It appears that the last version of the Oriental Limited actually coincided with the delivery of the lightweight Empire Builder equipment and it's inauguration on February 23, 1947, with the heavyweight Builder equipment being downgraded to the Oriental Limited on that same date.
The Oriental Limited allowed the Empire Builder to avoid stopping at the time consuming stations for Glacier National Park and allowed the Builder to maintain a schedule from Chicago to Seattle and Portland in 45 hours. The OL schedule was 58 hours (later 56) to cover the same 2211 mile route.
The OL continued until the next re-equipping of the Builder on June 3, 1951 as Bill stated with the 1947 equipment becoming the Western Star with the OL heavyweight equipment then downgraded for system wide GN passenger train service.
The year selected to model the Oriental Limited will dictate what power would be accurate for the train. Early 1947 consist lists I have seen indicate that occasionally a Hudson would power the train to St.Paul. Since the Great Northern marketed the OL as "diesel powered" in it's advertisements (along with the new E-7 powered Builder) it would hold that operations would use diesels if at all possible, With the CB&Q receiving it's complete fleet of E-7's between November 1945 and March 1949 and with the first E-8's delivered between December 1949 and May 1950 (largest order of 16 units) there were plenty of diesels available to power the OL, not to mention the then available E-5's and A-B shovel nose units (ex-DZ) that were split up and run in E-5/shovel nose sets often times on the Twin Cities Zephyrs by the late 40's and early 50's.
I have not seen photographic evidence of Northerns being used very often on the Chicago-St. Paul run (C&I Division) for passenger service albeit photos of the OL are scarce due to it's late night Chicago departure and early morning arrival not being photo conducive.
As far as B-1-A Mountain's usage on the OL by the late 40's I believe these were mostly assigned out west and not very prevalent on the east end in Chicago service. Bernie Corbin describes these as lignite coal (western) burners with only a couple converted to bituminous (eastern) coal burning with three being converted to burning oil.
So in summary for Oriental Limited power, for 1947 diesels were the norm with an occasional Hudson called upon, from 1948 to its demise in 1951 the normal power would have been diesel with adequate diesel back up to not have to call upon steam power.
Dennis Popish
-----Original Message-----
From: William Barber clipperw@gmail.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CB&Q Group <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, Jan 26, 2015 9:27 am
Subject: [CBQ] Re: What type of Q locos used on the Oriental Limited post war?
Hu,
I would add the B-1 and B-1A mountains as another possibility. Strauss's book Burlington Route Passenger Trains Vol. 1, shows hudsons assigned to the Empire Builder during WWII, but due to the train's length, it was often run in two sections; Pullman and coach. O-5 northerns were also assigned to the heavy weight Empire Builder, but could handle the entire train as one consist. As you probably know, the Oriental Limited, did not exist between 1931 and 1946. It operated as a heavy weight secondary train from 1946 to 1951 when it was replaced by the streamlined Western Star. The E-5 diesels operated primarily between Chicago and Denver during their early years. As new E7s came on line right after WWII, I suspect that fewer steam locomotives were assigned to such trains. The O-5s were re assigned to freight while the hudsons were assigned to such trains as no. 45 and the locals to placed like Galesburg.
Bill Barber
Gravois Mills, MO
Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:16 pm (PST) . Posted by:
Only a guess. O-5 or S-3 & 4. This is based on photos seen over the years..
From: "
domelinerdude@yahoo.com [CBQ]" <
CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To:
CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 5:37 PM
Subject: [C
BQ] What type of Q locos used on the Oriental Limited post war?
I wanted to learn what type of power, steam or diesel the Burlington assigned to the heavyweight "Oriental Limited" between Chicago and St. Paul after WWII and before the introduction of the streamlined "Western Star"? Would that have been typically Northerns & Hudsons or early diesels such as E5s and E7s?
Thank you.
Hu