Issued about three months after yesterday’s timetable, this fixes one of the problems with the combined Coloradan/Nebraska Zephyr. In this timetable, the combined trains merge or separate in Omaha instead of Lincoln. This means the westbound Nebraska Zephyr could proceed to Lincoln after only a 30-minute delay in Omaha instead of the hour and fifty minutes in the February timetable. Eastbound, passengers from Lincoln only had to endure a 22-minute delay in Omaha instead of the two hours and fifty minutes of the February schedule. The new delays were still longer than the pre-merger schedules, which had a 10-minute wait in Omaha westbound and 15 minutes eastbound.

Click image to download a 23.8-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The pre-merger Nebraska Zephyr made seven stops that the Coloradan skipped, while the Coloradan made five stops east of Lincoln that were skipped by the Zephyr. The merged train made all of those stops, which further increased the time taken by either train. Continue reading →

One page of Burlington’s system timetables, such as the one shown here yesterday, was devoted to Colorado & Southern’s Denver-Texas trains. That page also showed six Denver-Pueblo trains, two of which were operated by Colorado & Southern and the other four by Rio Grande and Santa Fe. Colorado & Southern also owned the tracks from Denver to Wendover, Wyoming, which were used for part of the Denver-Billings passenger route, which filled half a page in the system timetable.

Click image to download a 5.4-MB PDF of this 8-page timetable.

This Colorado & Southern timetable expands that one-and-a-half pages to eight pages. While the schedules themselves use only one-and-a-half pages, the rest of the timetable include a station index, a list of connecting trains, a centerfold map, fare information, and Burlington agents. Continue reading →

Someone at Burlington realized that, as long as they were devoting two whole pages to just two trains, they could dispense with the “read down westbound, read up eastbound.” Instead, this timetable has shows read-down schedules for both the westbound and eastbound California Zephyr and Denver Zephyr. That does make them easier to read.

Click image to download a 20.7-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

A close look at the minor routes and branch lines reveals that at least three trains disappeared since the fall 1956 timetable. One of them, ironically, was a motor car connecting two of the Burlington’s namesake cities, Burlington and Quincy. Another was a motor car from Beardstown to Herrin, Illinois. A third disappeared route was between Lincoln and St. Joseph on Burlington’s Table Rock line; trains between the two cities on the Omaha line remained.

Although the front cover of this timetable (scans for which were contributed by Bryan Howell) says it was for November 1956, the fine print on the inside front cover says that it went into effect on October 28. This is the same date that is on the front cover of yesterday’s Twin Cities timetable. Many of Burlington’s May timetables also went into effect in the last days of April.

Click image to download a 21.6-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The back cover proudly announces the “the big new vista-dome Denver Zephyr,” which went into service on October 28. This was the last U.S. passenger train built as a single train until Amtrak and was something of a risk for Burlington. The deciding factor was that Union Pacific had introduced a new City of Denver in 1953 that ate into the Denver Zephyr‘s share of the market. Continue reading →

This timetable is pretty similar to the one from May 1955. I count 16 named trains (if the Morning Zephyr and Afternoon Zephyr are counted as two different trains) and at least 16 unnamed trains.

Click image to download a 2.6-MB PDF of this timetable.

Counting the number of unnamed trains is difficult partly because Burlington sometimes used the same numbers for two different trains. The second #1, #3, and #7 is explained by the fact that one of each was on the Colorado & Southern/Fort Worth & Denver, which were operated as separate companies but included in the timetable. There was also a third #1, a mail train from St. Louis to Minneapolis that intersected with the first #1 ten hours apart at Burlington. Continue reading →