F units and oil well
Northern Pacific F7 6008 leads an A-B-B-A set of units on a freight past an oil well Fryburg, N.Dak., in mid-1953, not long after discovery of oil in the Williston Basin.
Northern Pacific
F9s at Spokane
Two F9As depart Northern Pacific’s yard at Spokane, Wash., with a freight train in June 1968.
J. David Ingles
2-8-2 switching at Northtown
Pushing on a long cut of freight cars at the south end of Northtown Yard in Minneapolis is 2-8-2 1504, a member of Northern Pacific’s 160-strong W class built by Alco’s Brooks Works in 1904–07, at least 50 years before the time of this photo.
David A. Nealy
U25Cs on the move
Brand-new U25Cs 2500, 2502, and 2502 blur past Connell, Wash., with fast freight 601 during their first westbound trip on June 4, 1964. Test cars are cut in right behind the units.
Bruce Butler
Crossing Lake Pend Oreille
One of Northern Pacific’s 4-6-6-4s crosses Lake Pend Oreille at Sand Point, Idaho, with a freight train in June 1954.
Robert M. Hanft
Superior ore dock
Two Alco DL700s switch cars of iron ore atop Northern Pacific’s ore dock at Superior, Wis., in August 1958. Below, the steamer Charles L. Hutchinson waits to be loaded.
William D. Middleton
Topping Bozeman Pass
A dozen miles west of Livingston, Mont., Challenger 5123 leads an eastbound freight out of Northern Pacific’s new Bozeman Pass tunnel in July 1948, a few years after the new bore replaced the one to its south.
Robert Milner
FTs on freight
With a dynamometer car recording their performance, a shiny new set of FT diesels crests the Rocky Mountains west of Helena, Mont., in the early 1940s.
Northern Pacific
Eastbound on Bozeman Pass
U28C 2804 leads an F9B, F9A, and GP9 on Northern Pacific freight train 604 climbing the 1.9-percent west slope of Bozeman Pass in August 1968. A helper set is on the rear end.
N.F. Priebe
Westbound on Bozeman Pass
Challenger 5101 works its way up wide-open Bozeman Pass with a westbound freight in January 1941.W. R. McGee
The Northern Pacific Railway is Classic Trains‘ Railroad of the Month for May 2021. Please enjoy this freight train photo gallery sourced from the archives of the David P. Morgan Library at Kalmbach Media.
Only from Classic Trains!
The “crest of the Rocky Mts west of Helena” is Mullan Pass tunnel. And there is no mountain in the background, because (1) the train would be in the tunnel, (2) even if just outside (Blossburg, Austin) are no peaks so high nearby, above the divide.