Missouri Pacific issued its last 48-page timetable in June 1957, and among the losses were the two colorful pages before and after the centerfold map. The inside back cover of this edition is freight schedules and the outside back cover is an ad mainly for freight services. While the inside front cover is a colorful ad for coach tray meals (which look and sound too much like TV dinners to be truly appetizing), the timetables had lost most of their entertainment value.

Click image to download an 21.4-MB PDF of this 40-page timetable.

The booklet still has lots of half-page articles, but most of them are just advertising. In the 1947 timetable presented here a few days ago, about 75 percent of non-essential timetable space was dedicated to entertainment with 25 percent going to ads for Missouri Pacific services. In this one the ratio is reversed: about 75 percent ads and 25 percent entertainment — and that’s generously including as “entertainment” a self-serving article lobbying the public to rid the railroads of “temporary” taxes passed during World War II.

This change was more gradual than abrupt. The timetables shown in the last few days progressively traded off entertaining articles in favor of more traditional advertising. Even the colorful page following the centerfold map had changed from educational articles about cities and states served by Missouri Pacific into advertisements for industries to move states served by Missouri Pacific. While we can appreciate the effort Missouri Pacific made to entertain its customers with its timetables, it evidently did not add enough to the bottom line to make it worthwhile.