Oriental Limited

The Oriental Limited was a named passenger train that ran between Chicago, Illinois and Seattle, Washington. The train was operated by the Great Northern Railway between St. Paul, Minnesota and Seattle, Washington, and by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad between St. Paul and Chicago. The train's name was intended to be evocative of travel to the Far East, since trans-Pacific Great Northern steamships once connected with the railway's trains in Seattle.

Photo of the observation platform, 1912.

The Oriental Limited entered service in December 1905 as a St. Paul–Seattle train; the eastern terminus was extended to Chicago in 1909. Once the premiere train on its route, it was downgraded to secondary status in 1929, when the Great Northern's new Empire Builder passenger train was inaugurated. The Oriental Limited name disappeared in 1931, and during the Great Depression and beyond the Great Northern operated only a single through train between Chicago and the coast. The Oriental Limited name returned in 1946, when the railroad's secondary through train was resumed, but that train was finally renamed the Western Star in 1951.

References

• Dubin, Arthur D. Some Classic Trains. Milwaukee: Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1964. ISBN 978-0890240113.
• Hidy, Ralph W., et al. The Great Northern Railway: A History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0816644292.