The Great Northern railway made its entry to the Pacific Northwest in 1893. This was also the start of railroad age in Seattle. Great Northern was the northernmost of the US Pacific railroads. It was also quite a late building it's system; it was second to last operator to build a Pacific extension. However, the GN was one of the most profitable ones, and it was the only class 1 railroad in the USA which never went bankrupt. GN was a proud carrier, which took a great effort to develop the areas it went through and simultaneously also to develop its business. All operations were focused to produce profitable but high-quality business. Bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure were as good as they could be in the late 1800's. At the same time every cent what possible was taken out of the rolling stock. As late as in 1950’s one could see ancient freight cars dating to the 1890's utilized as MOW cars. Equipment on the branch lines could easily be 40-50 years old. On the other hand, equipment on premier passenger trains was always as new and luxurious as it could be. The GN understood the value of brand building already on it's early stages!
 
The GN participated actively in the development of whole neighbouring society. The list of taken activities was long: GN started many of the first regular steam-ship routes between Seattle and Asian ports. Also GN motivated the development of apple orchards in the Wenatchee valley, which has since developed to one of the most important apple producing areas in the world. GN also sold huge areas of forests in order to develop the timber industry. One of these companies, the Weyerhaeuser, has developed as a premier paper company of the USA. All these activities were taken just to ensure good traffic base to GN freight trains!
 
Although the GN later merged with it's competitor Northern Pacific to form the Burlington Northern and again with the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe (another icon for railroading) to form the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (from 2006 BNSF Railway), many old GN routes are still in heavy use. For example, the old GN mainline from St. Paul to Seattle is still one of the backbones of BNSF freight operations. On many places in the Pacific Northwest the atmosphere has not changed since the 1950's.
 
The GN had two major routes in Washington state: East-West mainline from St. Paul to Seattle and the North-South mainline from Vancouver B.C. through Seattle to Portland, Oregon. Both of these routes will be modelled on my model railroad.

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Picture: BNSF train on Salmon Bay Bridge in Seattle in July 1998. This was one scenic highlight on the old GN North-South mainline. Unfortunately I do not have enough space to model this picturesque area.

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Picture: a BNSF freight train at Everett station in July 1998. This is the second Everett station built in the late 1960's. It replaced an old and ornate mission-style depot, which will be replicated on my model railroad. Recently also the second station has been replaced with a new Everett Central Terminal serving both commuter trains and local buses.



Navigation links:
Great Northern of the 1940's  
Choosing the prototype   
>>> Great Northern Railway in the Pacific Northwest  
Modelled area
Premises
Standards
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Rolling Stock
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