I noted a few months ago how surprisingly colorful Missouri Pacific’s mid-1950s timetables were compared with those of other railroads. This is underscored by the drab Burlington timetable shown here a couple of weeks ago.

Click image to download a 25.4-MB PDF of this 48-page timetable.

This 1953 edition is just as colorful as the 1955 one presented here in July. Not only does the front cover use four-color printing, which was rare enough on timetables, so do the back and inside covers. Several interior pages have one color tinting. The centerfold map is also printed in four colors as are the pages on the back of the map. Few if any other railroads used this much color for their public timetables.

The page after the centerfold map has an attractive photo of a Missouri Pacific diner, complete with guests and spreads of food that seemed to be served family style rather than as plate dinners. MP diners, says the ad, offer “a variety of carefully selected, fresh fruits, vegetables, poultry . . . skilfully prepared by cookery artists.”

The page before the centerfold map interested me the most. This page on the 1955 timetable described the history of the Pony Express, which it called one of the “Historic Landmarks in the Mo. Pac. Empire.” Today’s timetable featured the Louisiana Purchase, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1953. The three paragraphs of text are accompanied by colorful paintings of Jefferson, Napoleon (who sold Louisiana to Jefferson), the Lewis & Clark expedition, a Pony Express rider fleeing hostile Indians, a wagon train, and historic and then-modern freight trains.