Columbian Envelope

Though the Columbian only had a diner-lounge car to entertain passengers bored with their coach or sleeping car seats, it apparently was fancy enough to offer this stationery. It apparently wasn’t fancy enough for the stationery itself to be very fancy.


Click image to download a PDF of this envelope.

The Columbian began operating as the companion to the Olympian in 1911. As a secondary train, it was terminated, like so many other secondary trains, with the onset of the Depression in 1930. It was revived in 1947, when the new Olympian Hiawatha was inaugurated, with the Columbian using the Olympian‘s old equipment. The Milwaukee Road could not sustain two transcontinental trains, however, so the Columbian was phased out in 1955-1957, first going as far as Avery, Idaho, then cut back to Marmarth, ND, then Aberdeen, SD, then, in February 1957, Ortonville, MN, and finally, in April 1957, dropped entirely.


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