NP Transport TT00006

DateTime	Author	Posting
6/29/00 4:20	Bob Montbriand	Northern Pacific Transport was the highway (both freight and passenger) service, and was quite active in Montana. Compiler C Frissell
08/10/00 17:42	James C Dick	There have been several previous postings on the N.P.Transport Co. It struck a note and I was finally able to locate the Railway Age article. The date of the article is Dec. 25, 1937, Vol. 103, No.26. Most larger libraries might have these bound into books. In Mpls/St.Paul, the U of Minn. sciences library also has copies of Railway Age. (If you have a have a college or university near by that has a strong technical or engineering school in it, stop in. You WILL find books on railroading inside and some of the N.P. engineering staff were often on the forefront of their field and did publish about their accomplishments.) On to the N.P.T. The article states that "Starting in 1932 with a bus line between Billings and Miles City, 146 miles, the operation has grown to eight truck routes, nine bus-truck routes, and six bus routes now operate 60,000 truck miles, 35,000 bus-truck miles, and 45,000 bus miles monthly." (1937) Other excepts from the three page article are; "Cars are operated to the concentration points on fast rail schedules from Spokane to both Missoula and Butte containing freight from Seattle. " (The article does not specify if these "fast schedules" are on freight or pass. trains. - Veterans ??? ) On arrival at these two Montana points early in the morning, the the merchadise is transferred immediately to trucks and morning delivery is made to local and branch line points." The branchline service it referred to covered almost all the branchlines in Montana with six-day-a-week service instead of the twice or tri-weekly service that had been in place. Two main garages and a third smaller one handled servicing the 57 pieces of equipment,- trucks, bus-trucks, buses and trailers that the N.P.T. had at that time. It tells that 6 pieces of new equipment was on order for additional service and that these would be diesel powered. One last quote from the article. "Close connection and co-operation with the Great Northern rail-highway co-ordination in northern Montana widens the scope of of both operations materially." Can any G.N. folk expand on that? There are some pictures here, including the right side of a bus, all in black and white, of the equipment. Would someone like to do a presentation on the N.P.T. at next years convention ? I will help with looking through the archives. There are some pictures and data to start with in this article. I am sure that there is more in the archives. It sounds as if at least one of our veterans has some helpful knowledge. If someone has an interest in doing a presentation, contact me off line. Compiler C Frissell