Gopher (passenger train)

The Great Northern Railway introduced two six-car streamlined trainsets to the St. Paul to Superior/Duluth route on April 26, 1952. The two consists operated as two different trains daily: the Badger and Gopher. The Badger was the morning train in each direction operating as an all stops local in 3 hours 58 minutes over the 160 mile route. The late afternoon early evening train was the Gopher operating over the same route with fewer stops in 3 hours 30 minutes.

The trains utilized six of the prewar Empire Builder 58-seat luxury coaches with four of these remaining as built and two were converted to 44-seat coaches with galley for train service by an attendant at one's seat. Each consist was assigned a baggage 30’ railway post office car, initially one consist operated with a heavyweight, the other a lightweight. Each consist also carried a streamlined baggage express car built by the Great Northern Railway themselves; this car only operated in each day's Gopher schedule. Each consist then carried one of the 44-seat galley coaches and two of the 58-seat luxury coaches. The last car in each consist was a café parlor observation rebuilt by GN shops from heavyweight coaches the railroad had purchased at the beginning of the war from Pullman as parlor cars for rebuilding as coaches.

The entire consists were painted in Omaha Orange and Pullman Green paint with the gold Scotch-lite lettering and separation stripes paint scheme most commonly referred to as Empire Builder. Even as there were variations in the consists regarding the Baggage 30’ Railway Post Office Cars, the power was even more interesting with one set powered by an A-B set of EMD F7s and the other train set powered by an EMD E7A.

FIRST CONSIST

*267A EMD F7A 1,500 HP Diesel Passenger Cab Unit
*267B EMD F7B 1,500 HP Diesel Passenger Booster Unit
*81 Heavyweight Baggage 30’ Railway Post Office Car
*271 Baggage – Express Car
*945 Train Service Galley 44 Revenue seat Coach
*948 58 Revenue seat Coach
*949 58 Revenue seat Coach
*1083 TWIN CITIES 10-seat Dining Café 26 seat Parlor Observation

ECOND CONSIST

*508 EMD E7A 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Cab Unit
*87 Baggage 30’ Railway Post Office Car
*270 Baggage – Express car
*944 Train Service Galley 44 Revenue seat Coach
*946 58 Revenue seat Coach
*947 58 Revenue seat Coach
*1084 TWIN PORTS 10-seat Dining Café 26 seat Parlor Observation