Great Northern Muscle - Artist Proof

Great Northern Muscle is one of six color prints by well known artist Mr. Larry Fisher offered in the GNRHS company store.

The image is a high quality 17 inch high by 26 inch wide lithograph print. The mat closest to the image should be placed just under the signature and the numbering on the print. The mat sizes and frame are of choice for the finished print framed.

Dragging a mile of tonnage tied to her huge Vanderbilt tender, Great Northern Railway class R-2, No. 2044 enters the Minot, North Dakota yard during a beautiful summer afternoon in 1941.  With a tractive effort of over 146,000 pounds, the massive 2-8-8-2 was the most powerful steam engine owned by the Great Northern Railway. The sixteen engine R-2 class could handle most GN freight duties unassisted.  With a looming world war on the horizon, the big 2-8-8-2 will be tested to her limits meeting the demands by her government to get the endless volume of supplies to the shipping docks as soon as possible, turn around and return for more.

Built at Great Northern’s own Hillyard Shops in Spokane, Washington in 1929 and 1930, the R-2’s, with an engine weight of 686,440 pounds, and weight on drivers of 592,000 pounds, were the biggest steam engines constructed west of the Mississippi River.  Their tractive effort was more than all their contemporary competitors, including Union Pacific’s heavily promoted ‘Big Boy’ 4-8-8-4, which had only 540,000 pounds on the drivers and tractive effort of 135,375 pounds. Riding on 63 inch diameter drivers, the R-2 class was built to muscle freight trains over the Continental Divide. They were rated at 2,570 tons on the 14 mile long 1.8% helper grade eastward from Essex to Summit and 4,660 tons on the long 1% climb westward up the east slope of the Rockies. They were used as both road and helper engines east of Essex.

Engine No. 2044 has that distinctive ‘GN’ look…the square-shouldered Belpaire firebox, the Vanderbilt tender, a pair of cross-compound air pumps mounted on the smokebox front, a low-slung headlight, all topped off with the olive green paint scheme on the boiler jacket, pumps, and cylinders.

Although the GN first invested in an oil-electric locomotive in 1926, used in the Twin City terminal as a switcher in the Minneapolis flour milling district, it wasn’t until 1938 that the Great Northern got serious about the diesel-electric based on the cost savings achieved using #5100 in a variety of roles.  The company ordered 28 diesel units from the Electro-Motive Corporation, to be used system-wide. 

On July 17, 1940, President Frank Gavin requested a long term program for diesel-electric purchases to replace steam engines. In 1941 an order was placed for seventeen more switchers, and more importantly, three EMD FT road sets in two and three unit configurations. This order was the result of an earlier demonstration by a four-unit FT prototype diesel which out-performed the GN class R-2  2-8-8-2, and the N-3 2-8-8-0 engines. Not until 1944 did the GN receive four unit sets of FTs and assign them west of Havre. The usual arrangement from Essex to Summit was a four unit FT road engine with a three unit FT set as the helper. With the acquisition of the four unit sets of FT road units the future of freight and passenger power on the Great Northern Railway was a foregone conclusion.

The gritty class R-2 gave the company their best for almost twenty-five years.  Built for the heavy duty freight runs over the mountain grades of the Rocky Mountains, on the hilly subdivision between Minot and Williston, North Dakota, the durable 2-8-8-2 did it on her own, no helper service needed.

Steam power through Minot, as in this 1941 scene, would serve for another fifteen years before the diesel would completely take over.

Shipped in a tube.

Shipping available to United States and Canada ONLY.