Nostalgia & History > Empire Builder '66

3:30 p.m. on a warm August afternoon in 1966. Minutes out of Seattle's King Street Station comes booming, brand-new SDP-40 no. 324 leading three F's and fifteen cars of Great Northern train 32, the eastbound Empire Builder. This is a rare appearance of an SDP on the 'Builder at this date; the big EMD's were regularly assigned the long and heavy Western Star, where their 3000 horses got a good workout. Bringing up the rear is a "Coulee"-series sleeper with a small observation lounge; come fall, they'll be pulled from service, and the 'Builder permanently bobtailed. Indian summer for the American passenger train!

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Man, what a good looking train! I know a lot of folks would probably prefer the ABBA F-units but that SDP40 looks nice too. Seems to me those SD's did not last long in that scheme. Anybody know how long it was until they were painted Sky Blue?

They were repainted gradually beginning in summer '67; no. 323 remained in orange till after Amtrak day. Kurt.

I hate taking wild stabs with faulty memory, but I do it anyway. :-)

We're generally between Lower Queen Anne hill and Interbay, though the actual Interbay yard is still to the North of these shots. I recall the Black Angus being on Lower Queen Anne, somewhere near where the Holland America Line offices are now -- roughly 3rd Avenue W. and Elliott. The greenbelt has to be Kinnear Park, which now overlooks the grain terminal. Blackstock Lumber (visible in the lower photo) burned, but I believe it relocated before burning. ("Black Stock" lumber indeed, I thought at the time.) So much development in the Interbay area that the land and buildings around this site are almost completely changed.

I tried using Bing maps for reference, but couldn't place the shot exactly, though having lived here off and on since 1977 some of those industrial structures are in memory from then. But an exact GPS locator for this photo spot? Someone else who shot down here might know.

~ BZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/11 16:15 by Notch16.

I think this is the north end of Elliot way just before it bends around to 15th W. I was thinking the leveled ground that Kurt was taking the photo from was the site prep for the grain elevator that was built on the bay just east of the old Pier 91 site.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Great photo of a great train. Was this during the airline strike of 1966 that really inflated the passenger counts on all of the trains? Perhaps that's why the SDP40 was leading the train.

This photo also brings up a question I've always had: originally the GN paint scheme matched the passenger cars. Yet the three Fs here have the simplified paint scheme, but the entire train kept the original paint scheme. Seems to me that the passenger assigned Fs should have kept the old paint scheme, but anything freight been simplified. That certainly made even a more amazing looking train!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

The area directly in front of the photographer is where they began filling in the waterfront from the Edgewater Hotel north to almost pier 90/91 for what would become the Grain Elevators and receiving yard that are there today. They dredged the sand from Elliott Bay to deepen it and provide the "land" for the new facility. Bob

I think it is pretty amazing, at this late date, there would be a solid consist without some odd ball car in the mix.

I’m not sure if the airline strike was going on at that moment, but this was a typical mid-sixties summer consist; in fact, the train often ran longer, frequently rating 5 F’s. See “Seattle Railroad Pictorial” video for a moving picture of another day’s train in the same location. At this time, the Empire Builder was not permitted to sully itself with any “oddball” cars; numerous offline, tour group Pullmans heading for Glacier Park were handled on the Western Star, which the ‘Builder did not stop at (!). Kurt.

Ah yes, the Western Star....the "poor mans streamliner" which I was honored to ride on my first trip to the midwest! My next trip east was on the City of Portland and there was no comparison between the two! But I do have to add both greatly outclassed a trip to Omaha on the Pioneer/Zephyr of 1982 in May of that year, when the A/C on the Pioneer wouldn't quit and the A/C on the Zephyr never came on.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Great photo.
Anybody know what the green building is?
Curious if it's the dairy that one of the family members was working at, right about this time frame as well. If you can see an old white rambler in the parking lot that might be her. Might have had the Hillman that year.

Just went to Historicaerials looking for the building, they have a 1969, 1968 and then 1936 photo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/11 17:15 by TCnR.

Nice! Keep 'em coming Kurt!

and of course the Portland cars would be added in Spokane off the SP&S to make the train even longer