Nostalgia & History > Yes Sir, GN Had E-units

When most of us think of Great Northern passenger trains, we envision F3s and F7s taking on-time orange and brown Empire Builders over bridges and through passes and tunnels in the Rockies and Cascades. But GN had E-units too. Thirteen E7As to be exact. They worked the flat lands with less famous trains. Here are three pictures taken in St. Paul in June of 1964 to help us remember the little fleet of 13.

1. E7A 500 with F3A 351A and F7A 370A were clearly posing for me in the engine terminal east of SPUD.

2. 501 close with an evening departure and 506 distant. Obvious to me which is the better paint scheme.

3. 506 in SPUD.


Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 18:19 by MartyBernard.

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I've enjoyed all of your GN posts, Marty.

Towards the end, GN's E7s were assigned to the St. Paul - Duluth Badger and Gopher trains. Some, if not all, survived into the BN merger.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 20:05 by RuleG.

Wonderful shots of a wonderful railway. Thanks for posting.

1200v Wrote:
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> Wonderful shots of a wonderful railway. Thanks for
> posting.

Yes, these are wonderful shots of a truly class-act....
GN ran excellent trains, right up to the merger.

As GN said, "For Passengers or Freight, the going
is great when you go Great Northern...."

The E7s were bought to power the Empire Builder, running in pairs. And they did so for a few years. But over time GN found that 2 E7s just wasn't enough. So they came up with a scheme to convert some F7Bs to passenger and run E7A/F7B/E7A lash-ups on the Builder. But before that scheme was implemented, they changed their minds and went to ABA or ABBA sets of Fs on the Builder and bumped the Es to other runs not requiring as much power.

Best regards,

Rob L.

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> When most of us think of Great Northern passenger
> trains, we envision F3s and F7s taking on-time
> orange and brown Empire Builders over bridges and
> through passes and tunnels in the Rockies and
> Cascades. But GN had E-units too. Thirteen E7As
> to be exact. They worked the flat lands with less
> famous trains. Here are three pictures taken in
> St. Paul in June of 1964 to help us remember the
> little fleet of 13.
>
> 1. E7A 500 with F3A 351A and F7A 370A were clearly
> posing for me in the engine terminal east of
> SPUD.
>
> 2. 501 close with an evening departure and 506
> distant. Obvious to me which is the better paint
> scheme.
>
> 3. 506 in SPUD.
>
>
> Enjoy,
> Marty Bernard

Well Marty you made me learn something new today, I never imagined they had E units!

Posted from iPhone

I think I remember seeing a photo (Philip Hastings?) of a GN E7 assigned to a Winnipeg train, and I'm certain I've seen one on a Vancouver train.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> I think I remember seeing a photo (Philip
> Hastings?) of a GN E7 assigned to a Winnipeg
> train, and I'm certain I've seen one on a
> Vancouver train.


Yes, the "Winnipeg Limited", the "Dakotan" and "International"
all were normally pulled by E7s. The usual morning sight at
GN Station Minneapolis was three E7s lined up side by side,
the "Gopher", the "Dakotan" and the "Winnipeg Limited" with
the eastbound builder's "Coulee-series" tapered observation
between two of the Es. It was quite a memorable scene. The
quality of these trains, even into the mid-60s was incredible.
As GN said, "Passenger or Freight, the going is great when
you go Great Northern, route of the incomparable "Empire
Builder."

Sure is nice to see these color photos of the GN I grew up with!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Very nice Marty, it really is too bad GN went to that cheaper no yellow stripe scheme.

Kris

dcmkris Wrote:
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> Very nice Marty, it really is too bad GN went to
> that cheaper no yellow stripe scheme.
>
> Kris


And then, BARF Blue.

-John