The Great Northern seems to have put each major passenger car purchase in the next hundred. In 1947, when the new Streamlined Empire Builder equipment arrived, the highest-numbered cars were the 1000's. The new Empire Builder cars therefore became the 1100's. Front-to-rear, each type of car was assigned to its own number block:
| E7 | 500-509 | |
| RPO-Baggage | 1100-1104 | |
| 60-seat short-distance coach | 1110-1114 | |
| 48-seat long-distance coach | 1120-1134 | |
| Coffee Shop-Dormitory | 1140-1144 | "____ Lake" |
| Diner | 1150-1154 | "Lake ____" |
| 4-8-4 Sleeper | 1160-1169 | "____ Pass" |
| 16-4 Sleeper | 1170-1184 | "____ Glacier" |
| Sleeper-Obs | 1190-1194 | "____ River" |
The new "International" equipment was ordered just after the war, but not delivered until 1950, so it was numbered in the 1100's with the 1947 Empire Builder. One oddity is that the diners were grouped in the 1140's with the Coffee Shop cars, rather than in the 1150's with the dining cars.
| E7 | 510-511 | |
| RPO-Baggage | 1105-1106 | |
| 60-seat short-distance coach | 1115-1118 | |
| Coach-Diner | 1145-1146 | |
| Buffet-Lounge-Obs | 1195-1196 | "Port of ____" |
Likewise with the new "Red River" equipment. Note the 60-seat coaches landed in the 48-seat coach number range where there were enough numbers available. Also the observation car fell in the 1140's with the Coffee Shop-Dormitories and the Coach-Diners, rather than in the 1190's with the other observation cars.
| E7 | 512 | |
| RPO-Baggage | 1107 | |
| 60-seat short-distance coach | 1135-1137 | |
| Diner-Coffee Shop-Lounge-Obs | 1147 | "Red River" |
The railroad had ordered just enough streamlined cars for the five Empire Builder sets. Passengers weren't very tolerant of heavyweight cars being substituted when the streamlined cars were in the shops, so soon additional protection cars were procured. In the 1140's, an additional Coffee Shop-Dormitory, the 1148 "Devils Lake" was home-built by GN's St Cloud Shops.
Thus the Coach-Diners share a very crowded number range:
Why weren't the Coach-Diners named? They directly contradict the GN's practice of naming anything with sleeping, food service, or first class facilities. If I ever learn why they're nameless, I'll post the reason here.
In the meantime, its fun to speculate what they might have been named. Food service cars tended to be named after bodies of water along their intended route. Of the International's obs cars, 1195 got a south-end name and 1196 got a north-end name. So my hypothesis is that 1146 would have been named for something wet around Vancouver. Following the tracks up from the international border, some possible names include: