Great Northern Railway (United States)
| Great Northern Railway
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | September 18, 1889 |
| resolution | March 2nd 1970 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with other companies to form BN |
| Seat |
Saint Paul , Minnesota , United States
|
| management | John M. Budd |
| Number of employees | 15,913 |
| sales | $ 274 million |
| Branch | Transport company |
| As of December 31, 1968 | |
The Great Northern Railway (GN) was a railway company based in Saint Paul (Minnesota) , which operated in the border area between the United States and Canada west of Chicago and became the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF). The Great Northern became famous for its comfortable passenger trains with the name Empire Builder .
Route network
The Great Northern drove through seven US states and had branch lines in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia . The main line of the GN reached from the "Twin Cities" Minneapolis and St. Paul , Minot , Havre and Shelby over the Marias Pass to Spokane and from there on to Seattle and Portland . Important branch lines led from Fargo in North Dakota to Winnipeg , from Shelby via Great Falls to Billings (Montana) and from Everett near Seattle northwards to Vancouver .
history
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Minnesota and Pacific Railroad
In 1857 the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad (M&P) was founded, which began with the construction of the line in Minnesota in the same year . The line was to connect Stillwater on the state's eastern border via Saint Paul , Minneapolis , St. Cloud with Breckenridge on the western border. After about ten kilometers of track between St. Paul and St. Anthony had been prepared, but no rails had yet been laid, the railway company became insolvent in 1860. The company Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad (SP&P, also St.P & P), founded in 1862, emerged from this company and in the same year let the inaugural train run on the completed route. By 1867 the railway reached Sauk Rapids near St. Cloud, the route being financed mainly by Dutch investors. By 1865 only 340 km of track had been laid. The railway company was taken over by the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) in 1870 , but when it became insolvent due to the founders' crash in 1873, it was bought back by one of the original main investors, but became insolvent itself in 1879.
St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway
St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway (SPM & M), founded in 1879 by a group of investors led by James J. Hill, took over the land and concessions from the bankruptcy estate of St.P & P. At that time, the route was already leading to Havre and from there southwest via Great Falls and Helena , the capital of Montana , to Butte . From Havre a new route was built westwards, which crossed the cascade range on Stevens Pass and reached Seattle in 1893 .
Minneapolis and St. Cloud Railroad
The railway company was founded in 1856 and was supposed to first build a railway line from Minneapolis to St. Cloud and another from Mille Lacs to the confluence of the St. Louis River in Lake Superior , but it was a 107 km long line from St. Cloud to Hinckley . After the company was taken over by James J. Hill in 1881, they sold the line to SPM & M in 1883. Several other rights of the company were sold to the Eastern Railway Company of Minnesota and to the St. Cloud, Mankato & Austin Railroad . Although the company no longer had tangible property, it had extensive authorizations and powers in the commercial register from the start, so that it should be used by James J. Hill to build his empire and therefore changed its name to Great Northern Railway on September 18, 1889 .
Great Northern Railway
In 1900 the route over Stevens Pass was replaced by the Cascade Tunnel . In 1909, the portion between Tye and the operating station Cascade station, including the tunnel, with three-phase AC electrified . The GN procured its first four electric locomotives, which were designated as class 5000 .
In connection with the construction of the 12.5 km long, new Cascade Tunnel , the system was replaced in 1927 by an alternating current system with a voltage of 11 kV and a network frequency of 25 Hz . The electrical operation was first extended to Skykomish in the west, then in 1929 to Wenatchee in the east, so that finally 117 km of route were operated electrically. From 1946, with the class W-1, the largest electric motors in North America were used on this route. In 1956 the electrical operation was stopped.
On August 9, 1945, the worst accident in the history of the railway company occurred : In Michigan City , North Dakota , the two parts of the company's top train, the Empire Builder , crashed into each other because the train protection was inadequate. 34 people died.
On March 2, 1970, the GN was merged with the three railway companies Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Northern Pacific (NP) and Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S) to form the Burlington Northern Railroad . This in turn merged in 1996 with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF) to form Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF).
Web links
- Great Northern Railway Historical Society (English)
- The Great Northern Empire (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Great Northern Railway Company (ed.): Great Northern Railway 1968 Annual Report . St. Paul 1969.
- ^ A b c St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. In: MNopedia. Retrieved November 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Jane McClure: Frogtown's Railroads. Retrieved November 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Railroads in Minnesota, Part 1.5. Retrieved November 30, 2019 .
- ^ United States Interstate Commerce Commission: Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Reports and Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States . LK Strouse, 1928, p. 183 ( google.de ).