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Glacier Park Aeroplane Map from about 1925

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Train LoverMay 6, 2023

The David Rumsey Collection dates this brochure to 1910, the year Glacier Park was created. But it is clearly from after that as the map shows all of Great Northern’s Glacier Park hotels, several of which were first opened in 1915. The map doesn’t show the Prince of Wales Hotel, which didn’t open until 1927.

Click image to download a 21.5-MB PDF of this brochure from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Tour buses like the one on the cover were the first motor vehicles allowed in any national park. They were introduced in 1914 and the Glacier Park Transportation Company began to replace them in 1925. If this brochure were from after 1925, it would show a more recent model of tour bus. Continue reading →

The Perfect Train

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Train LoverMay 6, 2023

Introduced in 1905, the Oriental Limited was the pride of the Great Northern. This 1911 booklet says that the train had “recently been augmented by the installation of entirely new equipment throughout.” The new cars had electric lights, wide vestibules, “vacuum cleaning machines” operated by a uniformed attendant whose sole job was to keep the train “neat and clean,” and an on-board telephone that only worked when the train was in the Chicago, St. Paul, or Seattle stations. Twice a day, the train received telegraphed news bulletins of the latest world events.

Click image to download a 5.3-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet plus map.

“Many people, especially ladies, feel the need of some light refreshment during the interval between luncheon arid dinner,” says the booklet, and Great Northern provided this in the form of an afternoon tea every day between 4 and 5 o’clock. This tea service was available to sleeping car passengers at no extra charge. Continue reading →

The Joint Line June 1929 Timetable

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Train LoverMay 5, 2023

As of 1887, three different railroads — the Denver & Rio Grande; Denver, Texas & Gulf (later Colorado & Southern); and Santa Fe — had lines from Denver to Pueblo. They competed until 1918, when the federal government temporarily took over U.S. railroads and rationalized the Denver-Pueblo corridor by tearing out the Colorado & Southern route and redesigning the other two so that one would handle northbound trains and the other would do southbound trains. This became known as the Joint Line and was used by all three railroads after the war.

Click image to download a 1.2-MB PDF of this timetable from the Tim Zukas collection.

This timetable shows ten trains a day operating each way between Denver and Pueblo. Half of them were Rio Grande and the other half are listed as joint C&S-Santa Fe trains (though some are listed C&S first and others AT&SF first). Many of the trains stopped only twice along the way and made the 119.5-mile trip in 3-1/2 hours for an average speed of 34 mph. The only named train, Rio Grande’s Panoramic, which continued from Pueblo to Salt Lake City, also made just two stops but for some reason took 4 hours. A local train made as many as 16 stops, including flagstops, but still managed to make the trip in 3 hours 55 minutes southbound and 4 hours 10 minutes northbound. Continue reading →

Union Pacific April 1970 Timetable

Posted on June 3, 2023 by Train LoverMay 6, 2023

Although issued a year before Amtrak, this is the last Union Pacific passenger timetable I can find. Union Pacific managed to fill 24 pages, but much of it was fluff, with some trains being repeated on five or more pages. While important cities such as Portland still had three Union Pacific trains a day, podunk towns like Chicago and Los Angeles only had one.

Click image to download a 13.6-MB PDF of this timetable.

The City of San Francisco really didn’t exist any more, at least not on Union Pacific. Instead, two coaches and a sleeping car were taken off the westbound City of Los Angeles at Ogden three times a week and added to Southern Pacific’s tri-weekly City of San Francisco. In all, I count nine Union Pacific pure passenger trains, including Salt Lake City-Butte, Portland-Seattle, and Hinkle-Spokane, plus four mixed trains in Nebraska. Continue reading →

Union Pacific April 1959 Timetable

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Train LoverMay 3, 2023

“Daily through September 15,” says the back cover ad on this timetable, “the Challenger will operate as an all coach domeliner on a convenient new summer schedule.” Before June 1 and after September 15, the Challenger and City of Los Angeles were combined into a single train. But the Challenger‘s “convenient new summer schedule” had it running 15 minutes ahead of the City of Los Angeles.

Click image to download a 48.2-MB PDF of this timetable. Thanks to Tim Zukas for contributing scans of this timetable.

I’m dubious about whether a schedule just 15 minutes earlier than its previous schedule was really convenient to passengers. But, as the 1946 Naperville crash showed, it was safer than running two trains, or two sections of a train, just 5 minutes apart. Continue reading →

Union Pacific April 1956 Timetable

Posted on June 1, 2023 by Train LoverMay 3, 2023

The back cover ad on this timetable spins bad news to make it sound good. First, it says that “beginning on June 2,” the City of Los Angeles “will be all Pullman” while the Challenger “will be all coach.” What was really happening was that, due to declining patronage, the two trains were combined into one.

Click image to download a 35.8-MB PDF of this timetable.

Previously, the two trains operated on schedules that were approximately 12 hours apart. The two-night, one-day City of Los Angeles carried a chair car for short-distance riders so it wasn’t all Pullman while the two-day, one-night Challenger carried a few sleeping cars. Passengers thus had two departures a day whether they could afford a sleeping car or preferred to go by coach. Continue reading →

Union Pacific June 1954 Timetable

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Train LoverMay 3, 2023

In May 1947, Union Pacific added a color cover to its timetables. The first color cover showed an Armour yellow E-2 Diesel-powered streamliner pacing a 4-8-4 steam locomotive pulling a grey passenger train. This cover remained in use at least through March 1953.

Click image to download a 50.2-MB PDF of this timetable. Thanks to Tim Zukas for providing the scans of this timetable.

By June 1953, the E-2 was replaced with an E-7 and the steam train was replaced by a yellow streamliner moving in the opposite direction from the first streamliner. A blunt-end observation car had a drumhead showing the Union Pacific logo. This was used at least through January 1955. Continue reading →

Low-Cost Escorted Tours in 1950

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Train LoverMay 8, 2023

We’ve previously seen a Union Pacific/North Western summer tours booklet from 1952. This brochure would have been an introduction to the 1950 version of that booklet.

Click image to download a 1.6-MB PDF of this brochure.

The 1950 brochure and 1952 booklet both describe the same nine tours, each with a code designation such as “C” (for California), “Z” (for Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon), and “SYD” (for Salt Lake, Yellowstone, and Denver). In the brochure, these tours range in price from $153 to $346, while the 1952 prices range from slightly higher to much higher depending on the choice of accommodations. The brochure assumes coach or two persons sharing a lower berth, but prices were higher for a single person in a berth, compartments, or drawing rooms. Continue reading →

Union Pacific February 1946 Timetable

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Train LoverMay 2, 2023

This is one of the first post-war timetables, and the nation was still demobilizing its armed forces. A full-page ad on the back encouraged people to “don’t give up” planning a trip just because the trains are full of “thousands of men in uniform” who are trying to return home. “Travel conditions are improving,” says the ad, so continue to plan and hope there will be space.

Click image to download a 54.9-MB PDF of this timetable. Thanks to Tim Zukas for providing the scans of this timetable.

“Your journey by rail will be the high-spot of your vacation or business trip,” the ad assures people. It almost sounds desperate that people not get into the habit of traveling by car or plane. In fact, the railroads were so confident that people would continue to travel by train that they ordered tens of millions of dollars worth of new passenger equipment. It wasn’t until the early 1950s that it became clear that the railroads were losing to the competition. Continue reading →

Union Pacific September 1941 Timetable

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Train LoverMay 2, 2023

Here’s a timetable that actually puts the title cover on the front instead of the back. We’ve previously seen a June 1939 Union Pacific timetable (also contributed by Tim Zukas) that also put the title on the front, so UP must have switched to that format sometime between 1937 and 1939.

Click image to download a 55.6-MB PDF of this timetable. Thanks to Tim Zukas for providing the scans of this timetable.

The full-page ad that is on the back cover of this timetable promotes Sun Valley as a place to “ski, skate, or swim.” Union Pacific had two hotels at Sun Valley, the upscale Sun Valley Lodge and the more economical Challenger Inn. This timetable says that rooms with a private bath were $9 for one, $12 for two, at the lodge but $7.50 for one and $10 for two at the Challenger Inn. Multiply by slightly more than 20 to get today’s dollars, meaning a room for two effectively cost at least $40 more at the lodge than at the inn, but at $200 a night even the inn was expensive. Continue reading →