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The Kingdom of the Sun in 1953

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 1, 2023

The Santa Fe called the Phoenix area the Valley of the Sun in this 1950 booklet. Rock Island responded with this Kingdom of the Sun booklet in 1953, though Rock Island’s term extended to the entire Southwest region from El Paso to southern California.

Click image to download an 10.4-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

In the 1950s, trains on the Golden State route were not up to the standards of the City of Los Angeles or the Super Chief. The one advantage the Golden State route had was that it served Phoenix, while Santa Fe passengers had to change trains to get to Phoenix and Union Pacific didn’t come close. So it is a little bit of a surprise that this booklet doesn’t focus on Phoenix, but perhaps Rock Island had another brochure for that. Continue reading →

Rock Island Colorado Vacations in 1940

Posted on August 11, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 29, 2023

We’ve previously seen a 1937 Rock Island booklet that was printed in rather gloomy blue and black ink. This one from 1940 is brightened up with some red highlights. While the cover shown below (which is the back cover) tints the sky, one of the horses, saddles, and distant roofs in red, red is used on other pages in the booklet only in a few circles, geographic shapes, and on one page lines on a map.

Click image to download an 15.0-MB PDF of this 16-page booklet.

Both booklets ask “the all-important question,” which was “where shall we go this summer?” The answer, which of course was supposed to be Colorado, was told in text and photos that for the most part were practically identical in the two booklets. Continue reading →

Rock Island Tours to Colorado in 1927

Posted on August 10, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 29, 2023

We’ve previously seen a 44-page 1929 Rock Island booklet advertising “personally conducted and independent all-expense tours to Colorado.” This one from two years before has fewer pages because it only describes the personally conducted tours, not the independent ones.

Click image to download an 11.7-MB PDF of this 36-page booklet.

In 1927, Rock Island offered ten-day tours that left Midwest cities every Saturday from June 25 through September 3. The tours spent one night in Colorado Springs, one in Denver, three at Estes Park (on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park), two at Grand Lake Lodge (on the west side of Rocky Mountain Park), one in Idaho Springs, then one more in Denver before heading back east. This works out to a day-and-a-half in Colorado Springs and six days in Rocky Mountain Park, which seems imbalanced to me. Continue reading →

The Golden State Limited in 1915

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 29, 2023

Because of the San Francisco and San Diego exhibitions celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, “California the wonderland, with two Expositions, will be irresistible” in 1915, says this booklet. For easterners who could not resist, the Golden State Limited was the “foremost transcontinental train to California.”

Click image to download a 27.7-MB PDF of this 28-page booklet.

The booklet is certainly impressive. Oranges on the heavily embossed front cover are not orange but burnished in a special gold ink or paint. The words on the cover and in much of the interior are beautifully calligraphed by an unnamed artist. On the inside front cover, for example, such hand lettering notes that the route of the train has “automatic block signals” and the train uses the “finest modern all-steel equipment,” giving it “absolute safety.” Continue reading →

Under the Turquoise Sky in 1909

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 29, 2023

Rock Island began to publish its series of Turquoise sky booklets on Colorado at least as early as 1902 and continued at least through 1930. At 84 pages, this one from 1909 is one of the longest in the series; of the ones I’ve seen, only 1905-1909 are this long.

Click image to download a 43.2-MB PDF of this 84-page booklet.

This one is downloadable from archive.org, but their scans are dark and yellowed. I’ve lightened them up and tried to restore the colors to the way they would have appeared when new. Continue reading →

The Colorado Way to the Yukon-Pacific Expo

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 7, 2023

In 1909, Seattle — eager to respond to Portland’s Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition of 1905, held a world’s fair to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the discovery of gold in the Yukon. That’s something like a fraternity having a party because the day of the week ended in a Y, but the Emerald City needed an excuse to outshine its older but slower growing neighbor to the south.

Click image to download a 14.1-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

Excitement about the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition forced Rock Island to modify its usual pitch of “vacation in Colorado this summer.” Instead, the booklet admits, there were “unusual outing opportunities presented by the wonderful West this season.” Rock Island rails didn’t come any closer to Seattle than Denver, but that didn’t stop the company from showing tracks of the “Rock Island System” leading to union depot on a map of Seattle. Continue reading →

Manitou and the Mountains

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 29, 2023

We’ve previously seen a 1937 Rock Island booklet that asked an “all-important question: Where shall we go this summer?” This booklet from 1898 asked the same “important question” but with a more Victorian flavor: “Whither shall we go to avoid torrid weather and to seek needed rest and recreation?” The answer in both cases was Colorado, which in 1898 was the western-most state served by the Rock Island.

Click image to download a 12.2-MB PDF of this 48-page booklet.

Rock Island’s third vice-president in charge of passenger traffic, John Sebastian, chose to focus this booklet on one part of Colorado, namely Manitou (now known as Manitou Spring), located 6 miles west of Colorado Springs. Manitou’s hot springs made it a “health resort” and a cog railway from Manitou to the top of Pikes Peak made it easy for anyone to ascend above 14,000 feet. Continue reading →

Winter’s Summer Garden

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 10, 2023

This booklet is posted on archive.org, but the illustrations in that digitized version are so faded they are hardly visible. I’ve done my best to bring them out to what I hope is close to their original appearance.

Click image to download a 8.8-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

“There is but one California,” says the booklet, “and when you consider excellence of service, elegance of equipment and comfort of travel, there is but one way to travel — via The San Francisco Overland Limited of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul-Union Pacific-Southern Pacific Line.” Continue reading →

Soo Line January 1954 Timetable

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Train LoverJune 27, 2023

“The Soo Line was never a major carrier of passenger traffic,” says Wikipedia, “since its route between Chicago and Minneapolis was much longer than the competing Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road), Chicago and North Western Railway, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Burlington Route) routes.” The last part of this statement is correct: the Soo Line route was 460 miles vs. 407 on the North Western, 421 on the Milwaukee, and 437 on the Burlington. But the Soo didn’t even try to compete: while the other railroads were running trains between Chicago and Minneapolis in 6-1/2 hours, the Soo Line in 1954 took 15 hours (14-1/2 eastbound).

Click image to download a 13.1-MB PDF of this timetable from the Ellery Goode collection.

The other part of Wikipedia’s declaration is more questionable, as Soo had a lot more routes than just Chicago-Minneapolis. Its premiere train was the Soo-Dominion (in other years known as the Mountaineer), which went from the Twin Cities to the Canadian border at Portal, North Dakota, then continued on the Canadian Pacific to Moose Jaw, where it joined the Dominion from Toronto and proceeded to Vancouver, BC. Continue reading →

Wabash April 1956 Timetable

Posted on August 3, 2023 by Train LoverJune 27, 2023

In 1956, the Wabash had three trains a day between St. Louis and Kansas City, one of which was Union Pacific’s connection to St. Louis. It also had three trains a day in the hotly competitive Chicago-St. Louis market and two trains a day between Detroit and St. Louis. One of the Chicago-St. Louis trains offered a through sleeping car to Dallas via the Frisco-MKT Texas Special.

Click image to download a 13.2-MB PDF of this timetable from the Ellery Goode collection.

On the St. Louis-Kansas City route, the domerliner City of St. Louis connected with the UP, but the City of Kansas City was also a domeliner that was timed to go from St. Louis to Kansas City in the morning and return an hour later in the afternoon, thus requiring only one set of equipment. In contrast, the overnight Midnight Limited required two sets of equipment since the trains left and arrived at the termini at roughly the same times. Continue reading →