soon received my membership card – number 62. Since Charlie Martin decided to start the membership the numbers at forty I was actually the 22nd to join. Given the way the group has turned out, it’s something I’m very proud of today. The only number issued below forty, as I recall, was for the late Norm Keyes, who because of his phenomenal knowledge of the GN was awarded number 39. Personally I thought Norm should have been awarded number one for the assistance he provided members preparing reference sheets on topics in which they had a working knowledge or a keen interest.

In the first few years the FOEB was a loose and informal group that was lots of fun. In 1977 I prepared my first article or reference sheet #35, during this period. There seemed to be more emphasis on accurate modeling than history. One member, who I won’t name here, even proposed a secret handshake for the group. All that seemed to end at the 1979 Essex convention; perhaps it was the realities that we had grown and needed a better organization. On display at that convention was the dark side of human nature. I’ll skip the details except to say it was 15 years till I prepared anything else for the organization.

At the 1990 Whitefish convention, someone brought a lot of interesting items on the Oriental Limited for display. I bought a GN booklet on the 1924 Oriental Limited at the swap meet that further peaked my interest. That, in turn, led to acquiring a few timetables and finally a trip to the DeGolyer Library at SMU in Dallas for more serious research. The project was spread over several years and was a very enjoyable experience. Harold Hall was the GNRHS coordinator and without his assistance and Peter Thompson’s encouragement, this reference sheet would never have made it to publication. Harold and Peter have since moved on but other GNRHS members are willing to help. After the Oriental article, Harold Hall suggested I might do the first Oriental Limited , that began in 1905. As I got digging, a lot of material came to light, which lead to more digging, etc., and eight more reference sheets have resulted, six published and two more on the way.

The GNRHS has since evolved into an outstanding organization and source of information. Anyone interested in the Great Northern Railway should not only join but also contribute.