The inside front cover of this timetable “welcomes the Texas Eagles, 4 new streamliners between New York, Washington, St. Louis and the principal cities of Texas.” Though this timetable went into effect on August 29, the Texas Eagles were inaugurated on August 15. They were “more than 4 hours faster between St. Louis and Houston,” nearly 6 hours faster from San Antonio, and 2 hours faster from Dallas-Fort Worth. These times are presumably in comparison with the heavyweight Sunshine Special, which continued to operate but no longer carried through cars to New York and Washington.

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The page before the centerfold map is an article about Fort Worth, a city just far enough away from Dallas to be relatively independent but close enough to be overshadowed by Dallas’ glory. The article notes that the B-36 bomber, the largest mass-produced plane built up to that time, was assembled in Fort Worth. Continue reading →

The inside front cover of this timetable is another ad for the Thrift-T-Sleeper service on the Colorado Eagle. But page 9 and the back cover offer a new wrinkle with an announcement that Baltimore & Ohio’s Slumbercoach from Washington to St. Louis would continue on to Houston and San Antonio. Passengers from those cities could take a Slumbercoach to Washington or just to St. Louis.

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Slumbercoach fares were comparable to the lower berth fares in the Thrift-T-Sleeper (which were $6 plus coach fare between St. Louis and Denver). The single-room Slumbercoach was $6 plus coach fare between Houston and St. Louis and $7 plus coach between San Antonio and St. Louis. As I suggested yesterday, the Thrift-T-Sleeper fares were probably an attempt to mimic Slumbercoach fares on the Colorado train. Continue reading →

Like the December 1957 timetable presented here yesterday, this one is 40 pages long. Unlike yesterday’s (and all that preceded it over the previous eleven years), the centerfold map no longer uses four colors. Where the 1946-1957 timetable maps were printed in yellow, rose, green, and blue, today’s is printed in shades of green and grey.

Click image to download a 20.4-MB PDF of this 40-page timetable.

Oddly, the Wx4 web site has a December 1957 timetable that is identical to the one presented here yesterday except that its centerfold map is printed in shades of yellow and grey. I don’t know why MP would have printed two different maps for the same timetable, but it is likely that all timetables in 1958 also had two color (one color plus grey) maps. Continue reading →

“Don’t drive until you arrive,” urges the ad on the inside front cover of this edition. “Rent a car while you’re there,” it adds poetically with a picture of an Eagle streamliner featuring a dome car.

Click image to download a 23.1-MB PDF of this 48-page timetable.

Although dated a full six months after yesterday’s timetable, the four-color history page on this one says it is no. 10 in a series of historic landmarks. Since yesterday’s was no. 9, there must have been no intervening timetables. Continue reading →

No. 8 in the historic landmark series, which appears on the page just before the centerfold map, features the old St. Louis courthouse. “Until 1861 slave auctions were held on its east steps” and in 1847 it hosted the infamous case of Dred Scott, a slave who sued his owner for freedom after the two had lived for a time in a free state. The accompanying illustration, which shows both a slave auction and Mr. Scott as a quite distinguished gentleman (based on this painting), is signed Keil.

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The page after the centerfold map features the Colorado capitol as the second (in alphabetical order) of state capitols features on Missouri Pacific service plates. It notes that the architect who designed Colorado’s capitol also designed the ones in Michigan and Texas; the latter, of course, is also on the service plate. Continue reading →