NP Mainstreeter & GN Oriental Limited trains in the late 40s/early 50s

[De Luxe]

Hello,

I have some questions concerning the paint schemes of NP´s Mainstreeter and GN´s Oriental Limited in the late 40s and early 50s:

NP Mainstreeter: I know that NP´s heavyweight North Coast Limited was gradually streamlined from 1946 to 1948, and finally was a complete streamlined train in 1948, painted into the Pine Tree scheme. The heavyweight cars of the North Coast Limited were painted into the Pine Tree scheme in 1946 to match the gradually arriving streamliner cars between 1946 and 1948, and then in 1948 the heavyweight cars were transferred to the secondary Mainstreeter. My question is: how did NP´s secondary passenger train, the heavyweight Mainstreeter, look like after 1948? Was it completely painted into the Pine Tree scheme, or was it a mix of Pullman Green and Pine Tree scheme painted cars? What also interests me is, when did the Mainstreeter become a streamlined train? When did the first streamlined cars start to appear on this train?

GN Oriental Limited: Did GN also paint the heavyweight cars of the Oriental Limited into the orange and green Empire Builder scheme in 1947, after the Empire Builder became a streamliner in 1947? Was the heavyweight Oriental Limited completely painted into the Empire Builder scheme between 1947 and 1951, or was it still painted into the old Pullman Green scheme during that time?

[wjstix]

I'd have to do some research, but I'm not sure there was a "heavyweight Mainstreeter"?? I think NP introduced the train with older streamlined cars in the fifties after they got newer cars for the NCL - kinda like GN starting the Western Star in the early fifties with "hand me down" streamlined cars from the Builder. With GN IIRC the new Western Star replaced the Oriental Limited, which had been revived I think around 1947using old heavyweight former-EB cars.

It can tough to work out cars and trains with GN in particular, because after WW2 they rebuilt some heavyweight cars with flatter "streamline" styled roofs and new paint schemes, so unless you looked closely and noticed the six-wheel trucks and doors/vestibules at each end, it could be very hard to tell it wasn't a streamlined car.

[Deggesty]

I have not looked at the isues of the Guide that show the beginning of the Mainstreeter, but I have the February, 1950, issue at hand, and the secondary train then was still the Alaskan, and there is no indication that it had any streamlined cars at all. As I recall (from the early fifties), the Mainstreeter did not come into being until after the NCL became a two-night-out train, about 1954, and 12 coaches were built--and some of the then-excess cars would have been assigned to the new train; 5 parlor-bar-lounge cars were built and assigned to the Mainstreeter in 1956. 16 sleepers (10 of them had domes) were built in 1954, and this could have released some of the earlier cars for the secondary train