Although yesterday’s timetable was eight pages long, the schedules themselves all fit onto just two pages. So it is not surprising that, by 1953, Monon cut its timetable to the equivalent of four pages.

Click image to download a 1.5-MB PDF of this 8-page timetable.

It did so despite adding a new train since 1951, the Varsity, which connected Chicago with Bloomington. It was clearly aimed at students returning home for the weekends as the Chicago-to-Bloomington train operated only on Sundays and Bloomington-to-Chicago operated only on Fridays. The timetable notes that the last trip of this train would be on May 31, though whether that was permanent or just until school started again in the fall is unclear.

The observation-dining-parlor car on the Thoroughbred had been replaced by a “grill coach,” which also meant the train no longer had a parlor section. The Hoosier still had its observation-lounge-parlor car while the Tippecanoe retained its grill-parlor car. That means first-class seats were available in the Chicago-Indianpolis trains but not on the longer Chicago-Louisville trip. The Varsity just had coaches and a grill-coach.

The coach fare from Chicago to Indianapolis was $6.23, while the first-class fare was $8.34, a 33 percent premium. The timetable also shows first-class fares to Louisville, but from the equipment listing there were no first-class seats on that train.