Editing Northern Pacific Railway (section)

==Passenger service==
[[File:Northern Pacific Railway Homeseekers Excursions circa 1912.JPG|thumb|The line encouraged people to make their homes in the Pacific Northwest by having an "immigration agent" and offering special excursion trains for prospective buyers during the winter months.]]
[[File:North Coast Limited in Montana.JPG|left|thumb|The ''[[North Coast Limited]]'' was the Northern Pacific's flagship passenger train.]]
The ''[[North Coast Limited]]'' was the premier passenger train operated by the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago and Seattle via [[Butte, Montana]] and [[Homestake Pass]]. It commenced service on April 29, 1900, served briefly as a Burlington Northern train after the merger on March 2, 1970, and ceased operation on April 30, 1971, the day before Amtrak began service. The Chicago Union Station to Saint Paul leg of the train's route was operated by the [[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad]] along its Mississippi River mainline through Wisconsin.

The Northern Pacific's secondary transcontinental passenger train was the ''Alaskan,'' until it was replaced by the ''[[Mainstreeter]]'' on November 16, 1952.<ref name="NP Pictorial 5">{{cite book| last=Strauss| first=John F. Jr.| year = 2001 | title=Northern Pacific Pictorial Volume 5 — Domes, RDCs and Slumbercoaches |location=La Mirada, California |publisher = Four Ways West Publications |isbn=978-1-885614-45-2 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2018}} The ''Mainstreeter'', which operated via [[Helena, Montana]] and [[Mullan Pass]], continued in service through the [[Burlington Northern]] merger until [[Amtrak]] Day (May 1, 1971). It had been reduced to a [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]] to Seattle train after the last run of the former [[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad|Burlington Route]] ''[[Black Hawk (passenger train)|Black Hawk]]'' on April 12–13, 1970.

The Northern Pacific also participated in the ''Coast Pool Train'' service between [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]] and [[Seattle, Washington|Seattle]] with the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] and the [[Union Pacific Railroad]]. NP and GN ''Coast Pool Trains'' lasted until Amtrak.

There were several other passenger trains which were discontinued before the Burlington Northern merger. These included:
* Saint Paul to [[International Falls, Minnesota]];
* Saint Paul to [[Duluth, Minnesota]] (which at one time was also a pool operation, with Great Northern Railway and the [[Soo Line Railroad|Soo Line]]);
* Duluth to [[Staples, Minnesota]];
* Saint Paul to [[Jamestown, North Dakota]] (the last remnant of the Alaskan);
*[[Fargo, North Dakota]] to [[Winnipeg, Manitoba]];
* Minneapolis to Taylors Falls commuter rail;

===The Route of "the Great Big Baked Potato"===
[[File:Northern Pacific Railway Lillian Russell 1915.JPG|thumb|Actress [[Lillian Russell]] and other Hollywood stars were hired to promote the railroad's potatoes.]]
[[File:Northern Pacific Big Baked Potato comic postcard.JPG|thumb|A comic postcard circa 1910 to 1920 promoting "The Great Big Baked Potato".|left]]

Hazen Titus was appointed as the line's dining car superintendent in 1908. He learned that [[Yakima River|Yakima Valley]] farmers were unable to sell their potato crops because the potatoes they were growing were simply too large; they fed them to the hogs. Titus learned that a single potato could weigh from two to five pounds, but that smaller potatoes were preferred by the end buyers of the vegetable because many people considered large potatoes inedible due to their thick, rough skin.<ref name=potato>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7INcKYtplxsC&q=great+big+baked+potato+northern+pacific&pg=PA74|title=Dining Car To The Pacific: The "Famously Good" Food of the Northern Pacific Railway|editor-last=Mckenzie|editor-first=William A.|publisher=University of Minnesota Press| year=2004| page=176| isbn=978-0816645626| access-date=September 15, 2012| via=Google Books}}</ref>

Titus and his staff discovered the "inedible" potatoes were delicious after baking in a slow oven. He contracted to purchase as many potatoes as the farmers could produce that were more than two pounds in weight. Soon after the first delivery of "[[Russet Burbank potato|Netted Gem Bakers]]", they were offered to diners on the North Coast Limited beginning in early 1909. Word of the line's specialty offering traveled quickly, and before long it was using "the Great Big Baked Potato" as a slogan to promote the railroad's passenger service. Hollywood stars were hired to promote it.<ref>{{cite book| first=William| last=Hathaway| title=Idaho Falls Post Register| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqG5SU2Ja0kC&pg=PA53| year=2009| publisher=Arcadia Publishing| page=53| via=Google Books| isbn=9780738559681}}</ref> When an addition was built for the Northern Pacific's Seattle commissary in 1914, a ''[[Railway Age]]'' reporter wrote, "A large trade mark, in the shape of a baked potato, 40 ft. long and 18 ft. in diameter, surmounts the roof. The potato is electric lighted and its eyes, through the electric mechanism, are made to wink constantly. A cube of butter thrust into its split top glows intermittently." Premiums such as postcards, letter openers, and spoons were also produced to promote "The Route of the Great Big Baked Potato"; the slogan served the Northern Pacific for about 50 years.<ref name=potato/>