In 1950, the Wabash had two Diesel-powered trains a day between St.Louis and Detroit, three a day between St. Louis and Chicago, and three a day between St. Louis and Kansas City. These were mostly streamlined, although the overnight Midnight Limited between St. Louis and Kansas City was mostly heavyweight.

Click image to download an 11.8-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.

While the back cover advertised that the Chicago-St. Louis Blue Bird was “the most modern train in America,” the railroad operated a number of other heavyweight trains. An overnight train went from St. Louis to Moberly, on the Kansas City line, where it split in two parts that went to Omaha and Des Moines. These were called, unimaginatively, the Omaha Limited and Des Moines Limited white their eastbound counterparts — which did not merge at Moberly and which arrived in St. Louis 45 minutes apart — were both called the St. Louis Limited even though they were two different trains.

Four passenger and two mixed trains a day connected college town Columbia, Missouri with Wabash’s main St. Louis-Kansas City line at Centralia. One of the Detroit trains had a coach and sleeper that were taken off at Fort Wayne to go to Toledo. The complete timetable shows a number of other trains that turn out to be mixed or freight only.