“No matter how your hopes may reach out to distant places and strange scenes–no matter what longing dreams of wonderlands beyond the humdrum daily life
may be yours–here is a swift road that will sweep you away to your longed-for adventureland,” begins this 1930 booklet. The booklet then describes, in similarly flowery language, all of the major sights and stops on the Milwaukee’s route from Chicago to Seattle, including the Upper Mississippi, Dakota scenery, Gallatin Gateway, and the Cascades, among others. Curiously, Sixteen-Mile Canyon, one of major icons of the Milwaukee’s Puget Sound Extension, isn’t mentioned.
Click image to download a 5.2-MB PDF of this 12-page booklet.
“The most wonderfully equipped train that ever rode the rails is the new Olympian,” the booklet adds. “New, unique, electrified and completely equipped with silent roller bearings, it offers the smoothest and most comfortable ride in the history of American railroad transportation.” Though the Olympian‘s basic services could also be found on the Empire Builder and North Coast Limited, the Milwaukee’s orange-and-maroon paint scheme (not mentioned in this booklet), roller bearings, and electric locomotives over the Rockies and Cascades did make its trains special.