1097 is one of two identical Great Northern, ex-C&NW "400" streamlined coaches owned by the Minnesota Transportation Museum. It is a member of the museum's GN streamlined passenger train set.
Both were originally built for the Chicago and North Western's premier "400" passenger trains. Part of a May 1944 order for twenty cars, 1097 was delivered as C&NW 3444 between February and April 1947. It was part of lot 6722, and built to plan 7485. Construction details included full-width diaphragms, side skirting below the frame line and fold-up vestibule steps, 41-N trucks with Fafnir roller bearings, piston snubbers and truck-mounted brake cylinders, a Waukesha propane-powered ice engine (air conditioning compressor) and very similar Waukesha 7.5 kw enginator (engine-generator set.) The exterior had yellow sides and a green roof, letterboard and skirting. Black pinstripes separated the green and yellow, and a third ran just below the windows. "CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN" was spelled out in silver on the letterboard in railroad roman, a speedlined "400" was centered on the car side below the windows, and the car number was below the set of three end windows, offset towards the center of the car. The interior was very much the way it is today, except more richly decorated with venetion blinds, leather panels between the windows, textured fabric seat upholstery, and bullseye - wings designs in the aisle linoleum. The small room at the end with circular windows was a smoker's lounge with three chairs at each end and two more in front of the center window. Two fabric curtains covered the panels between the three windows. Click here to see a high-res scan of the C&NW equipment diagram.
In 1958-59, 3444 was rebuilt by Pullman and renumbered 808. It was reconditioned to as-new and the decor greatly simplified. Outside, standard diaphragms replaced the full-width ones, the side skirting was removed, and rigid vestibule steps replaced the fold-up ones. The black pinstripes and "400" logo were omitted, the letterboard lettering was yellow instead of silver, and the car number was in black, located below the windows near each end. Inside the fancy aisle design and window trim disappeared, the seats were reupholstered in vinyl, and the windows given a heavy green tint.
In 1963, after the Twin Cities 400 and Rochester 400 had been discontinued, 808 was sold to the Great Northern, who needed extra seating for the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. They renumbered it 1097 and painted it in their "Empire Builder" Omaha orange and Pullman green. One mechanical change made was replacing the Waukesha enginator with an axle-driven generator. At some point also the smoking lounge was converted into a small kitchen, which involved blanking out the end window. Click here to see a high-res scan of the GN equipment diagram.
After the startup of Amtrak, 1096 and 1097 were used on the State of Minnesota-sponsored Twin-Cities to Duluth "Arrowhead." When Amtrak began purchasing new cars, they were returned to the BN because they were not of stainless steel construction.
For students of passenger car history, RPC publications (publishers of the "Official Pullman-Standard Library") has assigned this car serial number PS46-1206-009.
1097 was acquired by the Minnesota Transportation Museum and is now used on Osceola & St. Croix Valley passenger trains. The kitchen/smoking lounge area has been partly converted back to a smoking lounge configuration. It has 56 seats and, as usual for streamlined cars, has air conditioning. Because most of the C&NW "400" cars were scrapped, and only one other is known to be operating, these two are rather rare pieces of history.
In 2000, both 1096 and 1097 were given "quickie" paint jobs for an excursion to Marshfield, WI. Since then, 1096 has received toilets, body work, new windows, and "spit and polish" of interior details. Now its 1097's turn. In early 2005 floor and some window work was done. Starting fall '05, it goes into the shop for mechanical work, toilet installation, window upgrades, paint, and "spit and polish".
Because of high demand for dinner and first class trains, 1097 has temporarily been converted from a coach into a diner-lounge. It is usually paired with biz car GN A11. The coach seats are stored, so that it can return to its original configuration when more appropriate cars, such as parlor-obs GN 1195, coach-diner GN 1146, and eventually buffet-parlor-obs GN 1084, become available for service.
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