In addition to the diner, the 1947 Olympian Hiawatha came with a cafe car called the Tip Top Grill (named after a restaurant in Chicago’s Pullman building). It was replaced in 1952 by a cafe-lounge beneath the train’s Super Domes. … Continue reading
Most of the table d’hôte meals on this menu cost twice as much as they did on yesterday’s Hiawatha menu. Fish, ham, or turkey are $2 each, while a sirloin steak was $3. Yet on the a la carte side … Continue reading
The Milwaukee Road issued this timetable with the inauguration of its new “speedlined” Olympian Hiawatha on June 29, 1947. To compete with Great Northern, which had introduced its fully streamlined Empire Builder four months before, the Milwaukee hastily put the … Continue reading
Milwaukee introduced its full-length domes to the Olympian Hiawatha with a 16-page booklet in 1953. By 1960, the year before it cancelled the train, it was still advertising them but with this six-panel brochure. Click image to download a 1.7-MB … Continue reading
In 1905, the St. Paul Road (which is what people called the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in the early 20th century) reported earnings of nearly $50 million against operating costs of $32 million, which made it one of the … Continue reading
The Milwaukee Road added superdomes to the Olympian Hiawatha on January 1, 1953. We’ve previously seen a December, 1952 booklet about those domes. This June, 1953 booklet modifies yesterday’s booklet by adding information about the domes. Click image to download … Continue reading
The Milwaukee Road inaugurated the Olympian Hiawatha in 1947, but didn’t fully streamline it until 1949. I’ve previously shown a 1947 booklet advertising the train. This one is very different, both in format (portrait rather than landscape) and colors (the … Continue reading
This is a more plebeian version of the elegant color brochure issued about this train. Like the postcard, but unlike the color brochure, the black-and-white image on the cover of this brochure just has one train rather than two trains … Continue reading
Chicago & North Western fully streamlined its 400 in 1939, but the postmark on this postcard showing the train crossing the Mississippi on the Stone Arch Bridge is dated 1949. The bridge itself was built by the Great Northern Railway, … Continue reading
After the Super Chief received its domes on January 29, 1951, no further trains became domeliners until 1952, when domes were added to several minor trains: the Missouri Pacific Texas Eagle and Missouri River Eagle in July; the Wabash City … Continue reading
