Mainstreeter

Mainstreeter
The Holiday Lounge on the Mainstreeter.
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleWestern United States
PredecessorAlaskan
First serviceNovember 15, 1952[1]
Last serviceApril 30, 1971
SuccessorNorth Coast Hiawatha
Former operator(s)Northern Pacific Railway
Route
TerminiChicago, Illinois
Seattle, Washington
Distance travelled2,228 miles (3,586 km)
On-board services
Sleeping arrangementsSleeping cars
Baggage facilitiesBaggage car
Technical
Timetable number(s)1, 2

The Mainstreeter was a passenger train on the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago, Illinois, and the Pacific Northwest from 1952 to 1971. When the North Coast Limited got a faster schedule in November 1952 the Mainstreeter was introduced, running roughly on the North Coast's old schedule but via Helena. Unlike the North Coast the Mainstreeter was not a true streamliner as it carried both new lightweight and traditional heavyweight coaches. It replaced another train, the Alaskan. The name referred to the Northern Pacific's slogan, "Main Street of the Northwest." While Amtrak did not retain the train as part of its initial route structure, it created a new train named the North Coast Hiawatha several months afterwards. That train ran until 1979.

  1. ^ Strauss, John F. (Jr.) (2001). Northern Pacific Pictorial Volume 5 — Domes, RDCs and Slumbercoaches. La Mirada, California: Four Ways West Publications. ISBN 1-885614-45-4.