GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY. This company had its beginning in the Minneapolis and Saint Cloud Railroad, chartered 1 March 1856. Legislative permis sion to change its name was granted in 1869, but it was not until 18 Sept. 1889 that the road received its present title. On 1 Feb. 1890 the company assumed the operation of the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, and subsequently purchased a large proportion of its stock. On 10 Oct. 1907 the stockholders of the Great Northern authorized the purchase outright of a large number of subsidiaries oper ating in the territory from Minnesota westward, and which the company had controlled through stock ownership. A few weeks later the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway also was brought under absolute ownership. The system including the mileage owned by the Mon tana Eastern Railway Company and Great Falls and Teton County Railway Company extends from Saint Paul northwestward through Min nesota and North Dakota and thence westward through the northern parts of Montana and Idaho and through central Washington to Seattle; with many ramifications in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Da kota, Montana, Idaho and Washington and sev eral sections of Canada.
The total mileage operated in 1917 was 8,255.98 miles, of which 7,123.77 miles were owned by the company and the remainder held under leases and trackage rights. The operating revenues for the year ended 31 Dec. 1917 were $88,534,163, earned by and transportation of 8,382,035 passengers and 30,650,814 tons of freight. The passenger travel averaged 79.58 miles at an average charge of 2.374 cents per mile — aggregating in the year 667,036,192 pas senger miles and receipts of $15,836,341. The freight traffic averaged a haul of 274.03 miles per ton, at an average charge of 0.766 cents per ton per mile, aggregating in the year 8,399,349,197 tons-miles and receipts of $64,300,666.
The operating expenses for the year were $59,243,785. After deducting taxes and uncol lectible income, the net operating income was $22,987,546. The gross income, including among minor items, $10,053,942 dividends upon stock held in other railroads and enterprises was $35,774,332. Deductions (which include $11, 077,181 interest on the funded debt) leave a net income from all sources of $23,021,752. Of this sum $17,462,959 was appropriated for pay ment of dividends; $60,474 to sinking and other reserve funds and $5,385,635 for miscellaneous purposes. A credit balance of $112,683 was transferred to profit and loss.
The equipment of the Great Northern on 31 Dec. 1917 consisted of 1,320 locomotives,
with an aggregate tractive capacity of 50,130,000 pounds; 718 passenger coaches (including sleep ing and parlor cars) with a total seating capacity of 43,444 persons; and 57,637 freight cars with a total capacity of 2,187,349 tons. By far the largest item of freight transported was that of ores and metals, amounting to nearly 48 per cent of the entire body of freight. The second largest item was coal, amounting to 12 per cent, followed by grain, which accounted for 10 per cent. The operating revenues per mile of road was $10,756 and the operating expenses $7,198. making the net operating revenue per mile of road $3,558.
The entire investment in the road and its equipment en 31 Dec. 1917 was $401,790,918. Other investments of the company amounted to $243,253,549. The total stock outstanding on the date cited amounted to $249,477,138; and the total long term debt (exclusive of the com pany's liability for the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy joint bonds issued against Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad stock deposited as collateral) to $163,430,739. The credit balance of the profit and loss account was $75,339,382.
The Great Northern Railway jointly with the Northern Pacific Railway Company owns nearly the entire stock of the Chicago, Burling ton and Quincy Railroad.
Other properties of the company are the Somers Lumber Company, Chelan Electric Company, and the Cottonwood Coal Company. In Canada the company has a proprietary inter est in the Brandon, Saskatchewan and Hudson Bay Railway; the Crow's Nest Southern Rail way, the Manitoba Great Northern Railway; the Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway; the New Westminster Southern Railway; the Red Mountain Railway; and the Vancouver, Vic toria and Eastern Railway and Navigation Com pany, and owns jointly with the Northern Pacific Railway Company the Midland Railway Company of Manitoba. These lines are oper ated as part of the Great Northern Railway System. The Company also controls, through stock ownership, the following railway com panies: Watertown and Sioux Falls Railway Company ; Duluth Terminal Railway Company; Minneapolis Western Railway; Montana East ern Railway Company; and the Great Falls and Teton County Railway Company.
The lines of this company were taken over for operation by the United States government under proclamation of the President on 28 Dec. 1917. Consult Poor's Manual of Railroads for 1909, 1910 and 1918; and the Interstate Com merce Commission's Reports on Common Carriers.