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Northern
Pacific In Color
Volume
2: 1960-1970
By: Doug
Nighswonger
Morning
Sun Books, Inc., 2008
Hardcover, 128 pages, All Color
A continuation of Volume One. A look at the final decade of the Northern Pacific from 1960 until the merger with the Burlington Northern in March, 1970.
The 1960's were a difficult period of change and challenge for the Northern Pacific as well as the rail industry as a whole and the Nation. Competition forced the Northern Pacific to re-examine its passenger train business, reduction in work force, train speeds, level of service, and new buying habits in freight cars. The merger between Northern Pacific's jointly owned Burlington and Spokane, Portland & Seattle with long-time competitor Great Northern was not just a long-standing dream of Jim Hill, but a necessary way of staying competitive and solvent.
From a railfan's perspective, the 1960's were an interesting time. Even though steam was gone, the first generation diesels, while commonplace, had their own charisma, especially as the new second-generation high horsepower units started to arrive on the property. On the Northern pacific, because of superior maintenance, the second-generation diesels supplemented the first generation rather than replace them. Both ran together side-by-side right up to the time of the merger. The FT model diesels on the northern Pacific were some of the last in service anywhere.
While the decade saw major reductions in passenger service nationwide, the Northern Pacific continued to provide a fairly constant level of service, especially the mainline where two transcontinental trains served daily. RDC's replaced some full length trains but all the mainlines on the Northern Pacific still had passenger service.
many things affected the work force, and, overall there was a constant decline in its size. The economics of diesel operations closed numerous roundhouses and many shops were consolidated. Better communications and mobility allowed the rail industry to close many small town stations, though the Northern pacific seemed slower to do this than many of its neighboring lines. The Northern Pacific did keep many of its quaint wooden depots in service though, usually with the proud monad on the structure's end.
In the 1950's several new types of freight cars were developed to test the market. By the 1960's these had caught on and many more new ones were developed in a effort to keep business on the rails. The era of the plain old boxcar had come to a close. Some of these freight types were bigger piggyback flatcars, auto rack cars, mechanical refrigerator cars, large covered hoppers to move grain, rapid discharge coal cars, covered gondolas, and special flatcars. Boxcars weren't ignored, instead they were larger with wider doors and came with various load-securing devises, often insulated, and with plug doors. Many were assigned to a specific customer or commodity. Even cabooses were generally upgraded with new modern steel cars replacing the older wooden cars. Announcing these changes, the new cars came in a rainbow of bright colors and ofte "billboard" lettering schemes.
With all this in mind, let us continue our look at the "Main Street of the Northwest."