The Glacier Park Limited was a named passenger train operated by the Great Northern Railway in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that ran between

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

between 1915 and 1929. The Glacier Park Limited came to be when another one of Great Northern's St. Paul to Seattle routes, The Oregonian was renamed. The Limited also had a split with a small consist going to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

along the route of the

Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S) was a railroad in the northwest United States. Incorporated in 1905, it was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank o ...

. The train was meant to promote Great Northern's on-line scenic attraction Glacier Park as a tourist destination, advertising the park's unequaled scenery and easy access by its trains, which stopped on both the

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and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

edge of the park.

Route

The route taken by the Glacier Park Limited was similar to that of most of Great Northern's Oriental Limited, running from

. The Westbound Glacier Park Limited started in St. Paul, before passing through Willmar, Fargo, New Rockford,

Minot Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Minot Air Force Base, Air Force base approximately north of ...

, Havre, Whitefish,

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

, and

Cascade Tunnel The Cascade Tunnel refers to two railroad tunnels (original and its replacement) in the northwest United States, east of the Seattle metropolitan area in the Cascade Range of Washington, at Stevens Pass. It is approximately east of Everett, wit ...

before ending in Seattle. Eastbound, the limited started in Seattle, and passed through Spokane, Whitefish, Havre, Minot, Devils Lake,

Grand Forks Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

, and St. Cloud before reaching St. Paul.

Longevity

The Glacier Park Limited operated from April 25, 1915 until May 31, 1929, when the

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

's creation just a few weeks later made 3 trains along the same route redundant. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, with American railroads controlled by the

United States Railroad Administration The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was the name of the nationalisation, nationalized railroad system of the United States between December 28, 1917, and March 1, 1920. It was the largest American experiment with nationalization, and ...

, the Limited did not operate west of Havre from May 26, 1918 until May 30, 1920, a few months after the USRA relinquished control of the railroads back to their companies. The Oriental Limited took over the Glacier Park Limited's train numbers of 3 & 4 on the GN timetable once the Empire Builder took train numbers 1 & 2.

Equipment

Despite not being the flagship train of the Great Northern, The Glacier Park Limited still enjoyed luxuries seen on The Oriental Limited and later The Empire Builder, including Observation Cars to see the scenery, especially in the

Rockies The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Can ...

and Cascades. The Limited was pulled by some of the best Locomotives the Great Northern had to offer, including E-14s and H-4 Pacifics. Near the end of the train's lifecycle P-2 locomotives pulled the train. GN used their electric locomotives to pull the train through both the old

as well as the current tunnel.

References

{{GN named trains Great Northern Railway (U.S.)