The Great Northern Empire Builder tours the Oregon, California & Eastern at the Colorado Model Railroad Museum.
Re-edited July, 2017
In 1951 Great Northern Railway introduced a brand new Empire Builder trainset, naming it the Mid-Century Empire Builder. It was powered by three EMD F3 passenger locomotives, and it used a 17-car westbound consist. All cars were flat-roofed.
During 1955 the Great Northern took delivery of dome coaches and full-length lounges; all were called Great Domes (the use of the word Great applied to the railroad, not the type of dome). Great Northern subsequently changed the name of the train from Mid-Century Empire Builder to the Incomparable Great Dome Empire Builder. This train represents the summer tourist season Empire Builder. The configuration is essentially correct from 1956 through 1964. The summer train had 4 power units and 17 cars.
From front to back, here is the consist:
Lead cab unit: EMD F7A Passenger Diesel #364-A, prototype builder #11073
First booster: EMD F7B Passenger Diesel #364-B, prototype builder #11077
Second booster: EMD F7B Passenger Diesel #372-B, prototype builder #9568
Trailing cab unit: EMD F7A Passenger Diesel #368-C, prototype builder #9565
72′ Storage Mail Car #272
72′ Storage Mail Car #274
85′ Railway Post Office – Storage Mail Car #40
85′ Baggage – Dormitory Car #1200
85′ 60-Seat Chair Car #1213
85′ Great Dome Chair Car #1330
85′ Great Dome Chair Car #1321
85′ Great Dome Chair Car #1326
85′ Coffee Shop-Dinette-Lounge Car #1244 – White Pines Lake
85′ 7 Duplex Roomettes – 4 Sections – 3 Double Bedrooms – 1 Compartment Sleeper #1271 – Fraser River
85′ 6 Roomettes – 5 Double Bedrooms – 2 Compartments Sleeper #1377 – State Pass
85′ 7 Duplex Roomettes – 4 Sections – 3 Double Bedrooms – 1 Compartment Sleeper #1261 – Sun River
85′ 36-Seat Dining Car #1251 – Lake Wenatchee
85′ Great Dome Lounge Car #1392 – Mountain View
85′ 7 Duplex Roomettes – 4 Sections – 3 Double Bedrooms – 1 Compartment Sleeper #1269 – Poplar River
85′ 6 Roomettes – 5 Double Bedrooms – 2 Compartments Sleeper #1374 – Park Creek Pass
85′ 6 Roomettes – 4 Double Bedrooms – 1 Compartment Lounge – Observation Car #1197 – Grand Coulee
This 17-car consist was as shown above for the westbound trip from St. Paul, MN to Spokane, WA. For the eastbound trip from Spokane to St. Paul, one of the 72′ storage mail cars was removed.
The locomotives and all the passenger cars are by Walthers Proto. All but the 72′ cars are from the latest run of the Empire Builder by Walthers in 2013 and 2014. The Storage mail cars are from an earlier Walthers run. All 4 of the locomotives have DCC and sound. The decoders are Tsunamis by SoundTraxx.