Tulsan and Oil Flyer Timetable

On December 9, 1939, Santa Fe inaugurated the streamlined Tulsan between Tulsa and Kansas City, where it met the Chicagoan/Kansas Cityan. The all-coach day train made the 256-mile trip in five hours for an average speed of 51 mph.


Click image to download a 0.7-MB PDF of this OCRed timetable. Click here to download a non-OCR version.

The Tulsan was complemented by the Oil Flyer, which went overnight southbound at a more leisurely pace allowing passengers up to seven hours of sleep. Northbound, the train took less than six hours, leaving at 4:10 pm and arriving in Kansas City at 10:00 pm. The Oil Flyer actually entered service in 1925, and remained a heavyweight train until well after the war.


In 1966, Santa Fe purchased some boxy locomotives from General Electric but insisted that the exteriors be cowled for passenger service. Called U30CGs, this one is pulling the Tulsan through Kansas.

As of 1953, through cars from Chicago to Tulsa went on the Texas Chief and the Oil Flyer from there. Northbound, through cars on the Oil Flyer continued on the Navajo. By the time of this 1967 timetable, the southbound connection was the San Francisco Chief, while northbound was on the Chief. The Oil Flyer in 1968, but the Tulsan continued in service until Amtrak in 1971.


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