September 18-19 and 25-26

Following the example set by organizations such as the NMRA and the OpSIG, our 2021 Convention will be virtual and spread over two weekends. Attendance will be free to anyone wishing to attend. Mark the dates on your calendar and plan to join the fun in September. There will be clinics, virtual displays, and our society silent auction. We will also conduct regular convention activities such as the board meeting and the member meeting. All will be held virtually this year on the Zoom social media platform. Zoom has proven to be one of the easiest programs to learn.

Preregistration will be required for the auction only, with details being emailed in plenty of time for folks to register. We look forward to having as many members as possible join us this year, especially members who are not convention regulars.

If you are interested in doing a presentation during the convention, please contact either Mac McCulloch or Tom Carr via the Contact Form (select Store or Secretary respectively).

Tom Carr
Convention Chair

Several new products are now available!

A new HO model of the Touhey WA 20,000 bushel grain elevator by Monroe Models. If you model GN, you need at least one grain elevator. Touhey is of the common wood crib style built nationwide from about 1870 to about 1920. Touhey was built in 1913 and its design is typical of the breed.

A new HO model of a St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba 20×64 two story depot design of 1887. These were built beyond the fringe of civilization in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana during 1887 only. The second story provided living quarters for the agent and his family. Many of them made it well into the 1950’s and a few survived to the BN merger of 1970.

We now offer five color prints of GN subjects by noted Seattle area artist J. Craig Thorp:
* W-1 electric 5018 West picking up orders at Scenic
* Y-1 electric 5011 with westward 1947 Empire Builder at Gaynor with line change under construction in 1949
* Class R-2 2-8-8-2, W-1 electric, and F-3 units on eastward passenger train at Skykomish
* GP-9 724 and sisters with eastward freight on Sheep Creek Bridge, Montana, in snow
* Westward 1955 Empire Builder on Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis

Check them all, plus much more, at the GNRHS Company Store

GNRHS is pleased to announce a special offer to GNRHS members on Rapido Trains’ new SW-1200 switch engine painted and lettered as Great Northern #30. Click here to learn more or HERE to order! 20% of your purchase price will go towards GNRHS and its historical preservation mission. You can help GNRHS *and* get a great looking model!

Electro-Motive Division of General Motors built a total of 737 SW 1200 units for American railroads between January of 1954 and May of 1966.

This model represents one of five SW 1200 units that Great Northern purchased new and delivered in April of 1957 as numbers 29-33. All went to the BN in the 1970 merger, and three, #29, #30 and #31 went to the BNSF in 1985. They were on the BNSF roster until at least 2001.

Rapido is offering just 60 units with this GNRHS-exclusive number, each sound equipped with an ESU LokSound V5 decoder. Price is $335 in US, their MSRP.