Chicago & North Western April 1958 Timetable

Posted on by April 29, 2024
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Yesterday’s April 1955 timetable was probably the last C&NW timetable before Union Pacific yanked its streamliners away from the North Western and over to the Milwaukee Road. It was 44 pages long, and this one is a respectable 36. Clearly, the North Western still operated a lot of passenger trains.

Click image to download a 23.9-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The timetable devotes two pages to Chicago-Minneapolis trains, one to Chicago-Duluth, one to Chicago-Rapid City, two to Chicago-Omaha and nearby trains, two to trains to upper Wisconsin, two to Chicago-Green Bay, one to Chicago-Milwaukee, and one to Chicago-Madison. The timetable also includes four pages of mixed or freight-only routes. Continue reading →

C&NW April 1955 Timetable

Posted on by April 29, 2024
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The city-of-everywhere Gold Coast, which was included on yesterday’s timetable, is gone from this one. The columns used to display it were filled on this timetable with the National Parks Special (which Union Pacific timetables called the Yellowstone Special), a train from Chicago to West Yellowstone that also sent cars to Oakland (on the San Francisco Overland and Los Angeles (on a train that isn’t named on this timetable but was the City of St. Louis).

Click image to download a 26.9-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable.

The National Parks Special only operated on Saturdays from June 18 to August 27. Its Los Angeles connection, the City of St. Louis probably isn’t named on this timetable because, unlike other City trains, it didn’t use the C&NW for any part of its route. Continue reading →

C&NW January 1954 Timetable

Posted on by July 30, 2024
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I recently purchased several dozen timetables from various railroads despite the dealer warning that all were damaged in some way. In fact, most were in pretty condition, but this is an exception. It looks like it was completely soaked with water at one time or another. Still, it is perfectly readable.

Click image to download a 28.5-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable.

The back cover advertises the reintroduction of the Challenger between Chicago and Los Angeles. Originally introduced as an economy heavyweight train in 1936, the train had been discontinued in 1947 when the City of Los Angeles and other streamliners went daily. As other heavyweight trains such as the Los Angeles Limited were discontinued, UP and C&NW needed a companion to the City of Los Angeles, so the streamlined Challenger was inaugurated on January 10, 1954. Continue reading →

A Memory of the San Francisco World’s Fair

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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This brochure has eight panels printed on both sides, yet other than the cover shown below, only one panel discusses the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair. Surprisingly, the brochure never calls the fair by its real name, the Golden Gate International Exposition. What the brochure really is, of course, is an advertisement for C&NW passenger trains.

Click image to download a 11.5-MB PDF of this brochure from the David Rumsey Collection.

Those trains included what the brochure calls “super trains,” namely the City of San Francisco and other city streamliners. Other trains to San Francisco are also mentioned including the Challenger, Overland Limited, Forty Niner, and Pacific Limited. The brochure also lists trains to Denver, Los Angeles, and the Northwest plus, of course, C&NW’s own 400. Continue reading →

The North Western Limited in 1929

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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The North Western Limited was for many years the Chicago & North Western’s premiere overnight train that ran entirely over its own rails. It was completely re-equipped in 1928 and the 16 crisp black-and-white photos in this 1929 booklet show that the new train was one of the finest in the country.

Click image to download a 5.9-MB PDF of this 28-page booklet.

The North Western Limited began operating sometime before 1900. According to Wikipedia it started in 1914, but that’s wrong because Official Railway Guides mention it long before that. As I’ve previously noted, in the Official Guides the train was simply called a “vestibuled limited” until October 1892, when the name North Western Limited first appeared. Continue reading →

Southern Pacific April 1953 Timetable

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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“It’s fun to ride Southern Pacific streamliners” blares out the ad on the front cover of this timetable. To prove it, the ad is accompanied by a photo of a young woman laughing with two older men in a lounge car. Is this supposed to imply that men could meet cute, younger women on the trains?

Click image to download a 31.7-MB PDF of this 52-page timetable.

Note, however, that the ad specifically said that streamliners were fun to ride. Apparently, riding the Gold Coast, Imperial, or Argonaut wasn’t much fun even though those trains also had lounge cars. And completely forget about having fun on the Klamath, Owl, or other heavyweight trains that didn’t even have lounge cars. The ad didn’t specify whether those trains were deficient in fun due to a lack of young women or a lack of older men.

Southern Pacific July 1951 Timetable

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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The front cover of this timetable (since the cover shown below is on the back) uses Southern Pacific’s familiar theme of “four wonderful ways” to “anywhere” even though the SP could offer four ways only to California. It illustrates each of the four ways with the premiere train on three of them: the Shasta Daylight, Golden State, and Sunset Limited. But for the fourth it uses the San Francisco Overland, only mentioning the “fast streamlined City of San Francisco” in fine print.

Click image to download a 31.7-MB PDF of this 52-page timetable.

The timetable shows the City of San Francisco taking 39-2/3 hours to get from Chicago to Oakland (with another 35 minutes for the ferry ride to San Francisco). Although the Overland was also streamlined by 1951, it required 48-1/4 hours to Oakland. The ad probably used the Overland name because the name of that “way” was the “Overland Route” just as the names of the premiere trains on the other routes were also the names of those routes. Continue reading →

Court of Flowers Lunch Menu

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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The Golden Gate Exposition was a boon for western railroads. The Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific combined to create the Exposition Flyer to take easterners to the fair. Santa Fe started the Valley Flyer to bring people from California’s Central Valley to the fair. But the Southern Pacific probably benefitted the most as it had trains to San Francisco from the north, south, and east.

Click image to download an 517-KB PDF of this menu.

The tower in this menu’s cover photo, which was also on yesterday’s menu, is the Tower of the Sun. At 400 feet, it was taller than any other building at the expo and as the symbol of the fair it was featured on posters, commemorative postage estamps, and postcards. The tower’s carillon bells were later installed in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. Continue reading →

Tower of the Sun Breakfast Menu

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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Dated September 1939, this menu was issued near the end of the Golden Gate Exposition’s run in 1939. While the fair was supposed to remain open until December 2nd, it was losing money so it ended prematurely on October 29. Despite the losses, the exposition reopened in 1940, so the menu ended up advertising both seasons.

Click image to download an 711-KB PDF of this menu.

The exposition’s buildings were mostly built of concrete. While some were tinted, most were painted with colored lights at night, as illustrated by the South Tower on the right of the photo on the cover of this menu. This explains why many of Southern Pacific’s menus showing the fair used night photos. Continue reading →

Four Scenic Routes East

Posted on by May 14, 2024
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In 1926, K. C. Ingram, a former newspaper writer turned Southern Pacific employee — he eventually rose to be assistant to the president — proposed that the railroad needed a unifying theme in its advertising. He argued that SP advertising at the time was “disjointed” and a centralized theme would give the public something to identify with, like a brand logo.

Click image to download an 11.0-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

This persuaded the company to develop its “four routes” campaign in 1927. This was based on the notion that the railroad offered four different ways into and out of California so passengers could go one way and return on another for little or no extra cost. This 1937 booklet was aimed at Californians who might want to take one route to, say, Chicago and another route back. Continue reading →