Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Burlington Northern Adventures Railroading in the Days of the Caboose by William J. Brotherton Great Northern Railway (U.S.) The Great Northern Railway (reporting mark GN ) was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S. In 1970 the Great Northern Railway merged with three other railroads to form the Burlington Northern Railroad, which merged in 1996 with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. The Great Northern was the only successfully built privately funded transcontinental railroad in U.S. history. [1] [2] No federal subsidies were used during its construction, unlike all other transcontinental railroads. [1] History. The Great Northern was built in stages, slowly to create profitable lines, before extending the road further into the undeveloped Western territories. In a series of the earliest public relations campaigns, contests were held to promote interest in the railroad and the ranchlands along its route. Fred J. Adams used promotional incentives such as feed and seed donations to farmers getting started along the line. Contests were all-inclusive, from largest farm animals to largest freight carload capacity and were promoted heavily to immigrants and newcomers from the East. [3] The very first predecessor railroad to the company was the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad owned by William Crooks. He had gone bankrupt running a small line between St. Paul and Minneapolis. He named the locomotive he ran for himself and the William Crooks would be the first locomotive of the Great Northern Railway. J.J. Hill convinced New York banker John S. Kennedy, Norman Kittson (a wealthy fur trader friend), Donald Smith (a Hudson's Bay Company executive), George Stephen (Smith's cousin and president of the Bank of Montreal), and others to invest $5.5 million in purchasing the railroad. [4] On March 13, 1878, the road's creditors formally signed an agreement transferring their bonds and control of the railroad to J.J. Hill's investment group. [5] On September 18, 1889, Hill changed the name of the Minneapolis and St. Cloud Railway (a railroad which existed primarily on paper, but which held very extensive land grants throughout the Midwest and Pacific Northwest) to the Great Northern Railway. On February 1, 1890, he consolidated his ownership of the StPM&M, Montana Central Railway, and other rail lines to the Great Northern. [6] The Great Northern had branches that ran north to the Canada–US border in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. It also had branches that ran to Superior, Wisconsin, and Butte, Montana, connecting with the iron range of Minnesota and copper mines of Montana. In 1898 Hill purchased control of large parts of the Messabe Iron Range in Minnesota, along with its rail lines. The Great Northern began large-scale shipment of ore to the steel mills of the Midwest. [7] Revenue freight traffic, in millions of net ton-miles (incl FG&S; not incl PC or MA&CR) Year Traffic 1925 8521 1933 5434 1944 19583 1960 15831 1967 17938. The railroad's best-known engineer was John Frank Stevens, who served from 1889 to 1903. Stevens was acclaimed for his 1889 exploration of Marias Pass in Montana and determined its practicability for a railroad. Stevens was an efficient administrator with remarkable technical skills and imagination. He discovered Stevens Pass through the Cascade Mountains, set railroad construction standards in the Mesabi Range, and supervised the construction of the Oregon Trunk Line. He then became the chief engineer of the Panama Canal. [8] The logo of the railroad, a Rocky Mountain goat, was based on a goat William Kenney, one of the railroad's presidents, had used to haul newspapers as a boy. [9] [10] [11] Mainline. The mainline began at Saint Paul, Minnesota, heading west along the Mississippi River bluffs, crossing the river to Minneapolis on a massive multi- piered stone arch bridge just below the Saint Anthony Falls. The bridge ceased to be used as a railroad bridge in 1978 and is now used as a pedestrian river crossing with excellent views of the falls and of the lock system. The mainline headed northwest from the Twin Cities, across North Dakota and eastern Montana. The line then crossed the Rocky Mountains at Marias Pass. It then followed the Flathead River and then Kootenai River to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, south to Sandpoint, Idaho, west to Newport, Washington, and then to Spokane, Washington. The extensive railroad facility of Hillyard, Washington was built along the line. From there the mainline crossed the Cascade Mountains through the Cascade Tunnel under Stevens Pass, reaching Seattle, Washington, in 1893, with the driving of the last spike at Scenic, Washington, on January 6, 1893. The main line west of Marias Pass has been relocated twice. The original route over Haskell Pass, via Kalispell and Marion, Montana was replaced in 1904 by a more circuitous but flatter route via Whitefish and Eureka, joining the Kootenai River at Rexford, Montana. A further reroute was necessitated by the construction of the Libby Dam on the Kootenai River in the late 1960s. The United States Army Corps of Engineers built a new route through the Salish Mountains, including the 7-mile-long Flathead Tunnel, second-longest in the United States, to relocate the tracks away from the Kootenai River. This route opened in 1970. The surviving portions of the older routes (from Columbia Falls to Kalispell and Stryker to Eureka), are now operated by Watco as the Mission Mountain Railroad. The Great Northern mainline crossed the continental divide through Marias Pass, the lowest crossing of the Rockies south of the Canada–US border. Here, the mainline forms the southern border of Glacier National Park, which the GN promoted heavily as a tourist attraction. GN constructed stations at East Glacier and West Glacier entries to the park, stone and timber lodges at the entries and other inns and lodges throughout the Park. Many of the structures have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to unique construction, location, and the beauty of the surrounding regions. In 1931 the GN also developed the "Inside Gateway", a route to California that rivaled the Southern Pacific Railroad's route between Oregon and California. The GN route was further inland than the SP route and ran south from the Columbia River in Oregon. The GN connected with the Western Pacific at Bieber, California; the Western Pacific connected with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe in Stockton, California, and together the three railroads (GN, WP, and ATSF) competed with Southern Pacific for traffic between California and the Pacific Northwest. With a terminus at Superior, Wisconsin, the Great Northern was able to provide transportation from the Pacific to the Atlantic by taking advantage of the shorter distance to Duluth from the ocean, as compared to Chicago. Settlements. The Great Northern energetically promoted settlement along its lines in North Dakota and Montana, especially by Germans and Scandinavians from Europe. The Great Northern bought its lands from the federal government – it received no land grants – [ citation needed ] and resold them to farmers one by one. It operated agencies in Germany and Scandinavia that promoted its lands, and brought families over at low cost, building special colonist cars to transport immigrant families. The rapidly increasing settlement in North Dakota's Red River Valley along the Minnesota border between 1871 and 1890 was a major example of large-scale "bonanza" farming. [12] [13] [14] Later history. During WWII the Army moved its Military Railway Service (MRS) headquarters to Fort Snelling, MN. The MRS worked collaboratively with commercial railroading in the U.S. The Great Northern sponsored the 704th Grand Railroad Division. It was the second Grand Division that the Army stood up. The Great Northern also sponsored the 732nd Railroad Operating Battalion (ROB). They were one of two spearhead ROBs. The 732nd operated in support of the Patton's 3rd Armored Division crossing into Germany with them. The Officers of the 732nd were all previous employees of the Great Northern. On March 2, 1970, the Great Northern, together with the Northern Pacific Railway, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway merged to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. The BN operated until 1996, when it merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. In popular culture. The Great Northern Railway is considered to have inspired (in broad outline, not in specific details) the Taggart Transcontinental railroad in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged . [15] The railroad is mentioned in the lyrics of the Grateful Dead song Jack Straw: "Great Northern, out of Cheyenne, from sea to shining sea". In Season One of Hey Arnold , the episode "Haunted Train" depicts the fictitious Engine 25, a 4-8-2 under the GNR mantle wrecked near Arnold's hometown due to a psychotic engineer. Now the ghost of the train apparently picks up unsuspecting passengers and takes them to Hell, driven by the insane engineer. In the final scenes of Hostiles , the Great Northern Railway transported Capt. Blocker, Mrs. Quaid and Little Bear from Butte, Montana to Chicago, Illinois. Preserved steam locomotives. Locomotive Number Class Type Built Retired City Location Extra Info 1 - William Crooks 1 4-4-0 1861 9/1897 Duluth, MN Lake Superior Railroad Museum Owned by the Minnesota Historical Society 1147 F-8 2-8-0 8/1902 6/1956 Wenatchee, WA City Park 1246 F-8 2-8-0 11/1907 7/1953 Merrill, OR On Private Property Fred Kepner Collection 1355 H-5 4-6-2 Rebuilt from E-14 1020 5/1924 7/1955 Sioux City, IA Milwaukee Shops Completed Cosmetic Restoration 2507 P-2 4-8-2 10/1923 12/1957 Wishram, WA At Wishram Depot Hidden Under Shelter 2523 P-2 4-8-2 10/1923 4/1958 Willmar, MN Kandiyohi County Historical Society 2584 S-2 4-8-4 3/1930 12/1957 Havre, MT Havre Depot Largest surviving GN steam locomotive 3059 O-1 2-8-2 2/1913 12/1957 Williston, ND Williston Depot. Passenger service. GN operated various passenger trains, but the Empire Builder was their premier passenger train. It was named in honor of James J. Hill, known as the "Empire Builder." Amtrak still operates the Empire Builder today, running it over the old Great Northern's Northern Transcon north of St. Paul. Named trains. Alexandrian: St. Paul–Fargo Badger Express: St. Paul-Superior/Duluth (later renamed Badger ) Cascadian: Seattle–Spokane (1909-1959) Dakotan : St. Paul-Minot Eastern Express : Seattle-St. Paul (1903–1906) (replaced by Fast Mail in 1906) [16] Empire Builder: Chicago- Seattle/Portland (1929–present) Fast Mail No. 27: St. Paul–Seattle (1906–1910) (renamed The Oregonian in 1910) [16] Glacier Park Limited: St. Paul–Seattle (1915-1929) (replaced by Empire Builder in 1929) [16] Gopher: St. Paul-Superior/Duluth Great Northern Express: (1909– 1918) Kansas City-Seattle [17][18] International: Seattle-Vancouver, B.C. Oregonian : St. Paul–Seattle (1910–1915) (replaced by Glacier Park Limited in 1915) [16] Oriental Limited : Chicago-St. Paul-Seattle (replaced by Western Star in 1951) Puget Sound Express: St. Paul-Seattle (1903–1906) (replaced by Fast Mail in 1906) [16] Red River Limited: Grand Forks-St. Paul (later renamed Red River ) Seattle Express [19] Southeast Express: (1909–1918) Seattle-Kansas City [17][20] Western Star : Chicago-St. Paul-Seattle-Portland Winnipeg Limited: St. Paul- Winnipeg. Unnamed trains. Rails to trails. In addition to the Stone Arch Bridge, parts of the railway has been turned into pedestrian and bicycle trails. In Minnesota, the Cedar Lake Trail is built in areas that were formerly railroad yards for the Great Northern Railway and the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. Also in Minnesota, the Dakota Rail Trail is built on 26.5 miles of the railroad right-of-way. Further west, the Iron Goat Trail in Washington follows the late 19th-century route of the Great Northern Railway through the cascades and gets its name from the railway's logo. [21] [22] Burlington Northern Adventures. Burlington Northern Adventures relates the personal experiences of the author, William J. Brotherton, who went railroading as a brakeman, conductor and trainmaster for the Burlington Northern Railroad system during the 1979-1982 period. Through his many interesting short stories, Brotherton illustrates what it was like to work for a major railroad company before branch lines, vintage diesel locomotives and cabooses were phased out. His accounts show what has changed within the railroad industry since then -- and what has not. Brotherton, who grew up around trains in Georgia, takes the reader along on his personal encounter with a railroader's life in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Colorado. Brotherton Law Firm. Almost 40 years ago, William J. Brotherton was working as a railroad brakeman and conductor for Burlington Northern Railroad in North Dakota and throughout the Midwest. Today, the firm he started 20 years ago as a solo has grown to a seven attorney firm. The Brotherton Law Firm focuses on handling complex civil litigation, for both individuals and companies. The Firm’s corporate base includes international energy companies, appraisal districts, insurance carriers and companies that seek Texas counsel for a variety of litigation. Brotherton’s eclectic background also spurs the Firm’s growth; in addition to his railroading, he taught environmental law for 12 years at Texas Christian University, served on his community’s Planning & Zoning Commission for six years helping to guide Flower Mound’s rapid growth, and has worked as a volunteer at the 14th hole at the Masters for the last 12 years. He plays at Augusta National every year, a benefit of working at the Masters each year. Many of the Firm’s cases are unique. Brotherton has traveled to London, the Bahamas, and Toronto to represent clients, and he was hired to spend two weeks in the rain forests of Costa Rica to locate land to build Eco-Tourist lodging. He’s been involved in presidential politics as part of legal teams – he worked in New Hampshire for the 2012 election, and prior elections sent him to Colorado and Florida. This past election in November, 2016 he worked the presidential election in Miami, Florida. He successfully defended the Museum of the American Railroad when it was accused of trespassing -- for 50 years, and now serves as its general counsel. He writes frequently on railroad issues, and his book, Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading in the Days of the Caboose, is in its second printing and sells all over the world. His next book is about growing up in small town Atlanta. Brotherton is a proud member of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi in Vermont, where his mother grew up, and was elected to tribal council in October of 2016. He is currently representing the tribe as a council member in the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant sale and decommissioning. Active in Native American matters, he worked to resolve the Dakota Access protest, and traveled throughout the Standing Rock reservation to meet with tribal leadership, organizations, and members. He is licensed in North Dakota as well as Texas, and in the summer of 2016, he became an adopted member of the Spirit Lake Sioux Nation in North Dakota, and was given the Sioux name of Tasunka Masa, which translates as Iron Horse. He is a proud graduate of the University of North Dakota and a Fighting Sioux forever. Brotherton attributes the firm’s growth to a rock solid client base and good old-fashioned customer service. We always have a friendly live person answer our phone – none of that "Press one for William Brotherton." We make sure we keep our clients informed. A native of South Carolina, and raised in Atlanta, Brotherton also believes in being collegial to fellow attorneys. “It’s amazing to me how rude an unfortunate number of attorneys can be – it’s just not necessary to be an effective attorney”, he said. As a result, the Firm gets referrals from other attorneys, even former opposing counsel. “Our business thrives on referrals, and many of our clients have been with us from the very beginning”, he added. For additional information about the Firm, contact Amanda Burris at 972-317-8700. Trains, Law, Movies and More. Hi all: I'm here in the Redwoods with daughter Rebecca and the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (http://www.bfro.net/), as seen on the MonsterQuest TV show We are tromping in the dark woods looking for traces of that most elusive creature, and after some time here, heading off to the Oregon coast to play golf at Bandon Dunes (http://www.bandondunesgolf.com/). Back in two weeks, and more to come. In the meantime, my friend Sergei Lemberg has a few things to say about lemon law. William. When It's Time to Make Noise By Sergei Lemberg William so eloquently writes about the dire consequences of "quiet zones," and I agree wholeheartedly that engineers should make all the noise they need to warn pedestrians and drivers that a train is coming their way. Through link [www.LemonJustice.com], my colleagues and I help people make another kind of noise - the kind that forces car manufacturers to do the right thing. All too often, consumers are victimized by car manufacturers when the automaker can't or won't fix a serious defect in a new car. We're not talking about annoying problems like speakers that aren't installed properly, but rather defects that make the vehicle unreliable or unsafe. Every state has what's called a lemon law, meant to protect new car buyers from just these kinds of defects. Unfortunately, though, most people don't understand their lemon law rights, or know how to go about preserving them. Because each state's lemon law is different, it's easy for people to become confused. Generally speaking, though, most states cover new passenger vehicles that are intended for personal use. Some states are even more lenient. Texas lemon law, for example, covers virtually every new and demonstrator vehicle with two or more wheels that's designed for use on the highway. Typically, lemon laws dictate that, in order to be considered a "lemon," a vehicle must have serious defects that occur within a certain time frame. In Texas, it's during the first year or the first 12,000 miles - whichever comes first. There's also a requirement that the vehicle has been taken in for a certain number of repairs (such as four times for the same problem) or has been out of service for a certain length of time (such as a cumulative total of 30 days). Often, there's a requirement that the manufacturer has to be notified via certified mail and given one last opportunity to make the repairs. If the automaker can't fix the problem, they're required to give the consumer a refund or replacement vehicle. This is the point where consumers need to make a lot of noise. Understandably, manufacturers don't want to acknowledge that they have a lemon, and have legal teams that are dedicated to fighting lemon law claims. Often, they make people jump through hoops until the time limit for getting compensation expires, then walk away with smiles on their faces. If you think you have a lemon, there are a number of steps you should take. First, keep a logbook of every communication you have with the dealer or manufacturer. Also note every time and date that you have a problem with the vehicle, as well as the days that the vehicle is out of service, either because it's in the shop or because it's not in working condition. Second, keep all of your repair records; never leave the shop without a copy of the work order. Third, keep any written correspondence you have. If the law requires that you send the manufacturer a final demand letter via certified mail and allow the manufacturer one final repair attempt, so make sure you have the paperwork to back that up. Finally, contact a lemon law attorney after the second or third repair attempt. He or she can help guide you through the final steps that will legally establish your vehicle as a lemon. Because most lemon laws say that the manufacturer has to pay your attorney's fees in a successful claim, representation shouldn't cost you a dime. The bottom line? If you think you have a lemon, raise your voice and make a lot of noise. It's the only thing car manufacturers can hear. Saturday, December 8, 2007. Where Silence Can Be Fatal. Nobody likes being awakened at night by a train horn, but there's a good reason for the noise. Many communities in Minnesota are evaluating the use of "quiet zones," where railroad engineers cannot sound their horns except in emergencies. It sounds good in concept, but quiet zones can be killers. Sadly, that was illustrated recently with the death of 5-year-old Kevin Bradford just outside a railroad quiet zone in Texas. The Union Pacific freight train had just left a quiet zone before its crew encountered Kevin, his brother and a cousin on the tracks. The boys never heard a train horn until it was too late, because freight trains can take a mile or more to stop, depending upon the number of cars and the speed of the train. I should know. I'm a former Burlington Northern Railroad brakeman, conductor and trainmaster, and was in the cab of a locomotive on several occasions when we struck automobiles. Thankfully, no one was ever hurt, because on each occasion that we hit a car, we were either going very slowly, had very few cars attached to the locomotive, or both. When I was railroading in Minnesota, a locomotive engineer decided to implement his own quiet zone in the northern part of the state. At 2 in the morning, he was passing through an area with isolated farms and a multitude of rural crossings. He decided as a courtesy not to blow his horn. Bad mistake. His train struck a car with two people inside, killing them. The engineer went to jail. Quiet zones were first authorized in 1994, but federal regulations for them were not approved until 10 years later. More and more cities are implementing them, because who likes to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of a long wailing train horn? Never mind that the railroad tracks were there long before houses and businesses were built alongside them, or that many train crews have come to refer to quiet zones as "killing fields." When I was a child growing up in Atlanta, my friends and I frequently walked the tracks of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. We liked watching the trains, waving to the conductor in the caboose, and dreaming about all the faraway places that the glistening passenger trains could take us. One day, though, we got caught in the middle of a single-track trestle of the Seaboard, and the Silver Comet, a crack passenger train, came roaring around a curve at 90 mph. By the time it crossed over the trestle, we had jumped into murky Peachtree Creek, suddenly more worried about water moccasins than about being hit by the train. What saved us was that the passenger train had blown at a crossing shortly before it got to us. We had a warning that a train was coming and we didn't hesitate to jump, even though it was at least a 50-foot drop. If there had been a quiet zone, we would've been killed. As it was, we only got muddy. And if there were water moccasins in the creek, we scared them away with our hollering as we made the leap. Let's face it. No one should be out on railroad tracks without a legitimate reason to be there. But people break rules, especially children. And if quiet zones continue to proliferate, we're going to have a lot more injuries and deaths because of train horns that were never heard. William J. Brotherton, a Texas attorney, is the author of "Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading in the Days of the Caboose." AARS Member Rail Authors. The Renaissance of the Railroad: A chronicle of the transformation of the century by Frank J. Richter The book is available in both hardcover ($23.95) and paperback ($13.50) through Barnes & Noble, www.barnesandnoble.com and AuthorHouse, 1663 Liberty Drive, #200, Bloomington, IN 47403 800-519-5121 or www.authorhouse.com. Defining the Really Great Boss and Change or Die: How to Transform Your Organization From the Inside Out by M. David Dealy VP Transportation, BNSF RR. Running A Railroad Right and It Gets In Your Blood by Earl J. Currie The two-volume set is available in both hardcover ($70) or paperback ($50) from Currie Consulting Services, Inc., PO Box 2827, Warba, MN 55793. Commitment to Safety by Earl J. Currie The book is available in both hardcover ($27.50) or paperback ($18.50) from the author at PO Box 2827, Warba, MN 55793. Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading in the Days of the Caboose by William Brotherton Learn more about this book at www.BNrailstories.com. Authored by a former brakeman, conductor and trainmaster with the Burlington Northern and the Colorado & Southern, writer for Trains Magazine, and member of the Board of Trustees for the Museum of the American Railroad. Canadian National Railway (ISBN 076031764X) Canadian Pacific Railway (ISBN 0760322554) The Milwaukee Road (ISBN 0760320721) Illinois Central Railroad (ISBN 0760322546) Southern Railway (ISBN 0760325456) Chicago & North Western Railway (ISBN 0760325464) by Tom Murray. Off the Beaten Track: A Railroader’s Life in Pictures and The Handbook of American Railroads by Robert G. Lewis Ormond-by-the-Sea, FL.