Here’s another condensed timetable that, like the one from 1958, manages to compress four of the 20 pages of the standard timetable into just two pages, and leaves most everything else out. This one removes some white space from the 1958 edition to squeeze in a schedule of trains from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. Rock Island offered through cars from Minneapolis to L.A. that transferred between the Twin Star Rocket and Golden State, but didn’t bother to include the schedule in 1958.

Click image to download an 1.8-MB PDF of this 2-page timetable.

Missing from both the 1958 and 1962 condensed timetables was Rock Island’s passenger service to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This consisted of a mixed train from Cedar Rapids Yard to Estherville, Iowa, connecting with another mixed train from Estherville to Sioux Falls. Since the latter train went through a corner of Minnesota, Rock Island would have needed permission from three different states to discontinue it, so kept it running with a minimum of service.

In 1958, Congress passed a law allowing railroads to discontinue interstate trains without getting separate permission from each state, instead requiring permission only from the Interstate Commerce Commission. Rock Island was still running the mixed trains to Sioux Falls in 1961, but as we will see tomorrow they were gone by 1963, so we don’t know if they were running when this timetable was issued or not.