Milwaukee Road Hiawatha Menu

Posted on by October 18, 2024
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The Milwaukee Road had some beautiful covers reminiscent of Native American designs for its Hiawatha menus. This menu offers full means with unspecified fish, old fashioned smothered steak, roast chicken, or cold meats with soup, bread, potatoes, vegetable, rolls, dessert, and beverage for $1. That was a pretty good deal considering the a la carte side offered the fish alone for 70¢ and the chicken alone for 60¢.

Click image to download a 2.1-MB PDF of this menu, which was provided by Brian Leiteritz.

The menu is undated, but it does say that B.J. Schilling was the superintendent of dining cars. It also has a plea from the “President’s Council on Food Famine” to conserve “bread, fats and oils.” Concerns about food famines reached a peak in 1946, which is also when B.J. Schilling held that job, so I’m dating this menu to that year.

Click image to download a 790-KB PDF of this envelope, which was provided by Brian Leiteritz.

The bottom of the left side of the menu says, “Steward will furnish an envelope for patron desiring to mail this menu.” Above is an envelope that might have been provided.

Milwaukee Road March 1943 Timetable

Posted on by October 18, 2024
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Issued in the midst of the Second World War, this timetable predictably has a number of patriotic statements and ads. But it also has lots of interesting information about Milwaukee Road trains.

Click image to download a 42.2-MB PDF of this 48-page timetable.

The four pages of equipment lists note that, “Unless designated ‘Pullman,’ all cars are Milwaukee Road owned and operated.” Milwaukee was the last major railroad to operate its own sleeping cars and in this timetable it still operated them on the Chicago-Mason City Marquette, Chicago-Minneapolis Minnesota Marquette, Minneapolis-Aberdeen numbers 5 & 6, Butte-Spokane numbers 7 & 8, Chicago-Rapid City Sioux, Chicago-Minocqua Tomahawk, and through Omaha-Aberdeen and Des Moines-Sioux City sleepers. Continue reading →

Milwaukee Road Scenic Postcards

Posted on by October 18, 2024
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Here are two linen-era postcards distributed by the Milwaukee Road. The first shows a heavily (and not very accurately) colorized image of Yellowstone Falls and Canyon. Did people really dress like that when they visited national parks in 1940? Park visitors certainly don’t dress that way today.


Click image to download a 630-KB PDF of this postcard.

The number in the margin, “0B-H1134,” is a Curt-Teich printer code. According to the Newberry Library’s postcard dating guide, the 0B (which is zero-B, not oh-B) indicates the card was issued in 1940. Continue reading →

Morrison Cave Lunch Menu

Posted on by October 18, 2024
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Like the menus shown in the previous two days, this one lists Wm. Dolphin as Superintendent of Dining Cars. Unlike the previous menus, this one has a detailed description of the cover photo on the back. This suggests a new menu format that would date this menu somewhat later.

Click image to download a 1.8-MB PDF of this menu, scans for which were provided by Brian Leiteritz.

What the menu calls Morrison Cave is now known as Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. The limestone caves were discovered by local ranchers in the late nineteenth century and local businesses persuaded President Roosevelt to declare them a national monument in 1908. Continue reading →

Lily Meadows Dinner Menu

Posted on by October 18, 2024
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Milwaukee Road menu covers of the 1930s seemed to feature scenes of obscure places that few passengers would see in real life. Instead of showing the Pacific Ocean, yesterday’s menu showed a couple of fishing boats. Instead of showing Mount Rainier, today’s menu shows some flowers and a deer that, the menu cover assures us, were photographed in Mount Rainier National Park.

Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu, scans for which were provided by Brian Leiteritz.

Although I have lots of menus from AT&SF, D&RGW, GN, NP, SP, and UP, I have very few from the Milwaukee Road. So I am grateful to Streamliner Memories reader Brian Leiteritz for providing this and other Milwaukee Road menus that I’ll be presenting in the next week. Like yesterday’s menu, this one is from around 1938 or 1939.

La Push Harbor Breakfast Menu

Posted on by October 18, 2024
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The photograph on the cover of this menu shows a scene that few if any passengers riding the Olympian to Seattle would ever see. La Push is in the Quileute Indian Reservation on the Pacific shore and, while it wasn’t closed to the general public, the Quileutes did not begin to encourage tourism until after 2000.

Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu, scans for which were provided by Brian Leiteritz.

This menu is undated but it lists Wm. Dolphin as the Superintendent of Dining Cars. Dolphin was promoted to this position in 1938. Milwaukee Road menu formats changed in 1939 or 1940, so I would date this to 1938 or 1939. La Push is more than 200 miles from Seattle and in the late 1930s the roads were probably not great, and the town probably had no hotel or other tourist facilities before the war, so this menu was more a reminder of scenes passengers would never see in real life than a promotion for people to travel to Washington’s Pacific Coast.

Champion of the Track

Posted on by November 11, 2024
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The Milwaukee Road Olympian was named after the Olympic Mountains of northwest Washington, but in 1932 a very different Olympics were held in Los Angeles. This Milwaukee brochure takes advantage of this to compare the railroad’s premiere train with the champions of the Olympics.

Click image to download a 3.0-MB PDF of this brochure.

“Comparable to the champion of Olympic champions is America’s premier transcontinental train,” says the brochure, “which fittingly takes its name from the same mythology.” This was true only in the sense that the Olympic Mountains were based on the same mythology. The International Olympic Committee, which was created in 1894, must not have been as vigorous about protecting its brand identity in 1932 as it is today, as there is no indication in this brochure that the Milwaukee Road was a sponsor of the Olympics or otherwise had paid to be able to mention the Olympics in this advertisement. Continue reading →

New Olympian Luggage Sticker

Posted on by August 29, 2024
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When the St. Paul went bankrupt, the receivers asked Coverdale and Colpitts — the company that later wrote a series of reports on streamline trains — to prepare an evaluation of the railway. The report concluded that the railroad’s infrastructure was in fair shape, the locomotives were in “first class condition,” and freight cars were old and deficient in both condition and number.

Click any image to download a 916-KB PDF of this luggage sticker.

While the passenger cars were in “fair condition,” due to uncertainties about ridership (which was declining on all railroads), “it is not proposed that additional purchases of passenger cars be made.” Yet the receivers ignored this and ordered new equipment for the railroad’s flagship Olympian. Continue reading →

The New Olympian on Display

Posted on by August 29, 2024
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We’ve previously seen a glorious full-color booklet advertising the 1927 edition of the Olympian. That booklet was dated July 15 for a train that would first enter service on August 1.

Click any image to download a 5.2-MB PDF of this 8-page booklet.

Today we have a more prosaic booklet about the train that was dated June 30th. “The Milwaukee Road invites you to a critical inspection of The New Olympian and will gladly welcome constructive suggestions for its further improvement,” says the booklet. Apparently, the new train did a tour of major cities and this booklet was handed out to members of the public, while the color one was probably reserved for the press and travel agents. Continue reading →

Introducing the Milwaukee Road

Posted on by December 5, 2024
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1927 was an auspicious year for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. On June 18, it opened the Gallatin Gateway Inn, its entrance into Yellowstone National Park. In August, it began operating the new Olympian, a completely new train and the first train to the West Coast equipped with roller bearings.

Click any image to download a 12.7-MB PDF of this collection of 16 advertisements.

Most importantly, it was emerging from bankruptcy, having entered receivership in 1925 due to its inability to pay off bonds sold to construct its Pacific Coast extension. Although revenues had been well above the company’s operating costs, it had a massive debt due to that construction costing four times as much as anticipated. Because of the Great War and the opening of the Panama Canal, among other factors, revenues were simply not sufficient to pay off the debt, so when $48 million worth of bonds became due in 1925, it defaulted. Continue reading →