In 1877, the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad gained control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Though the two weren’t formally merged until 1914, the Lake Shore was New York Central’s main connection between Buffalo and Chicago. It was over the Lake Shore that the New York Central ran the Exposition Flyer in 1893, getting passengers between New York and Chicago in a then-breathtaking 20 hours.

Click image to download a 18.4-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The Columbian Exposition was still a dozen years away when Lake Shore issued this timetable offering four trains a day each way between Buffalo and Chicago. Each of these trains had names. Westbound were the Special Chicago Express, Toledo Express, Pacific Express, and Michigan Express. The eastbound counterparts were, respectively, the Mail, Special New York Express, Atlantic Express, and Chicago & St. Louis Express. The latter was also a counterpart to the westbound Special St. Louis Express, going over what would become the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway, which was eventually also absorbed by New York Central.

The fastest of these trains — the Special New York Express, Special Chicago Express, and Atlantic and Pacific expresses, took about 19 hours between Buffalo and Chicago. Since the fastest New York Central trains took at least 12 hours between Buffalo and New York City, the improvement to the Exposition Flyer‘s 20-hour schedule between New York and Chicago was particularly amazing.

The Lake Shore also had trains to Detroit, Grand Rapids, Jackson, and Lansing Michigan and Fayette Indiana, timetables for which are in this brochure. Most of these trains appear to be unnamed, though the Fayette trains are listed as Fayette Express.