The front cover (the image below is the back cover) of this 103-year-old timetable advertises “Three Trains Chicago to Denver” and “Two Trains St. Louis to Denver,” most of which can make the journey in “one sleep.” From Chicago, the … Continue reading
In April, 1900, the fastest Burlington and Union Pacific Chicago-Denver trains were speeded up to about 27-1/2 hours. That was a big improvement over 1890, when the fastest trains were over 30 hours, and an even bigger improvement over 1882, … Continue reading
The Pendleton Round-Up is one of the largest rodeos held in the western United States. It first took place in 1910, just a few years after Sam Jackson, owner of the Pendleton East Oregonian newspaper, had taken over the floundering … Continue reading
Union Pacific was the second railroad to reach the Pacific Northwest, and it did it in the same way as the Northern Pacific: by building to the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company line and running its trains to Portland over … Continue reading
Competition between Chicago and San Francisco was much less intense than in the Los Angeles corridor mainly because the Overland Route was by far the shortest route. In 1911, when Western Pacific began serving this corridor, the Overland Route was … Continue reading
Santa Fe’s introduction of the Chief in 1926 led Union Pacific and Rock Island-Southern Pacific to match the Santa Fe train’s 63-hour schedules as well as its extra fares of as much as $10. They also met Santa Fe’s reduction … Continue reading
In late 1905, a new competitor entered the market for premium Chicago-Los Angeles trains: the Los Angeles Limited. This route was made possible when the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad completed its line between Salt Lake City … Continue reading
One of the theses that I am exploring since November 20th is that competition stimulated railroads to develop and improve limited trains. The Golden Gate Special, which was probably the first named train to reach the West Coast, is an … Continue reading
This timetable is somewhat similar to the one from 1872, with a map on one side and a large timetable on the other surrounded by woodcuts of scenes along the route of the first transcontinental railway along with some text. … Continue reading
As a part of his map collection, David Rumsey included more than 50 brochures that had a railroad map on one side and timetables on the other. Most of these timetables were printed by Rand McNally and followed a standard … Continue reading
