The schedules on this timetable are pretty similar to those on the April 1958 edition with the exception of the disappearance of trains 11 & 12. While there must be some minor changes, the only major change I can find is the paper it is printed on.
Click image to download an 12.1-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.
The 1958 and earlier timetables were printed on white paper that, while thin, was fairly good quality. This 1959 timetable is printed on a lower-quality newsprint and has severely yellowed. Many other railroads used similar newsprint in the 1950s, including Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific, while Missouri Pacific and Great Northern used a higher-quality paper that was also heavier. The downgrade in the quality of paper in this Rock Island timetable is one more attempt to save money in the face of declining ridership.
Most railroads issued timetables twice a year, usually in April and October, and the traveling public in general did not consider them to be collectibles, so I really can’t fault any of the roads for using lower quality paper. Nobody thought that either NP or UP was hostile to passengers just because of the paper their timetables were printed on.
On the other hand, RI’s Golden State partner SP did some really debatable things like putting plastic flowers on the tables of the Sunset. If they’d just quietly removed the real flowers without replacing them, it’s likely few if any would have noticed as long as the dining service remained up to standard. But plastic flowers? Why not just put a plastic middle finger at each table?