After being removed from the "International", 1145 and 1146 moved to St Paul, Minnesota. Through the 1960's they served on local trains terminating in St Paul. To date, the best photographic documentation I've found is in the "Great Northern Pictorial - Volume 5", by John F. Strauss, Jr. Page numbers below reference it.
Page 73 shows "the stub" (train 3) departing the St Paul Union Depot. The second car is either 1145 or 1146. Caption: "'The Stub', train #3, which replaced the 'Western Star' on May 22, 1960, between St. Paul and Minot via the Elk River-St. Cloud Line, Grand Forks, and Devils Lake, departed St. Paul Union Depot
Another picture of "The Stub" appears on page 76 - with 1145 or 1146 as the third car.
A roster shot of 1145 appears on page 97 of the same book. The accompanying text says the pair were assigned to the St. Paul-Fargo "Red River" following May 27, 1962 schedule changes. The westbound route was over the Elk River line, while the eastbound was over the Willmar line. Westbound the coach-diner ran dinette forward behind the head-end cars. The train was not turned, so eastbound the dinette end carried the markers at the rear of the train. Both directions are pictured, the westbound on 97 and the eastbound on 99.
Click here for a transcript of a three-hour interview aboard 1146 with a gentleman who actually worked in the kitchens of 1145 and 1146 during this time period.
Page 131 shows the Dakotan departing St Paul on July 29, 1965. Because of locomotive distribution problems caused by flooding, two freight locos lead the regular E7. The coach-diner is next after the baggage car.
A favorite picture of mine appears on page 115. It shows a passenger F, a baggage car, 1146 dining room forward, and two ex-C&NW 400 coaches on the Dakotan in August 1965. It tickles me because the Minnesota Transportation Museum has enough ex-GN equipment to re-create the train. (It would include F7 454-A, baggage car 265, coach-diner 1146, and 400 coaches 1097 and 1096.) In fact, in the picture MTM's 1096 is carrying the markers. I've had the pleasure of putting about five winters into restoring that car. Other Dakotan pictures featuring coach-diners appear on pages 117, 130, and 131; and text describing the St. Paul-Minot Dakotan appears on page 120.
On page 62, the westbound Dakotan (train 3) has departed St Paul on June 4th, 1966. A coach-diner is directly behind the baggage car.
On June 25th, 1966, the regular passenger diesel was unavailable, so the Dakotan got a freight GP35 and a heater car. A coach-diner follows behind the baggage car on page 117.
The Big Sky Blue October 29, 1967 timetable shows trains 3 & 4 as the "Dakotan", connecting in St Paul with CB&Q trains 47 & 48 from Chicago. From St Paul, they travelled to Minneapolis, St Cloud, Sauk Centre, Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Barnesville, Moorhead, Fargo, Hillsboro, Grand Forks and Minot. St Paul to Minot one-way cost $15.18, coach class. Equipment listed includes reclining seat coaches and a cafe-diner-coach. Trains 11 & 14, the St Paul-Fargo "Red River", also list a cafe-diner-coach, but I've not found photos to support this. The Red River was an oddity, travelling west via Willmar and east via St Cloud.
Page 154 has three Dakotan pictures featuring the coach-diner twins. Two were taken in 1968, after my debut in this world, and one in 1969. The 1969 photo shows a coach-diner painted in Big Sky Blue, so it must be 1145. The consist is unchanged.
The October 26, 1969 timetable is much thinner than that of two years earlier. The Red River is gone, and the Dakotan - still trains 3 & 4, has been cut back to Fargo. The equipment is unchanged, and a one-way ticket cost $8.11.
In the November, 1980 issue of Model Railroader magazine, author Mike Schafer wrote an article on "Pike-size passenger trains." His third example was the Great Northern's four car 1969 Dakotan, complete with 1145/1146 on the rear and instructions of how to kitbash them. Recently, this article has been available for download.
On May 11th, 1967, the Great Northern broke with its traditional "Empire Builder" colors of Omaha Orange and Pullman Green. The May issue of "The Goat" - a small monthly mini-magazine mailed to customers and others doing business with the GN - explained the new corporate image:
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| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 |
 | Issued by the GN to draw attention to their new image, this postcard reads:
"Great Northern's main transcontinental line skirts the southern boundary of Montana's glorious Glacier National Park for 60 breathtaking miles. During the mid-June to mid-September Park season, the Great Dome EMPIRE BUILDER and companion WESTERN STAR serve Glacier, stopping daily at east and west gateways." |
 | In the GNRHS / NPRHA joint archives is this photo of a coach-diner in Big Sky Blue. Presumably it is sister 1145. |
Although there is ample photographic evidence that the GN painted at least one coach-diner into "Big Sky Blue", it must have been 1145. 1146 was still in "Empire Builder" colors in August of 1970, well after the brief "Big Sky Blue" era ended.
Randall Davidson found a photo of what is probably 1145 in Big Sky Blue: "I also think I�ve found a published photo of 1145 in Big Sky Blue. On page 97 of the book �Journey to Amtrak� by Harold A. Edmonson (Kalmbach 1972), there is a picture of the first northbound Portland-Seattle Amtrak train, #198, on May 1, 1971. It�s shown at Tacoma Union Station and the third car in the consist appears to be 1145 in blue; the mid-car door is the clue."
The railroad issued equipment diagrams to their people, which gave key data about the rolling stock the railroad owned. Several years about I found a book of passenger cars, No. 273, dated November 1st 1968. I've scanned it as a 200 dpi Adobe Acrobat .pdf for the historians. Click here to download it. 8,403 kb
An interesting oddity in this copy, aside from the commentary in pencil, is that the observation-lounge cars for the International, 1195 and 1196, are shown rebuilt into coaches 1305 and 1306!
Note the similarity of the 60-seat coaches of the 1947 Empire Builder (1110-1114), the 1950 International (1115-1118), the 1950 Red River (1137-1139) and the 1951 Empire Builder (1209-1214). The biggest floor plan difference is that the International's cars omit the coal-fired backup heating system.
Here is an earlier book of passenger cars dated June 1st 1961. I've scanned it as a 300 dpi Adobe Acrobat .pdf. Click here to download it. 16,867 kb
