Northern Pacific Railway

Map of NPR Land Grant, c1890

Congress chartered the Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864 with the goals of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the Pacific, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country.[1]

Congress granted the railroad a potential 60 million acres (243,000 km²) of land in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped territory. Josiah Perham was elected its first president on December 7, 1864.[1] It could not use all the land and in the end took just under 40 million acres.[2]

For the next six years, backers of the road struggled to find financing. Though John Gregory Smith succeeded Perham as president on January 5, 1865, groundbreaking did not take place until February 15, 1870, at Carlton, Minnesota, 25 miles (40 km) west of Duluth, Minnesota. The backing and promotions of famed financier Jay Cooke in the summer of 1870 brought the first real momentum to the company.

The Minnetonka.

Over the course of 1871, the Northern Pacific pushed westward from Minnesota into present-day North Dakota. Surveyors and construction crews had to maneuver through swamps, bogs, and tamarack forests. The difficult terrain and insufficient funding delayed by six months the construction phase in Minnesota.[3] The NP also began building its line north from Kalama, Washington Territory, on the Columbia River outside of Portland, Oregon, towards Puget Sound. Four small construction engines were purchased, the Minnetonka, Itaska, Ottertail and St. Cloud, the first of which was shipped to Kalama by ship around Cape Horn. In Minnesota, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad completed construction of its 155-mile (249 km) line stretching from Saint Paul to Lake Superior at Duluth in 1870. It was leased to the Northern Pacific in 1876, and was eventually absorbed by the Northern Pacific. The North Coast Limited was the Northern Pacific's flagship train and the Northern Pacific itself was built along the trail first blazed by Lewis and Clark.[4]

Preferred Shares of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, issued 28. November 1881

The Northern Pacific reached Fargo, Dakota Territory (N.D.), early in June 1872. The following year, in June 1873, the N.P. reached the shores of the Missouri River, at Edwinton (Bismarck) D.T. In the west, the track extended 25 miles (40 km) north from Kalama. Surveys were carried out in North Dakota protected by 600 troops under General Winfield Scott Hancock. Headquarters and shops were established in Brainerd, Minnesota, a town named for the President John Gregory Smith's wife Anna Elizabeth Brainerd. A severe stock market crash and financial collapse after 1873, led by the Credit Mobilier Scandal and the Union Pacific Railroad fraud, stopped further railroad building for twelve years.

In 1886, the company put down 164 miles (264 km) of main line across North Dakota, with an additional 45 miles (72 km) in Washington. On November 1, General George Washington Cass became the third president of the company. Cass had been a vice-president and director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and would lead the Northern Pacific through some of its most difficult times.

Attacks on survey parties and construction crews by Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa warriors in North Dakota and Minnesota became so prevalent that the company received protection from units of the U.S. Army.[5]

In 1886 the Northern Pacific also opened colonization offices in Germany and Scandinavia, attracting farmers with cheap package transportation and purchase deals. The success of the NP was based on the abundant crops of wheat and other grains and the attraction to settlers of the Red River Valley along the Minnesota-North Dakota border between 1881 and 1890.[6]

The Northern Pacific reached Dakota Territory at Fargo in 1872, and began its career as one of the central factors in the economic growth of North Dakota. The climate, although very cold, was suitable for wheat, which was in high demand in the cities of the United States and Europe. Most of the settlers were German and Scandinavian immigrants who bought the land cheaply, and raised large families. They shipped huge quantities of wheat to Minneapolis, while buying all sorts of equipment and home supplies to be shipped in by rail.[7]

The NP used its federal land grants as security to borrow money to build its system.[8] The federal government kept every other section of land, and gave it away free to homesteaders. At first the railroad sold much of its holdings at low prices to land speculators in order to realize quick cash profits, and also to eliminate sizable annual tax bills. By 1905 the railroad company's land policies changed, after it was judged a costly mistake to have sold much of the land at wholesale prices. With better railroad service and improved methods of farming the Northern Pacific easily sold what had been heretofore "worthless" land directly to farmers at good prices. By 1910 the railroad's holdings in North Dakota had been greatly reduced.[9][10]

In 1873, Northern Pacific made impressive strides before a terrible stumble. Rails from the east reached the Missouri River on June 4. After several years of study, Tacoma, Washington, was selected as the road's western terminus on July 14, 1873.

For the previous three years the financial house of Jay Cooke and Company had been throwing money into the construction of the Northern Pacific. As with many western transcontinentals, the staggering costs of building a railroad into a vast wilderness had been drastically underestimated. Cooke had little success in marketing the bonds in Europe and overextended his house in meeting overdrafts of the mounting construction costs. Cooke overestimated his managerial skills and failed to appreciate the limits of a banker's ability to be also a promoter, and the danger of freezing his assets in the bonds of the Northern Pacific.[11] Cooke and Company went bankrupt on September 18, 1873. Soon the Panic of 1873 engulfed the United States, beginning an economic depression that ruined or nearly paralyzed newer railroads.

The Northern Pacific survived bankruptcy that year, due to austerity measures put in place by President Cass. In fact, working with last-minute loans from Director John C. Ainsworth of Portland, the Northern Pacific completed the line from Kalama to Tacoma (110 miles (180 km)) before the end of 1873. On December 16, the first steam train arrived in Tacoma. But in 1874 the company was moribund.

Northern Pacific slipped into its first bankruptcy on June 30, 1875. Cass resigned to become receiver of the company, and Charles Barstow Wright became its fourth president. Frederick Billings, namesake of Billings, Montana, formulated a reorganization plan which was put into effect.

Throughout 1874-1876, elements of the 7th Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer operating out of Forts Abraham Lincoln and Rice in Dakota Territory conducted expeditions to protect the railroad survey and construction crews in Dakota and Montana Territories.

In 1877, construction resumed in a small way. Northern Pacific pushed a branch line southeast from Tacoma to Puyallup, Washington and on to the coal fields around Wilkeson, Washington. Much of the coal was destined for export through Tacoma to San Francisco, California, where it would be thrown into the fireboxes of Central Pacific Railroad steam engines.

This small amount of construction was one of the largest projects the company would undertake in the years between 1874 and 1880. That same year the company built a large shop complex at Edison, Washington (now part of south Tacoma). For many years the shops at Brainerd and Edison would carry out heavy repairs and build equipment for the railroad.

On May 24, 1879, Frederick Billings became the president of the company. Billings' tenure would be short but ferocious. Reorganization, bond sales, and improvement in the U.S. economy allowed Northern Pacific to strike out across the Missouri River by letting a contract to build 100 miles (160 km) of railroad west of the river. The railroad's new-found strength, however, would be seen as a threat in certain quarters.

Yellowstone Park Line Brochure 1904

Oregon and Transcontinental stock owned by Henry Villard.

German-born journalist Henry Villard had raised capital for western railroads in Europe in 1871-73. After returning to New York in 1874 he invested on behalf of his clients in railroads in Oregon. Through Villard's work, most of these lines became properties of the European creditors' holding company, the Oregon and Transcontinental Company.

Of the lines held by the Oregon and Transcontinental, the most important was the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which ran east from Portland along the left bank of the Columbia River to a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad's Oregon Short Line at the confluence of the Columbia River and the Snake River near Wallula, Washington.

Within a decade of his return, Villard was head of a transportation empire in the Pacific Northwest that had but one real competitor, the Northern Pacific. The Northern Pacific's completion threatened the holdings of Villard in the Northwest, and especially in Portland. Portland would become a second-class city if the Puget Sound ports at Tacoma and Seattle, Washington, were connected to the East by rail.

Villard, who had been building a monopoly of river and rail transportation in Oregon for several years, now launched a daring raid. Using his European connections and a reputation for having "bested" Jay Gould in a battle for control of the Kansas Pacific years before, Villard solicited — and raised — $8,000,000 from his associates. This was his famous "Blind Pool," Villard's associates were not told what the money would be used for. In this case, the funds were used to purchase control of the Northern Pacific.

Despite a tough fight, Billings and his backers were forced to capitulate; he resigned the presidency June 9, 1881. Ashabel H. Barney served briefly as interim caretaker of the railroad from June 19 to September 15, when Villard was elected president by the stockholders. For the next two years, Villard and the Northern Pacific rode the whirlwind.

In 1882, 360 miles (580 km) of main line and 368 miles (592 km) of branch line were completed, bringing totals to 1,347 miles (2,168 km) and 731 miles (1,176 km), respectively. On October 10, 1882, the line from Wadena, Minnesota, to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, opened for service. The Missouri River was bridged with a million-dollar span on October 21, 1883. Until then, crossing of the Missouri had had to be managed with a ferry service for most of the year; in winter, when ice was thick enough, rails were laid across the river itself.

General Herman Haupt, another veteran of the Civil War and the Pennsylvania Railroad, organized the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association in 1881. A forerunner of the modern health maintenance organization, the NPBA ultimately established a series of four hospitals across the system in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Glendive, Montana; Missoula, Montana; and Tacoma, Washington, to care for employees, retirees, and their families.

On January 15, 1883, the first train reached Livingston, Montana, at the eastern foot of Bozeman Pass. Livingston, like Brainerd and South Tacoma before it, would grow to encompass a large backshop handling heavy repairs for the railroad. It would also mark the east-west dividing line on the Northern Pacific system.

Villard pushed hard for the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883. His crews laid an average of a mile and half (2.4 km) of track each day. In early September, the line neared completion. To celebrate, and to gain national publicity for investment opportunities in his region, Villard chartered four trains to carry guests from the East to Gold Creek in western Montana. No expense was spared and the list of dignitaries included Frederick Billings, Ulysses S. Grant, and Villard's in-laws, the family of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. On September 8, the Gold Spike was driven near Gold Creek.[12]

Villard's fall was swifter than his ascendancy. Like Jay Cooke, he was now consumed by the enormous costs of constructing the railroad. Wall Street bears attacked the stock shortly after the Golden Spike, after the realization that the Northern Pacific was a very long road with very little business. Villard himself suffered a nervous breakdown in the days after the driving of the Golden Spike, and he left the presidency of the Northern Pacific in January 1884.

Again, the presidency of the Northern Pacific was handed to a professional railroader, Robert Harris, former head of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. For the next four years, until the return of the Villard group, Harris worked at improving the property and ending its tangled relationship with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.

Throughout the mid-1880s, the Northern Pacific pushed to reach Puget Sound directly, rather than by means of a roundabout route that followed the Columbia River. Surveys of the Cascade Mountains, carried out intermittently since the 1870s, began anew. Virgil Bogue, a veteran civil engineer, was sent to explore the Cascades again. On March 19, 1881, he discovered Stampede Pass. In 1883, John W. Sprague, the head of the new Pacific Division, drove the Golden Spike to mark the beginning of the railroad from what would become Kalama, Washington. He resigned a months later due to impaired health.

In 1884, after the departure of Villard, the Northern Pacific began building toward Stampede Pass from Wallula in the east and the area of Wilkeson in the west. By the end of the year, rails had reached Yakima, Washington in the east. A 77-mile (124 km) gap remained in 1886.

In January of that year, Nelson Bennett was given a contract to construct a 9,850-foot (1.866 mi; 3.00 km) tunnel under Stampede Pass. The contract specified a short amount of time for completion, and a large penalty if the deadline were missed. While crews worked on the tunnel, the railroad built a temporary switchback route across the pass. With numerous timber trestles and grades which approached six percent, the temporary line required two M class 2-10-0s — the two largest locomotives in the world (at that time) — to handle a tiny five-car train. On May 3, 1888, crews holed through the tunnel, and on May 27 the first train passed through directly to Puget Sound.

Despite this success, the Northern Pacific, like many U.S. roads, was living on borrowed time. From 1887 until 1893, Henry Villard returned to the board of directors. Though offered the presidency, he refused. An associate of Villard dating back to his time on the Kansas Pacific, Thomas Fletcher Oakes, assumed the presidency on September 20, 1888.

In an effort to garner business, Oakes pursued an aggressive policy of branch line expansion. In addition, the Northern Pacific experienced the first competition in the form of James Jerome Hill and his Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern, like the Northern Pacific before it, was pushing west from the Twin Cities towards Puget Sound, and would be completed in 1893.

To combat the Great Northern, in a few instances Villard built branch line mileage simply to occupy a territory, regardless of whether the territory offered the railroad any business. Mismanagement, sparse traffic, and the Panic of 1893 sounded the death knell for the Northern Pacific and Villard's interest in railroading. The company slipped into its second bankruptcy on October 20, 1893. Oakes was named receiver and Brayton Ives, a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, became president.

In 1894, the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army was involved in protecting property of the Northern Pacific Railroad from striking workers.[13]

For the next three years, the Villard-Oakes interests and the Ives interest feuded for control of the Northern Pacific. Oakes was eventually forced out as receiver, but not before three separate courts were claiming jurisdiction over the Northern Pacific's bankruptcy. Things came to a head in 1896, when first Edward Dean Adams was appointed president, then less than two months later, Edwin Winter.

Ultimately, the task of straightening out the muddle of the Northern Pacific was turned over to J. P. Morgan. Morganization of the Northern Pacific, a process which befell many U.S. roads in the wake of the Panic of 1893, was handed to Morgan lieutenant Charles Henry Coster. The new president, beginning September 1, 1897, was Charles Sanger Mellen.[14]

Though James J. Hill had purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific during the troubled days of 1896, Coster and Mellen would advocate, and follow, a staunchly independent line for the Northern Pacific for the next four years. Only the early death of Coster from overwork, and the promotion of Mellen to head the Morgan-controlled New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1903, would bring the Northern Pacific closer to the orbit of James J. Hill.[15]

Map of Northern Pacific's route circa 1900.

In the late 1880s, the Villard regime, in another one of its costly missteps, attempted to stretch the Northern Pacific from the Twin Cities to the all-important rail hub of Chicago, Illinois. A costly project was begun in creating a union station and terminal facilities for a Northern Pacific which had yet to arrive.

Rather than build directly down to Chicago, perhaps following the Mississippi River as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy had done, Villard chose to lease the Wisconsin Central. Some backers of the Wisconsin Central had long associations with Villard, and an expensive lease was worked out between the two companies which was only undone by the Northern Pacific's second bankruptcy.

The ultimate result was that the Northern Pacific was left without a direct connection to Chicago, the primary interchange point for most of the large U.S. railroads. Fortunately, the Northern Pacific was not alone. James J. Hill, controller of the Great Northern Railway, which was completed between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound in 1893, also lacked a direct connection to Chicago. Hill went looking for a road with an existing route between the Twin Cities and Chicago which could be rolled into his holdings and give him a stable path to that important interchange. At the same time, E. H. Harriman, head of the Union Pacific Railroad, was also looking for a road which could connect his company to Chicago.

The road both Harriman and Hill looked at was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. To Harriman, the Burlington was a road which paralleled much of his own, and offered tantalizing direct access to Chicago. For Hill as well, there was the possibility of a high-speed link directly with Chicago. Though the Burlington did not parallel the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific, it would give them a powerful railroad in the central West. Harriman was the first to approach the Burlington's aging leader, the irascible Charles Elliott Perkins. The price for control of the Burlington, as set by Perkins, was $200 a share, more than Harriman was willing to pay. Hill met the price, and control of the Burlington was divided equally at about 48.5 percent each between the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific.

Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: Buy a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and use its power on the Burlington to place friendly directors upon its board. On May 3, 1901, Harriman began his stock raid which would become known as the Northern Pacific Corner. By the end of the day he was short just 40,000 shares of common stock. Harriman placed an order to cover this, but was overridden by his broker, Jacob Schiff, of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Hill, on the other hand, reached the vacationing Morgan in Italy and managed to place an order for 150,000 shares of common stock. Though Harriman might be able to control the preferred stock, Hill knew the company bylaws allowed for the holders of the common stock to vote to retire the preferred.

In three days the Harriman-Hill imbroglio managed to wreak havoc on the stock market. Northern Pacific stock was quoted at $150 a share on May 6, and is reported to have traded as much as $1,000 a share behind the scenes. Harriman and Hill now worked to settle the issue for brokers to avoid panic. Hill, for his part, attempted to avoid future stock raids by placing his holdings in the Northern Securities Company, a move which would be undone by the Supreme Court in 1904 under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Harriman was not immune either; he was forced to break up his holdings in the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railroad a few years later.

In 1903, Hill finally got his way with the House of Morgan. Howard Elliott, another veteran of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, became president of the Northern Pacific on October 23. Elliott was a relative of the Burlington's crusty chieftain Charles Elliott Perkins, and more distantly the Burlington's great backer, John Murray Forbes. He had spent 20 years in the trenches of Midwest railroading, where rebates, pooling, expansion and rate wars had brought ruinous competition. Having seen the effects of having multiple railroads attempt to serve the same destination, he was very much in tune with James J. Hill's philosophy of "community of interest," a loose affiliation or collusion among roads in an attempt to avoid duplicating routes, rate wars, weak finances and ultimately bankruptcies and reorganizations. Elliott would be left to make peace with the Hill-controlled Great Northern; the Harriman-controlled Union Pacific; and, between 1907 and 1909, the last of the northern transcontinentals, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, more commonly known as the Milwaukee Road.

A Northern Pacific train travels
over Bozeman Pass in June 1939

After the turn of the century the Northern Pacific had a record of steady improvement. Together with the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific also gained control of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, gaining important access to Chicago, the central Middle West and Texas, as well as the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, an important route through eastern and southern Washington. Its physical plant was upgraded continuously, with double-tracking in key areas, and automatic block signaling along its entire main line. This in turn gave way to centralized traffic control, microwave and radio communications as time progressed.

The Northern Pacific maintained and continuously upgraded its equipment and service. The road helped pioneer the 4-8-4 Northern type steam engine, the 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone, and was among the first railroads in the country to adopt diesel power beginning with General Motors’ FTs in 1944.

NP depot at Wallace in north Idaho, 2007

The Northern Pacific's premier passenger train, the North Coast Limited was among the safest and finest in the nation, suffering only one passenger fatality in nearly seventy years of operation.

By 1900, most of the remaining land-grant holdings were located west of Montana, in the "western district." The railroad still hoped to sell this land, both to provide operating funds and to populate the region to provide new markets to sustain the railroad. Nearly all the good farm land had been sold, leaving large tracts of grazing land or timber. The grazing acreage was poor quality, and difficult to sell. However, the timber lands were of high quality; much of it was sold to Frederick Weyerhaeuser. [16]

In later years, consolidation in American railroading brought the Northern Pacific together with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway on March 2, 1970, to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. The merger was allowed despite a challenge in the Supreme Court, essentially reversing the outcome of the 1904 Northern Securities ruling. A 900 mi (1,400 km) portion of the former Northern Pacific mainline in Montana was spun off and is now operated by Montana Rail Link.

Headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, the Lake Superior Division's main routes were from Duluth to Ashland, Wisconsin, Duluth to Staples, Minnesota, and Duluth to White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The division encompassed 631 route miles; 356 in main line and 274 in branches.

Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, the St. Paul Division's main routes were from Saint Paul to Staples, Saint Paul to White Bear Lake, and Staples to Dilworth, Minnesota. The division encompassed 909 route miles; 310 in main line and 599 in branches.

Headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, the Fargo Division's main routes were from Dilworth to Mandan, North Dakota. The division encompassed 1,167 route miles; 216 in main line and 951 in branches.

Headquartered in Glendive, Montana, the Yellowstone Division's main routes were from Mandan, North Dakota, to Billings, Montana, and from Billings to Livingston, Montana. The division encompassed 875 route miles; 546 in main line and 328 in branches.

Headquartered in Missoula, Montana, the Rocky Mountain Division's main routes were from Livingston to Paradise, Montana via Helena, Montana and Mullan Pass, and from Logan, Montana, to Garrison, Montana, via Butte, Montana, and Homestake Pass. The division encompassed 892 route miles; 563 in main line and 330 in branches. It was home to the principal central district repair facility at Livingston, Montana.

Headquartered in Spokane, Washington, the Idaho Division's main routes were from Paradise, Mont., to Yakima, Washington, via Pasco, Washington. The division encompassed 1,123 route miles; 466 in main line and 657 in branches.

Headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, the Tacoma Division's main routes were from Yakima to Stuck Junction, near future Auburn, Washington, Seattle, Washington to Sumas, Washington, on the border with British Columbia, Canada, and from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. The division encompassed 1,034 route miles; 373 in main line and 661 in branches. It was home to the principal west end repair facility at South Tacoma, Washington.[17]

As the railroad expanded, immigrants, families, and single men moved to the Pacific Northwest. Tacoma's population grew rapidly: in 1880 there were 1,098 residents, and in 1889 there were 36,000. [18]

Actress Lillian Russell and other Hollywood stars were hired to promote the railroad's potatoes.

A comic postcard circa 1910 to 1920 promoting "The Great Big Baked Potato".

Hazen Titus was appointed as the line's dining car superintendent in 1908. He learned that Yakima Valley farmers were unable to sell their potato crops because the potatoes they were growing were simply too large; they fed them to the hogs. Titus learned that a single potato could weigh from two to five pounds, but that smaller potatoes were preferred by the end buyers of the vegetable because many people considered large potatoes inedible due to their thick, rough skin.[20]

Titus and his staff discovered the "inedible" potatoes were delicious after baking in a slow oven. He contracted to purchase as many potatoes as the farmers could produce that were more than two pounds in weight. Soon after the first delivery of "Netted Gem Bakers", they were offered to diners on the North Coast Limited beginning in early 1909. Word of the line's specialty offering traveled quickly, and before long it was using "the Great Big Baked Potato" as a slogan to promote the railroad's passenger service. Hollywood stars were hired to promote it.[21] When an addition was built for the Northern Pacific's Seattle commissary in 1914, a Railway Age reporter wrote, "A large trade mark, in the shape of a baked potato, 40 ft. long and 18 ft. in diameter, surmounts the roof. The potato is electric lighted and its eyes, through the electric mechanism, are made to wink constantly. A cube of butter thrust into its split top glows intermittently." Premiums such as postcards, letter openers, and spoons were also produced to promote "The Route of the Great Big Baked Potato"; the slogan served the Northern Pacific for about 50 years.[20]

N.P. locomotive No. 2223 stops in Carrington, N.D., on a frigid day February 1948. This 4-6-2 "Pacific" type was built by Alco in 1910 and scrapped in 1957.

Twenty-one Northern Pacific steam locomotives have been preserved:

• Two 0-4-0 engines (the Minnetonka and 8). The Minnetonka was built by Porter and Smith in 1870, and is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota. It has the distinction of being shipped in parts around Cape Horn and reassembled at Kalama, Washington circa 1871.
• Five 0-6-0 engines, representing classes L-4 (927), L-5 (924), L-7 (1031) and L-9 (1068). Locomotive 1070 is located in Acme, WA.at the Lake Whatcom Railroad historically preserved by Owner/Engineer Frank Culp. L-4 927 is displayed at the Ironhorse Central Railroad Museum Chisago City, Minnesota. L-7 1031 is displayed at the Yellowstone Valley Museum in Billings, MT.
• One 2-6-2 engine, Class T (2435). The locomotive was built by the Brooks Locomotive Works in 1907 and is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.
• One 2-8-0 engine, Class Y-1 (25).
• One 2-8-2 engine, Class W-3 (1762).
• Two 4-4-0 engines, classes C-1 (684), and 25½-C (21). NP 684 was built by the New York Locomotive Works in 1883. Sold off and later abandoned in a field in Idaho, it was rescued and rebuilt by the Northern Pacific at the instigation of company photographer Ronald V. Nixon. It is on display at Bonanzaville, USA in Fargo, North Dakota. NP 21 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1872 and was later sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway and became the CP 1, the Countess of Dufferin. The engine is now owned by the City of Winnipeg and on permanent display in the Winnipeg Railway Museum.
• Five 4-6-0 Baldwin engines, representing classes S-4 (1354, 1356, 1364 and 1382) and Class S-10 (328). The 1364 is being restored by the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, Washington. The 1356 was built in 1902 placed on display in 1957 in downtown Missoula, Montana next to the historic Northern Pacific railway depot built 1901. The 1356 is very famous in western Montana and north Idaho for its use to save many people's lives in the 3-million-acre Bitterroot forest fires of 1910 escaping through fires on both sides of the track even traveling over a railroad trestle that was ablaze outside of Avery, Idaho. In 1943 tragedy struck while the 1356 was pulling 28 log filled cars. The 1356 derailed on a collapsing bridge into the Bitterroot river killing all three crew. The 1356 was buried by the log train and even the recovery crane toppled on top of 1356 during the recovery. 1356 was rebuilt in Livingston, Montana and returned to service. Missoula, Montana has a celebration every year for the 1356. The 328 was built by Rogers Locomotive Works in 1907 and is owned by the Minnesota Transportation Museum and is being restored in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Four 4-6-2 engines, representing Class Q-3 (2152, 2153, 2156 and 2164). The 2152 is owned and displayed by the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, WA. The 2153 and 2156 were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1909 are owned by the Minnesota Transportation Museum. The 2156 is being restored in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The 2164 is on display at Camp Hancock State Historic Site in Bismarck, North Dakota.

SP&S 700 under steam at Portland Union Station in 1991.

In addition, preserved Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700, a 4-8-4, was derived from Northern Pacific designs.

• Burlington Northern Railroad 1 and 2, formerly Northern Pacific 6700A and 7002C, EMD F9s, were built in 1954 and later rebuilt by BN for special train service. They are now owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and are operational at the museum.
• Northern Pacific 3617, an EMD SD45 built 1967 restored and operated by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 7012A an EMD F9 built 1956 was donated to the Western Forest Industries Museum ca. 1983 by BN. Now under the care of Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad.

Northern Pacific 325 at Illinois Railway Museum in 2007

• Northern Pacific 230, a 73-foot (22 m) lightweight baggage car built by Pullman Company in 1963, is now owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and is on display in Union, Illinois. The streamlined car was formerly in service on the Northern Pacific's Mainstreeter.
• Northern Pacific 255 is a lightweight baggage car built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1965. It was donated to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in 1981.
• Northern Pacific 325, a Slumbercoach named Loch Sloy built by the Budd Company in 1959, is now owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and is on display in Union, Illinois. The car was formerly in service on the Northern Pacific's North Coast Limited.
• Northern Pacific 390, a lightweight 4-double bedroom, 1-compartment sleeper-buffet-lounge-observation car named Rainier Club and built by Pullman Company in 1947, is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota. The car was in service on the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited.
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 481, a lightweight 8-duplex roomette, 6-roomette, 3-double bedroom, 1-compartment sleeper car named Savannah built by the Pullman Company in 1948 to Northern Pacific specifications is now owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and is on display in Union, Illinois. The car was in service on the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited.
• Northern Pacific 517, a lightweight, 56 seat coach built by Pullman Standard in 1946, was used on the North Coast Limited and the Mainstreeter. It was sold to the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway in 1974 and was acquired by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in 2000 and repainted in Northern Pacific colors.
• Northern Pacific 627, a heavyweight coach built in 1910 by the Pullman Company as an all steel, electric lit and steam heated parlor car named Dunlap and assigned to the Pennsylvania Railroad for the opening of the Pennsylvania Station in New York City. It was sold in 1941 to the Northern Pacific and rebuilt into NP 627, an 86-seat heavyweight coach in 1942. It was used on the Northern Pacific's Casey Jones Excursions including the final runs of steam locomotives NP 1372, NP 1776 and NP 2626. Its last run for the Northern Pacific was Christmas Eve of 1964 on the transcontinental Mainstreeter. It was sold in 1968 to the Lake Whatcom Railway where it remains in use.
• Northern Pacific 634, a heavyweight coach built in 1912 by the Pullman Company as a parlor car named Clearview and assigned to the Pennsylvania Railroad for the inaugural Broadway Limited. It was sold in 1941 to the Northern Pacific and converted in 1942 to an 88-seat coach. It was used on the Northern Pacific's Casey Jones Excursions including the final runs of steam locomotives NP 1372, NP 1776 and NP 2626. Its last run for the Northern Pacific was Christmas Eve of 1964 on the transcontinental Mainstreeter. It was sold in 1968 to the Lake Whatcom Railway where it remains in use.
• Northern Pacific 1102, a heavyweight Railway Post Office car built by the Pullman Company in 1914 as a parlor car named Reba. It was later rebuilt by the NP into NP 631, an 86-seat heavyweight coach, and in 1947 as a triple combine car with a fifteen-foot RPO section. In 1965 it was refitted by the NP's Signal Department for use as a training car. The car has been rebuilt to its triple combine configuration and gives demonstrations of how the U.S. Mail used to move by rail at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1370, a heavyweight coach built by the Pullman Company in 1915 for service on the North Coast Limited. The car is on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1447, a Railway Post Office car built in 1914, is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1512, a heavyweight baggage car built by the Pullman Company in 1915, is in service on the Lake Whatcom Railway at Wickersham, Washington.
• Northern Pacific 1681, a coffee shop coach built by the Pullman Company in 1923 as an NP coach and rebuilt to a coffee shop coach in 1957 for use on the transcontinental Mainstreeter between Seattle and Spokane. It is in use at the Lake Whatcom Railway, Wickersham, Washington.
• Northern Pacific Madison River, a heavyweight business car built by the Pullman Company in 1926 as North Coast Limited Observation Car 1716. It was converted to a Business Car 2 in 1943 and survived past the 1970 merger. It remains in use on the Lake Whatcom Railway.
• Eight cars originally built for Northern Pacific by the Pullman Company in the early 1900s are now used in daily service on the Napa Valley Wine Train (NVRR). These cars were sold by NP to Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1960 and were used for the Ski Train between Denver and Winter Park, Colorado, before the NVRR purchased them in 1987.

Many NP passenger cars remain in private collections.

• Northern Pacific 1238, a wood cupola caboose Was purchased by Nalley's Fine Foods, Tacoma, Washington from the BN in 1975 and was used for the Project NP1364 restoration but was remodeled as a clubhouse for Nalley's and parked by the Seattle KING DOME until the dome was torn down then donated to the NP Museum in Toppenish, Washington where it was restored to its pre-1950s look without the large herald and MAIN STREET OF THE NORTHWEST logos and is on display in Toppenish, Washington
• Northern Pacific 1264, originally NP 1144, a wood cupola caboose built in 1901 by the South Baltimore Car Works in Baltimore, Maryland. The car served for many years on Idaho Division freight trains and is now on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1311, a wood cupola caboose built in 1913, is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1631, a wood cupola caboose, is now on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1660, a wood cupola caboose, which was the first to have the NP trademark "monad" painted on its side, is now on display at the Lake Whatcom Railway, Wickersham, Washington.
• Northern Pacific 1730, now Minnesota Transfer Railway X-12, is a former cupola caboose built for the Northern Pacific in 1921 by Pacific Car and Foundry. It was sold in 1966 to the Minnesota Transfer Railway and converted into a bay window caboose. It is now owned by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum and is on display in North Freedom, Wisconsin.
• Northern Pacific 1781, a wood cupola caboose built in 1923, is now owned by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum and is on display in North Freedom, Wisconsin.

Numerous NP cabooses remain in private collections.

• Northern Pacific 30, a Russell snowplow, is now on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 38, a steam wrecking derrick built by Industrial Works in Bay City, Michigan in 1913, is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 19, a wedge snowplow built by the Russell Car Company, is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 2 a rotary steam snowplow built by the Cooke Locomotive Works in 1887, is now owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 10, a rotary steam snowplow built in November 1907, is now owned by the Northwest Railway Museum and is on display in Snoqualmie, Washington.
• Northern Pacific 642, a Mann-McCann spreader built by the St. Paul Foundry in 1921 is now owned by the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, Washington. The spreader was operated for many years on Stampede Pass by Burlington Northern as No. 972602.

• Campbell, Marius Robinson. Guidebook of the Western United States, Part A: The Northern Pacific Route, with a side trip to Yellowstone Park. Washington (D.C.): Government Printing Office, 1915.
• Cleland, Alexander M. (1913). Land of Geysers, Yellowstone National Park. St. Paul [Minn.]: General Passenger Department, Northern Pacific Railway.

• Northern Pacific Railway Company. (1899). The Official Northern Pacific Railway guide. St. Paul, Minn.: W.C. Riley.
• Northern Pacific Railway Company. (1911). Lewiston-Clarkston and the Clearwater Country, Idaho—Washington. General Passenger Department, Northern Pacific Railway.