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Union Pacific April 1963 Timetable

Posted on August 13, 2024 by Train LoverJune 16, 2024

We’ve previously seen an April 1961 timetable. This one, whose scans were generously donated by Tim Zukas, is similar but naturally there had been a few changes in two years.

Click image to download a 28.1-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable.

One difference is that the City of Las Vegas had its name changed to Las Vegas Holiday Special. The timetable says that the train offered a “Special All-Expense Package, including buffet meals and coach seat reservation.” I think that was true before the name change, but perhaps the name was changed to help convey to people that meals were included in the rail fare. The train also took 15 minutes longer westbound and 30 minutes longer eastbound than it did in 1961.

Union Pacific 1959 Map

Posted on August 12, 2024 by Train LoverJune 16, 2024

The front of this map has a panel on the history of the Union Pacific, one on the comforts of its trains, and 4-1/2 panels of photos rendered in sepia tones. The map side is a conventional map of the United States rather than the more attractive but less detailed Willmarth maps used on the Western Wonderlands brochures.

Click image to download a 23.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

The scans for this map are from Don Strack’s Utah rails web site (and its affiliated photo site). He generously gave me permission to convert the JPG files into a PDF and post it here. Strack’s JPGs totaled to more than 100 megabytes in size; my PDF is 23 megabytes, which still seems large but is a big savings.

Three Beautiful Domeliners to Los Angeles

Posted on August 11, 2024 by Train LoverJune 20, 2024

Union Pacific was pleased to announce with this brochure that the Challenger would begin operating as a separate train from the City of Los Angeles beginning June 1, 1957. This meant it would offer three trains a day between the Midwest and southern California plus a fourth train, the City of San Francisco, to the Bay Area.

Click image to download a 2.8-MB PDF of this brochure.

After being discontinued as a heavyweight in 1946, the Challenger was put back on the timetable as a lightweight in January 1954, running roughly twelve hours apart from the City of Los Angeles1. A year later it became the first Union Pacific train to carry a dome car. But in the spring of 1956, as a cost-cutting measure it was combined with the City of Los Angeles. Continue reading →

Union Pacific April 1950 Timetable

Posted on August 10, 2024 by Train LoverJune 7, 2024

We’ve previously seen a January 1950 timetable, so I wouldn’t expect too many changes in this one. There were some changes in times.

Click image to download a 29.1-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable.

The City of San Francisco left Chicago 30 minutes earlier at 7:00 pm instead of 7:30. The City of Portland left Chicago at 6:15 pm instead of 6:30. The Gold Coast left Chicago at 10:00 pm instead of 8:10 pm. The City of Denver and City of Los Angeles times didn’t change nor did any of the eastbound trains change. There may have been some other minor changes but I didn’t find any.

The Copper King in 1938

Posted on August 9, 2024 by Train LoverJune 11, 2024

I once downloaded scans of this booklet from the Smithsonian‘s web site, but the scans were missing two pages. I posted a PDF of those scans here anyway, but I’ve now acquired a copy of my own. Of course, the two missing pages were blank, but it is nice to have a complete copy.

Click image to download a 3.2-MB PDF of this 28-page booklet.

As I noted before, the Copper King was originally a baggage car built for the first City of San Francisco. As Union Pacific expanded its streamliner fleet, it converted the baggage car into an observation car for the City of Los Angeles, and it first entered service in July of 1938. Later it saw use on the City of Portland and City of Denver before being scrapped in 1958. Continue reading →

1937 Summer Tours Flip Book

Posted on August 8, 2024 by Train LoverJune 7, 2024

We’ve previously seen a booklet like this one dated 1940. Both booklets are summaries of the complete tour booklets, in this case the 1937 summer tours guide. Each page in these little booklets flips up to describe one or two of the tours.

Click image to download a 19.3-MB PDF of this 52-page booklet.

For some reason, the 1940 flip book used the same image on its cover as the previous year’s tour guide book but this one uses the same cover as the 1937 guide. Both booklets invite readers to write the “Department of Tours” for the full tour booklets. Continue reading →

The Portland Limited

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Train LoverJune 7, 2024

Unlike the Overland Limited, the Portland Limited wasn’t an all-Pullman train, but this booklet is just as elaborate as yesterday’s. It uses the same typefaces, many of the same drawings, and the floor plans on page 15 show that the two trains shared nearly identical observation cars. However, the Overland Limited had a club car at the front of the train that wasn’t found on the Portland Limited.

Click image to download a 1.4-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

The front cover of this booklet has less filagree than yesterday’s, but it does have a logo that hints at the grandeur of the Columbia River Gorge. Both the logo and the color are identical to a blotter we’ve seen advertising this train. Continue reading →

The Overland Limited in 1930

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Train LoverJune 7, 2024

From the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s, Union Pacific published little booklets like this one advertising many of its named trains. This is the first one I’ve obtained for the Overland Limited, one of its two most exclusive (meaning all-Pullman) trains. The elaborate cover is similar to the booklet published for the Los Angeles Limited, the other exclusive train.

Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

The booklet is filled with simple drawings of people enjoying the interiors of the lounge, dining, and other cars aboard the train. While even-numbered pages are headed “Overland Limited,” odd-numbered pages are headed “Finest & Fastest,” which is the sort of repetition I criticized yesterday. Floor plans of the club car, observation car, and a Pullman car are on page 15. Continue reading →

Over the Overland Route to California

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Train LoverAugust 5, 2024

Although it appears to have been issued a couple of years later, this is a companion booklet to the 1914 Columbia River Route booklet shown here two days ago. Like the Columbia booklet, this one is 36 pages long and has half a front cover that, when closed, leaves half the title page exposed. Also like the Columbia booklet, the booklet’s name is on the back cover (the left and center panels shown below) while the front cover just has an image and UP logo and motto but no booklet name.

Click image to download an 13.0-MB PDF of this 36-page booklet. Click here to download a PDF of the full cover of this booklet.

Unlike the Columba River Route booklet, this one has no color photographs. The images on the cover are paintings, not photos, and the inside has numerous photos but they are all black-and-white. The centerfold map is also black and white (with red highlights) rather than the colors used in the Columbia booklet. My guess is that the UP decided that the process of hand coloring black-and-white photos, making four-color separations of those photos, and carefully printing them so that the colors all aligned correctly was too time consuming or too expensive to use in booklets after the one from 1914. Continue reading →

The Pacific Northwest and Alaska

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Train LoverJune 7, 2024

Through 40 photographs and a dozen pages of about 400 words of text each, this 52-page booklet introduces eastern readers to the Pacific Northwest. For Union Pacific, “Pacific Northwest” meant the Columbia River Gorge, Portland, Mount Hood, the Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and Spokane. Seven of the photos and three of the text pages are on Alaska, which was not enough to do justice to the nation’s largest territory but was probably thought to be enough to entice people to read the booklet.

Click image to download a 19.3-MB PDF of this 52-page booklet.

Nearly half the photographs are of the Columbia River and the then-new Columbia River Highway. Many of these photos are marked “© Weister Co. Portland, Ore.” Weister was George Weister (1862-1922), who began his photography career in 1888 and started the company that bore his name in 1895. But these photos were taken by Arthur Prentiss (1865-1941), who worked for Weister from 1913 to 1917, then started his own studio and bought Weister’s collection of photos (including ones Prentiss had taken) after the latter’s death. Continue reading →