GN 265

Streamlined Baggage/Express Storage-Mail Car

Great Northern 265 is a streamlined baggage car. In service on the Osceola & St Croix Valley, it provides a concessions stand, restrooms, electricity for train lighting, room for wheel chairs, and open/gated baggage doors for viewing the scenery.

History

GN 265's story starts on January 28th, 1908, when Barney & Smith delivered a wooden, truss-rod dining car numbered GN 7109. It was one of 32 identical cars ordered from both Pullman and Barney & Smith, and delivered between 1905 and 1911. 7109 was 75' 11" long, weighed 120,000 lbs, and could serve thirty hungry passengers at a time. Equipment diagram. Had 7109 arrived on the property just two years earlier, it would have been numbered 729, following 719-724 and 726, delivered in 1905 and 1906, which had just been renumbered 7100-7106.

Between 1922 and 1924, the 7100-series dining cars were upgraded by the Jackson Street Shops. All-steel construction was demanded by the public, to reduce the risk of fire and/or telescoping in derailments. All-steel "heavyweight" cars were significantly heavier, so wooden cars like the 7100-series diners had to have stronger frames to operate in trains with all-steel cars. Commonwealth steel underframes and Miner friction draft gear provided the necessary strength. These frames retained the truss-rod appearance. Steel sheathing was screwed on at the same time, reducing maintenance and, to a degree, fooling the public. The trucks and brakes also had to be upgraded, because the stronger frame and steel sheathing increased the car's weight to 152,000 lbs. Car lighting was apparently changed from Acetylene gas to electric around the same time. GN X757 and the Gopher, on display in the Jackson Street Roundhouse, were also given Commonwealth steel underframes by the Jackson Street Shops around the same time. Of those two, the Gopher also has screwed-on steel sheathing.

On March 20th, 1926, 7109 was renumbered 1008 as part of a general passenger car renumbering.

The 1924/5 purchase of brand-new all-steel "heavyweight" diners 7000-7009 for the Oriental Limited, (renumbered 1030-1039,) and 1929 purchase of 1040-1051 for the brand-new Empire Builder, rendered the diners surplus and they were recycled for other purposes. Most were rebuilt into 420- and 440-series baggage cars: On September 9th, 1929, diner 1008 officially became baggage car 426. This included gutting and remodelling the interior, plating over the existing doors and windows, and cutting new baggage doors into the sides. When finished, it measured 76' 5 13/16" in length and weighed 136,800 lbs. It was painted Pullman green. The authorization for expenditure recorded this as the business reason: "These cars can be used to good advantage as baggage cars in passenger service. Work to be done at Jackson Street Shops. cars to be retired from work equipment under monthly retirement AFE. When completed these cars will be numbered 420 to 426 inclusive. Cars being released by new diners for new service."

In March 1946, 426 was again rebuilt, this time into lightweight, streamlined baggage car 265. The work was done at the St. Cloud shops. In reality, this rebuild was money-saving accounting magic. 426's trucks were removed and refurbished. The body was probably stripped of usable parts and scrapped. In the meantime, the shops fabricated an entirely new carbody, from the center sill up. When finished, it was set on 426's trucks and painted in the Empire Builder colors of Omaha Orange and Pullman green. It measured 73' 10 1/4" long and weighed in at 125,600 lbs. Brake equipment was the HSC electric system with pneumatic backup. (Glorified D-22.) It had no. 263 universal wheel-type handbrakes on each end. The trucks kept their clasp brakes, but were upgraded with truck-mounted brake cylinders and slack adjusters, and 5 1/2x10" Timken roller bearing journals. The equipment diagram notes "Special Axles," which might indicate 5 1/2x10" axles specially machined to fit 5x9" trucks. (Speculative - not verified.) It had controlled-slack couplers and Miner A5xB draft gear. Inside, it featured a fish rack in one corner (for parcels which might drip water) and a small desk, stove, and toilet. On each side, one baggage door opened 6' wide and the other 5'. In service, it graced most GN main-line trains at one time or another. Equipment diagram.

265, and sisters 262-264, stand out in the Great Northern roster as first attempts at home-built streamlined passenger cars. (Many railroads resorted to this in the years immediately after World War II, when demand was high and the car builders were swamped with work.) Except for the recycled heavy-weight trucks, they were completely modern and up-to-date.

From Feb 23, 1947 until Feb 25, 1950, 265 was assigned to Spokane Portland & Seattle trains 1 & 2 - the Seattle section of the 1947 Empire Builder. As such, it displayed "Empire Builder" on the letterboard, with "Great Northern" in small letters at each end. The car number was centered above each truck in the lower green band, and marked "Railway Express Agency" in the orange window band, between the baggage doors. In 1950 265 was displaced from the Empire Builder by new equipment, and probably went back into the GN's general baggage car pool. At that time the letter board was probably changed to simply read "Great Northern".

GN 265 became BN property in the 1970 merger. When Amtrak started up in 1971, 265 was not among the cars they purchased, and went into storage. It was eventually pulled for conversion into a maintenance of way car. In June 1977, it became BN 976146, tool car in the Northtown-based wreck train. The diaphragms were cut off, one (redundant) handbrake removed, and the D-22 passenger air brake control valve was replaced by an ABD freight-car valve, J1 relay, and supplementary reservoir. It was painted MOW mineral red with silver roof. Inside, an electrical generator was installed (air intake cut into the car side) which supplied electricity to the whole wreck train, and it was outfitted with several large tool cabinets. Two wash rooms with caboose toilets were installed in one end. Two Vapor-Caban caboose stoves were installed in the other end.

In the mid-1980's, the BN retired their big derricks in favor of side-boom equiped Caterpillar bulldozers. 976146 was again surplus. On June 5th, 1987, it came to the Minnesota Transportation Museum.

Circa 1991 or 1992, the finished floor was removed. (It was saturated with spilled oil.) The cabinets found homes in the shop tool room, and other hardware was saved for re-use in other restorations.

In about 1994, it was decided to renovate 976146 into a concessions car. The sub-floor, which had significant rot problems, was removed. The bottom 12" of exterior skin were also removed, to fix side sill rust damage. But these projects have a way of getting interrupted...

In 2002, the museum needed a backup to Northern Pacific 1102, which was the sole handicap access, electrical power, RPO exhibit, and concessions car on the Osceola & St Croix Valley. The renovation resumed, and by the 2004 season GN 265 was once again operating in Empire Builder colors. Renovation work included wheel truing, a new floor, completion of the side sill repairs, installation of gates over the baggage doors, a generator (donated by Onan,) restrooms, a concessions stand, and new paint inside and out.

GN 265 is a member of the museum's fleet of GN streamlined cars.

Sources:

1. "Great Northern Pictorial - Vol. 4," by John F. Strauss, Jr.; text p86, photo p126, data p161 & 164.
2. "Passenger Car Diagrams - Great Northern Railway," pub. by the Great Northern, 1912; data & plan, p194.
3. "Mech. Dept. Passenger Car Diagrams," pub. by the Great Northern, 11-1-69; data & plan, p25.
4. "Great Northern Head End Cars: Part VIII - Steel-Sheathed Baggage Cars: Rebuilds of the 1920s and 1930s - GNRHS reference sheet no. 323" pub. by the GNRHS; text p7-12.
5. "Great Northern Wood and Heavyweight Dining and Cafe Cars - GNRHS reference sheet no. 347" pub. by the GNRHS; text, photos p7-13, drawing p20-21, roster p34-35.
6. "Passenger Car Diagrams S.P.&S. Ry," by Paul T. Hobbs; data & plan.
7. "The Northwest's Own Railway - Vol 1," by Walter R. Grande; photo p265.