After the Union Pacific removed its City trains from the Chicago and North Western to the Milwaukee Road in 1956, C&NW passenger service rapidly declined. By 1962, when this timetable was produced, it had just five routes left:
- Chicago-Twin Cities (with the once-a-day Twin Cities 400);
- Chicago-Rochester-Mankato (the Rochester 400);
- Chicago-Clinton, IA (the Kate Shelley 400);
- Chicago-Ashland (the North Woods Fisherman and Flambeau 400, as well as the twice-a-day Green Bay 400s that only went as far as Green Bay); and
- Chicago-Ishpeming, MI (the Peninsula 400 as well as the Sunday-only, northbound Valley 400 and companion southbound Shoreland 400 that only went as far as Menominee, MI).
Click image to download a 4.1-MB PDF of this three-panel (24″x9″) timetable.
Except for the Kate Shelley 400, most of these trains went through Milwaukee, thus providing seven trains a day between Milwaukee and Chicago, down from 13 in 1939. But only the Twin Cities 400 made it as far as Minneapolis, down from five in 1939. Trains to Omaha, Des Moines, Duluth, South Dakota, and Wyoming were long gone.
As befits a full timetable, this one included a system map (or, at least, a map of C&NW routes that still had passenger service), a list of station agents, sample rail fares, and even an index of stations. Chicago commuter trains were not listed, but it is worth noting that bilevel commuter cars were used on the Peninsula 400 to Ishpeming and the Flambeau 400 to Ashland.
I like the cover illustration.
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