This timetable shows six trains a day between Chicago and the Twin Cities, but two of them — the Pioneer and the Columbian — are really the same train, so there were in fact just five. In addition to the Morning and Afternoon Hiawathas, there was the Olympian Hiawatha and an unnamed local train. Unlike the Burlington, whose local train left Chicago at 8:30 pm and thus served most intermediate communities late at night, the Milwaukee’s local left Chicago at 1:30 am, so most Wisconsin and all Minnesota towns were served in daylight.

Click image to download a 23.9-MB PDF of this timetable.

The back cover of this timetable advertises “the first end-to-end dome cars on any railroad.” The Super Domes were still fairly new, having been introduced in late 1952.

Unlike many timetables that published Pullman fares but not railroad fares, this one has both. A coach seat from Chicago to Seattle was $53.61 one way and $82 round trip. Entry into the Touralux sleepers cost another $10.73 while the full Pullman sleepers was $21.45 more than coach fares. That’s just the rail fare; a lower berth in Pullman added $21 to the total while the Touralux lower berth was $16.60, bringing the total fare to $80.94 for a Touralux berth and $96.06 for a Pullman berth. Multiply by 12 to get today’s dollars.

While the Pullman fare for a lower berth was only $15.12 more than the Touralux, this was deceptive because the Chicago-Seattle trains didn’t actually have any lower berths in Pullman class. Instead, they carried double bedrooms and roomettes, while the Touralux was all sections (upper and lower berths). Another table in the timetable says that, if the lower berth was $21, then a roomette was $29.40 for one and $33.50 for two while a bedroom was $39.90 for one and $46.15 for two. For people in Touralux, a lower berth fare of $16.60 meant an upper berth fare of $12.65.

Thus, someone could go from Chicago to Seattle in an upper berth for $76.99 or in a roomette for $104.46. The $27.47 difference, adjusted for inflation, is about $330 in today’s dollars. While this may seem confusing, it was the cost of having multiple options available and frequent travelers had a pretty good idea in advance whether they were going to go first class, second class (Touralux), or coach.