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Santa Fe October 1949 Traveler’s Timetable

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Train LoverApril 1, 2024

From 1948 to 1961, the Santa Fe labeled its full system timetables as the “Ticket Agent Edition” while it published a condensed timetable labeled “Traveler’s Edition.” The ticket agent editions were useful for comparing schedules side-by-side to see whether someone should take the Super Chief, El Capitan, Chief or another Santa Fe train. The traveler’s editions were useful for pinpointing where a train someone was riding was currently located (or supposed to be located), since each train was printed on a separate page or two.

Click image to download a 9.3-MB PDF of this 28-page timetable.

We’ve previously seen several traveler’s edition timetables, including one from July 1949. This one is from three months later. The differences between the two are pretty slight. Continue reading →

Santa Fe Pullmans to the Rim

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Train LoverApril 1, 2024

So much of railroad advertising was exaggerated: claims that railroads that never went south of Portland could take people to California; claims that particular trains were the fastest way between two points when in fact others were just as fast; and so forth. But Santa Fe’s claim that it could take passengers directly to the rim of the Grand Canyon was perfectly appropriate.

Click image to download a 16.2-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet.

Strictly speaking, passengers had to walk about 500 feet to see the rim. But no other railroad brought passengers so close to such a natural wonder: Gardiner was 5 miles from Mammoth Hot Springs; West Yellowstone was more than 20 miles from the nearest geysers; Glacier Park Station was at least 20 miles from the nearest glaciers; and so forth. Santa Fe showed incredible foresight in building to the Grand Canyon six years before it was made into a national monument and 17 years before it was made into a national park. Continue reading →

Milwaukee Road September 1958 Timetable

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Train LoverMarch 25, 2024

We’ve previously seen an April 1958 Milwaukee Road timetable. This one, from five months later, is four pages shorter. This appears to be due more to a rearrangement of the contents than to any major changes in schedules.

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

Four pages of less-important trains — Chicago-Minocqua, Chicago-Aberdeen, Milwaukee-Savanna, and a few others — have been consolidated to three, but all of the trains in the April timetable are still in the September one. A page of bus schedules in the April timetable is missing from this one. In addition, six pages of freight schedules have been cut to five and a full-page ad in April has been deleted. Continue reading →

Olympian Hiawatha Inaugural Timetable

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Train LoverFebruary 13, 2024

The Milwaukee Road issued this timetable with the inauguration of its new “speedlined” Olympian Hiawatha on June 29, 1947. To compete with Great Northern, which had introduced its fully streamlined Empire Builder four months before, the Milwaukee hastily put the Oly Hi into service before Pullman had been able to deliver streamlined sleeping cars, including the famous Sky Top observation cars. For first-class passengers, the train used heavyweight sleepers until early 1949.

Click image to download an 2.5-MB PDF of this 4-page timetable.

The timetable also reintroduces the Columbian, which had been cancelled in the early part of the Depression. The revived train used equipment from the Olympian and operated on the Olympian‘s former schedule, which took about 12 hours longer than the Olympian Hiawatha‘s 45-hour Chicago-Seattle schedule. Continue reading →

America’s Largest Single-Unit Dining Cars

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Train LoverFebruary 13, 2024

Although the fully streamlined Olympian Hiawatha would not be introduced until 1947, the Milwaukee Road introduced lightweight, streamlined cars to the Olympian eleven years earlier. These included some head-end cars, coaches, and the diners that are the subject of this brochure. Sleeping cars and the observation-lounge cars remained heavyweights.

Click image to download a 2.9-MB PDF of this brochure.

The new cars were built by Milwaukee Road’s own shops, necessitated by the fact that the company had once again gone bankrupt in 1935. Based on the early Hiawatha cars, the cars were innovative in many ways, particularly in their wheel sets designed by Milwaukee Road engineer Karl F. Nystrom. Someone who rode the Hiawathas once noted that the Milwaukee had the worst tracks in the Chicago-Minneapolis corridor, but its cars’ suspension systems were so good that it offered the most comfortable ride. As this brochure says, “roller bearings, rubber-mounted trucks, and careful insulation” made the cars “quiet and smooth riding.” Continue reading →

The New Olympian

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Train LoverApril 1, 2024

This gorgeous booklet introduced an all-new Olympian in 1927. In March of that year, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (nicknamed the Milwaukee Road), had been organized to take over the bankrupt Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (nicknamed the St. Paul railroad). The company didn’t formally emerge from bankruptcy until January, 1928, hence this booklet is still marked “Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul.”

Click image to download a 10.8-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet. Click here to download a 1.3-MB JPG of the cover. Click here to download a 34.1-MB uncompressed PDF of the booklet.

As if in preparation (but more likely a coincidence), the railroad had ordered all-new passenger equipment for the train from Pullman and began running it in August 1927. To stay technologically ahead of its competitors, the new Olympian was the first transcontinental train equipped with roller bearings. This was three years before Timken introduced the first roller-bearing steam locomotive. Continue reading →

Across the Continent in 1911

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Train LoverFebruary 13, 2024

In conjunction with the introduction of the Olympian and Columbian in 1911, the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway issued this gorgeous booklet filled with both sepia-toned and beautifully hand-colored pictures of a trip on the new rail line. The booklet was written by Isabelle Carpenter Kendall, and therein lies a tale.

Click image to download a 19.5-MB PDF of this 68-page booklet.

When Isabelle Kendall was born in about 1864, women weren’t expected to work after they got married. Her father was the St. Paul Railway’s general passenger agent, and she aspired to a career with the railroad, but he didn’t want to hire her, perhaps because he figured she would quit when she got married. So instead she went to work as a stenographer in one of the railroad’s freight offices in 1884. Continue reading →

Rock Island 1977 & 1978 Commuter Timetables

Posted on March 30, 2024 by Train LoverFebruary 13, 2024

As noted yesterday, for most of the 1970s Rock Island still ran Chicago-Peoria and Chicago-Rock Island intercity trains. But it also ran commuter trains between Chicago and Joliet. Like most Chicago commuter railroads, Rock Island had adopted bi-level commuter cars, sometimes called gallery cars, in which the upper level seats looked down upon the center aisle of the lower level, thus allowing the conductor to collect tickets on both levels without climbing the stairs.

Click image to download an 1.9-MB PDF of this 2-page timetable.

Starting in 1974, these trains were subsidized by the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) but were still operated by the Rock Island. RTA took over the commuter trains and ran them itself, under the name Metra, in 1983. Continue reading →

Rock Island 1967 & 1970 Timetables

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Train LoverFebruary 13, 2024

Shockingly, by 1967 Rock Island’s timetable had shrunk to a four-panel brochure, each panel about 4″x9″, thus making it about the same size as the 1964 condensed timetable. This was probably the last timetable listing the Golden State, which would make its last run in April, 1968. Despite declining ridership, Rock Island-Southern Pacific still charged an extra fare for that train, which this timetable calls a “special service charge.”

Click image to download an 1.2-MB PDF of this 4-page timetable.

Trains 5 & 6, once called the Des Moines Rocket, had been cut back to Rock Island. Yesterday’s timetable still had two trains a day between Chicago and Omaha, 7 & 8, the Corn Husker, and 9 & 10, the Corn Belt Rocket. This timetable cut that back to one unnamed train a day each way, but perhaps to share the credit the trains are numbered 7 & 10. Continue reading →

Rock Island October 1966 Timetable

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Train LoverFebruary 13, 2024

In 1965, Rock Island drastically changed the format of its timetables. Instead of the usual 8″x9″, the pages of the new timetables were 4″x9″. With 12 pages, they had the same amount of space as six pages of the older style. I’ve seen fall 1964 timetables in the old style and spring 1965 timetables in the new style so I’m confident the change was made then.

Click image to download an 3.4-MB PDF of this 12-page timetable.

Among the changes from yesterday’s 1964 timetable, trains 21 & 22, once called the Cherokee, continued to serve between Memphis and Tucumcari but carried nothing but chair cars. Actually, that may have been true in yesterday’s condensed timetable, but it didn’t include an equipment listing. Continue reading →