The schedules on this timetable are pretty similar to those on the April 1958 edition with the exception of the disappearance of trains 11 & 12. While there must be some minor changes, the only major change I can find is the paper it is printed on.

Click image to download an 12.1-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.

The 1958 and earlier timetables were printed on white paper that, while thin, was fairly good quality. This 1959 timetable is printed on a lower-quality newsprint and has severely yellowed. Many other railroads used similar newsprint in the 1950s, including Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific, while Missouri Pacific and Great Northern used a higher-quality paper that was also heavier. The downgrade in the quality of paper in this Rock Island timetable is one more attempt to save money in the face of declining ridership.

At first glance, this timetable appears to be exactly like the one presented yesterday: 20 pages long with almost no ads but still lots of trains. However, a few trains have disappeared.

Click image to download an 11.7-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.

The 1957 timetable gives travelers a choice of two trains a day between Minneapolis and St. Louis: the Zephyr Rocket and an unnamed train. The unnamed train (or trains, as the timetable shows four different train numbers, which meant at least some passengers had to change trains three times) didn’t sound terribly enticing as for part of the distance it was a mixed train carrying both passengers and freight. It was off the 1958 timetable. Continue reading →

A full-page ad on the inside back cover of this timetable celebrates Rock Island Line, which became a hit song in 1955. According to Wikipedia, the first version of this song was written in 1929 and performed by members of the Rock Island Colored Booster Quartet, a groups of Rock Island employees in Little Rock. The song was first recorded being performed by inmates at an Arkansas prison in 1934 and was later covered by Lead Belly and Odetta, among others.

Click image to download an 20.3-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

All of the above performers were black, and as was typical of the times the song didn’t become a hit until it was recorded by a white, specifically a Scottish musician named Lonnie Donegan. This timetable ad pictures a 45 record with Donegan’s name. Continue reading →

A full-page ad on the inside back cover of this timetable highlights the “Rock Island States of America,” fourteen states served by that railroad. This reminds me that the Rock Island and the Burlington were very similar railroads serving largely the same territory. An objective look at just their routes in the mid-1950s might make one conclude that, if one were to survive and other disappear, it would have been the Rock Island that survived and the Burlington that would disappear.

Click image to download an 19.5-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

Both served the same core states: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas. Both also reached a corner of New Mexico and one end of South Dakota. Rock Island had a strong network in Kansas while Burlington reached Kansas only on a couple of minor branch lines. Rock Island went to Memphis, Tennessee while Burlington went to Paducah, Kentucky. Continue reading →

“When Old Man Weather gives you the cold shoulder, there’s only one thing to do,” says the advertisement on the front cover of this timetable: “hie yourself off to Southern Arizona or California, where Nature has done such a noble job in providing year ’round, pleasure-loving ‘spas.'” The “hie” is in reference to the accompanying illustration, which shows cowboy- and cowgirl-dudes and their horses. According to the Oxford Dictionary, however, “hie” has its origins in Old English, not the Old West.

Click image to download an 20.9-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The ad notes that the Golden State offered, among other luxuries, “Complimentary hors d’oeuvres for Pullman passengers.” Passengers from the east could take a through sleeper from St. Louis or a through sleeper or through day-night coach from the Twin Cities, which cars would be “entrained” into the Chicago-originated Golden State in Kansas City. Continue reading →