Over the next several months I am going to present around 150 timetables, including more than 50 from the Burlington Route, more than 30 from the Rock Island, and more than 50 from a variety of other railroads. But first I have several of the Missouri Pacific timetables that featured this image of an Eagle streamliner on the cover.

Click image to download a 28.5-MB PDF of this 48-page timetable.

I’ve noted previously that Missouri Pacific timetables from 1947 through mid-1957 were unusual in their extravagant use of color. These were preceded by quite ordinary timetables including one we’ve seen from February 1946 and a similar one I’ve seen dated July 1946. The first that I’ve seen that has the same Eagle cover shown here was dated November 1946.

These timetables have several unusual or unique features, including:

• Eight pages of four-color photos or illustrations when most timetables didn’t have any. In 1947 Pennsylvania was one of the few if not the only other railroad to use four-color illustrations on its timetables and only on the front and back covers;
• Another eight pages had a single color used as a tint. The colors varied from timetable to timetable; this one has four pages of red and four of blue;
• Scattered throughout the timetables are stories, trivia, quizzes, and other things to make it more interesting than just a schedule of trains. This one, for example, has articles about Austin, Denver, and St. Louis;
• The timetables are printed on much better paper than the usual pulp. The paper is both heavier duty and less likely to yellow.

 
In addition to the colors, this timetable is 12 pages longer than the 1946 edition, so it is safe to say that these changes greatly increased the cost of production. This is especially amazing as timetables have limited usefulness after their expiration dates. It was almost as if MP was trying to turn its timetables into a magazine that passengers could read during their journeys.

The inside back cover of this timetable has an article about the Butterfield Overland Mail, which before the transcontinental railroads carried mail from St. Louis to San Francisco, using MP predecessor Pacific Railroad of Missouri for the first few miles. The article is accompanied by a painting by Frank Nuderscher (1880-1959), who by 1947 had become the “dean of St. Louis artists.”

Born in St. Louis, Nuderscher studied art in New York, Europe, and at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. In 1904, he won an artists’ competition with a painting of the Eads Bridge, which carried trains and other vehicles across the Mississippi River at St. Louis. While best known today for his landscapes and murals, like many artists he also did commercial work including paintings for Missouri Pacific’s own museum, which was housed in the company’s headquarters building in St. Louis.