Cascadian (train)

Soon after its debut, Great Northern introduced through sleeping car service from Seattle to Chicago via the Cascadian.{{cite news |title=G.N. Adds New Sleepers To Chicago |newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=November 4, 1929 |page=13}}

The Cascadian was officially listed as a streamliner on August 15, 1954.{{cn|date=August 2023}} The Great Northern Railway operated a daylight train between Seattle and Spokane that traversed the Cascade Mountains through the Cascade Tunnel. It then descended the eastern slopes through the Cashmere – Wenatchee apple growing region before crossing the Columbia River and climbing up to the high Columbia plateau and the wheat fields of the Inland Empire.

The Cascadian was a slow all-stops local train that required nine hours in either direction for the {{convert|330|mi|km|0}} between Seattle and Spokane.{{cite web |title=Official Guide to the Railroads, 1955 |url=http://gngoat.org/p1076.jpg |access-date=March 20, 2012}} U.S. Postal Service officials even proposed that the train's layover in Wenatchee should be lengthened to four hours to facilitate mail handling there. Most passengers between these points traveled in the Empire Builder or Western Star overnight.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

In mid-February 1959, the western terminus for the service was switched to Everett;{{cite news |title=GN to Push Plans to Shift Cascadian Run Terminus |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Oregonian |date=February 9, 1959 |page=13}} passenger service to Seattle was then handled through a transfer onto the Great Northern's Seattle–Vancouver International trains.{{cite news |title=Railroad |newspaper=The Seattle Daily Times |date=January 16, 1959 |page=32}} This led to a strike call by the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen citing a loss in mileage-based pay, but a temporary restraining order blocked the strike.{{cite news |title=Loss of Mail Would Stop 'Cascadian' |newspaper=The Seattle Daily Times |date=February 13, 1959 |page=3}} In its final months of operation, after a year of costs exceeding revenue by more than $100,000, the train had been reduced to just one coach and one baggage car.{{cite news |title=Great Northern Drops Two Trains |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |date=August 16, 1959 |page=5}} The Cascadian made its last run on August 15, 1959.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19590805&id=1gFYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H_cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5953,712548 |title=50-Year Run by Cascadian to End Soon |date=August 5, 1959 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |page=1 |access-date=March 20, 2012 |via=Google News}}

Each of the two train sets consisted of a baggage-storage-mail car, a baggage 30-foot railway post office car — both generally heavyweights but painted in the Empire Builder dark-green and orange color scheme. Next came prewar 58 seat Luxury Coaches in the 938–943 class with up to three being assigned to each consist on the busiest days. When the Cascadian was officially listed as a streamliner on August 15, 1954, it was when the railroad added the café-coach cars to the Cascadians. These cars, originally heavyweights,{{cite news |title=New Coaches in Service |newspaper=The Seattle Daily Times |date=December 17, 1952 |page=30}} had recently been remodeled and streamlined by GN shops in Minneapolis and carried the markers for the Cascadians. These cars featured 18 revenue coach seats and a café with seating for sixteen. The Cascadian was powered by either EMD F-units or passenger-equipped GP units between Seattle and Scenic, and between Wenatchee and Spokane. Between Scenic and Wenatchee was the electrified district of the Great Northern Railway and electric locomotives were assigned as power in this area until the electrified zone was discontinued in 1956. At that time, whatever power assigned in Spokane or Seattle ran through.

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{{GN named trains}}

Category:Passenger trains of the Great Northern Railway (U.S.)

Category:Named passenger trains of the United States

Category:Railway services introduced in 1954

Category:Railway services discontinued in 1959