# Olympian Hiawatha video



## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

I stumbled upon this youtube video of the Olympian Hiawatha sometime in the 1950's. There's no sound, but it is in color. Near the end there's a shot of a "bipolar" and a boxcab pulling into Union Station in Tacoma with a Pullman "Great Dome" and a "Skytop Lounge" observation car that looks futuristic even today.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Interesting video. Thanks for showing. Awesome scenery also.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Neat video GNfan, spotted the huge Olympia Beer sign towards the end of the video. The Bipolars and Little Joes were pretty much history into the early fifties running through my hometown. The EF-3 boxcabs were still running into the early sixties.

Bill


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## J.Albert1949 (Feb 3, 2018)

Great scenery along the Milwaukee Road. Too bad that the Pacific extension didn't survive.

Around 5'10", was that a fusee I saw over on a nearby track?

Also, did you note that the engineer dropped the pan on the bipolar coming into the station stop (towards the end) ...?


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

What struck me was how few passengers were in the lounge and whether "the writing was on the wall"; or whether Tacoma was the "end-of-the-line" and they were all preparing to disembark; or whether the train continued on to Seattle. The bipolars left the Northwest in 1957 following a rebuild fiasco, and the last Olympian Hiawatha ran in May, 1961. And I did notice the Olympia Beer sign.


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