Talk:Northern Pacific Railway

Revert reason
While the date listed looked reasonable, a quick Google for "Jule Hannaford" returns no documents that I can see to connect the name to NP. Please cite your sources if you reinsert this data. Slambo (Speak) 16:04, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

GA Re-Review and In-line citations
Members of the WikiProject Good articles are in the process of doing a re-review of current Good Article listings to ensure compliance with the standards of the Good Article Criteria. (Discussion of the changes and re-review can be found here). A significant change to the GA criteria is the mandatory use of some sort of in-line citation (In accordance to WP:CITE) to be used in order for an article to pass the verification and reference criteria. Currently this article does not include in-line citations. It is recommended that the article's editors take a look at the inclusion of in-line citations as well as how the article stacks up against the rest of the Good Article criteria. GA reviewers will give you at least a week's time from the date of this notice to work on the in-line citations before doing a full re-review and deciding if the article still merits being considered a Good Article or would need to be de-listed. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on the Good Article project talk page or you may contact me personally. On behalf of the Good Articles Project, I want to thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into working on this article and improving the overall quality of the Wikipedia project. LuciferMorgan 00:26, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Presidents section needs cleanup
While the information added to this section is useful, it really needs to be copyedited for tone, putting in the correct tense, etc. Unfortunately I don't have time for this at the moment, but I will get to it eventually, if no-one else can. →Ollie (talk • contribs) 12:02, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Comment on Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha service
In the mid 1970s, the North Coast Limited service was restarted by Amtrak as the North Coast Hiawatha operating via the Milwaukee Road mainline between Chicago and Minneapolis. The train continued running on a 3 day a week schedule until it was again discontinued in 1979.

--- It might be mentioned that the North Coast Hiawatha then operated Minneapolis-Seattle via mostly the former Northern Pacific - certainly west of N. Dakoka. Not sure about routing in the Dakotas and Minnesota. The above leaves the impression the train was curtailed to run only between these two cities. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.238.241.121 (talk) 21:30, 8 February 2007 (UTC).

Good Article Review
This article is currently under Good Article Review. LuciferMorgan 03:54, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

--The article is full of fascinating info but unless I'm missing something it doesn't seem to say when the Northern Pacific project was actually completed! Though its history is obviously complex and well explained here, perhaps a summary of when the idea actually a came into operation would be a useful extra line for the introductory para?! (When was it first possible to get on the train in Duluth and get off by the Pacific or at Puget Sound - was there ever a single train that did this? The article does not explain if this was possible or what routes/services were provided sadly) I'm guessing sometime after the tunnel was completed in 1888 but it really could do with being clearer, dont you think?? --Mapmark (talk) 01:09, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * it was September 8, 1883, and it's now added to lede.Rjensen (talk) 04:10, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I think that really helps the article :-) Mapmark (talk) 16:10, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It still is missing a lot of the information on the early planning and construction. Risk Engineer (talk) 15:18, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

Photos
What? No pix of NP locomotives? Or depots? Sca 02:32, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't have any suitable free images in my own collection, and I haven't seen any on commons yet. If you've got some, you're welcome to add them. Slambo (Speak) 10:32, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I might be able to get an old family photo scanned. Shows a Pacific-type in snow in N.D. Sca 16:57, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Way cool. The direct contacts that I have here are officials with the Monon, Milwaukee Road, Soo Line and CNW historical societies. While it's possible that there are some photos each may have that would be suitable, it's certainly not as likely. However, now that I think of it, I'm doing a model railroad show with a prominent member of the Burlington Northern society (Friends of the Burlington Northern) this weekend. I'll see what he can do to help in this regard. Slambo (Speak) 17:12, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * This article is personal to me, as my Great-grandfather Fred C. Metcalf was the engineer of the Minnetonka. He worked for NP from 1878-1930. He was reactivated in 1933 for the Chicago World's Fair where the Minnetonka was featured in the Transportaion Building's "Century Of Progess Exposition". I do have picutres... User:dakotacelt —Preceding undated comment added 01:45, 17 November 2009 (UTC).

Wooten firebox???
"The Wootten firebox was used, which was also used by the anthracite railroads." Who wrote that?? Needless to say, although the NP built unusually large fireboxes in the Z's and A's to burn the company rosebud coal from the Colstrip mine, they were conventional fireboxes, not Wooten style. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Zorro6204 (talk • contribs).

Subheadings
The History section is long and intimidating as all get out. It would be much more comprehensible and less scary if it were divided into subheadings (by someone, unlike me, who knows something about the subject). Pirate Dan 20:57, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

The NPR re the CPR and the Pacific Scandal
Most Americans don't know this, and most Canadians who at least know the name "Pacific Scandal" also don't know it, but the NPR is involved in the network of skulduggery and insider dealing and its clout helped both block and eventually get built) the CPR. Had to do with John A. MacDonald being on the board of the NPR while fudging with CPR-related legislation, which itself was a constitutional deal; MacDonald himself was in conflict of interest because of his stake in the N; very complicated; a good rundown is to be had on teh aobiringally-flavoured DickShovel sitee but IIRC there's even a tad mention of the NPR on the Pacific Scandal page.Skookum1 (talk) 22:29, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Photos for NPR
Suggest reviewing: all the F.J. Haynes photos in this publication will meet the public domain test and many might be useful in this article. Additionally, has a category for F. J. Haynes photos.--Mike Cline (talk) 02:22, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Minnetonka
The Minnetonka is NOT owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, but rather is owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), and is on long-term loan to the museum. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.192.57.238 (talk) 17:12, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

NP 2164
I found this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/randy394/5845395413/ which seems to indicate that the 2164 is being restored at Camp Hancock in Bismarck, ND. This is not mentioned in the Wikipedia article. I suppose Flickr is not a sufficient citation to add this to the article, but perhaps it could be investigated further. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cmmr613 (talk • contribs) 13:09, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

'Northern' type
So, I finally got around to adding my family's photo of a 4-6-2 'Pacific' in the snow at Carrington, N.D. (It's my grandpa standing near the depot.)

Now I wish someone would close the circle by adding a pic of a 4-8-4 'Northern' from the NP, the first road to use them, starting in 1927—which is why they were called Northerns. This famous, fast and beautiful locomotive type was built in large numbers in the U.S. and elsewhere, even Russia, and arguably is the quintessential 20th century steam locomotive.

Sca (talk) 13:49, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Inconsistency in Land Grant acreage
In the lead, 39 Million acres is given as the land grant amount. In the 1st para of the history section 47 Million is used and credited to Lubetikin, Jay Cooke's Gamble, page 33. Yet Lubetikin page 33 actually uses 50 Million acres. Several online sources say 46 Million acres. The accurate actual number is elusive since it wasn't actually specified in the Acts creating the Pacific Railroads, but is calculated from the description of the lands granted along the right of way granted by the government. Whatever number is used, it should be consistent within the article and explained. --Mike Cline (talk) 18:50, 17 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I tried to fix it. The maximum amout possible was about 60 million but the NP did not take up poor quality land it could not sell (but would have to pay taxes on) so the net was just under 40 million. see Rjensen (talk) 20:11, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

General Custer
The article states without citation that NP rail construction was protected by the Seventh Calvary under the command of General George Armstrong Custer in 1884-1885. Considering that Custer died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on July 4, 1876, I can't imagine that he was a very effective commander eight or nine years later. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.232.26.108 (talk) 07:35, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Panic of 1873
How can an event in 1885 lead to a panic in 1873??? See this whopper in the version current as of 23-Mar-2014: "Cooke and Company went bankrupt on September 18, 1885. Soon, the Panic of 1873 engulfed the United States..." Something has to give. Jeffryfisher (talk) 00:52, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Pacific Division construction
The article needs to discuss the Pacific Division construction. Currently the reader may be led to believe that construction happened in one location only, pushing west, and that there were no NP rails in Tacoma until 1883. The story of building north from Kalama to Tacoma, from March, 1870 to December, 1873 needs to be told. Doing so will help remove the apparent contradiction with what is stated in the second paragraph of the History section of the Puget Sound Shore Railway article. Chapters 3 and 4 of Kurt Armbruster's Orphan Road should provide the necessary information. Kent Sullivan (talk) 05:29, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Name of the Railroad through the ages?
Many railroads have changed names (or been absorbed due to bankruptcy, mergers or buyouts), so it would be nice to know if the NP has always had the name "Northern Pacific Railway Company" since its chartering on July 2, 1864. If it has, what other railroads (if any) has it accumulated over the years? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dan Aquinas (talk • contribs) 00:36, 20 June 2017 (UTC)

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