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Seaboard December 1956 Timetable

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Train LoverJune 18, 2023

Like its rival and eventual merger partner, Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard railroad had an impressive array of trains heading south from New York City (via PRR and RF&P) in 1956. At 9:50 am, the Silver Star departed for Florida followed by the less prestigious Sunland at 10:30 am. The Sunland was all-coach leaving New York, but it had a section from Norfolk/Portsmouth with some sleeping cars that joined the main train in Norlina, NC.

Click image to download a 17.4-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

At 12:45 pm the Birmingham-bound Silver Comet left New York. This was followed by the Silver Meteor to Florida at 2:55 pm. At 5:30 pm, an unnamed, all-coach train departed for Birmingham. Then the Palmland left for Florida at 8:30 pm. There was also a mail train leaving New York at 3:50 am with coaches and mail for Atlanta. Continue reading →

RF&P April 1955 Timetable

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Train LoverJune 18, 2023

The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, which owned the 117 miles of track between Washington and Richmond, was co-owned by six different railroads that all used it as a bridge line between northern and southern cities. This timetable shows that in 1955 it operated 15 passenger trains a day in each direction between DC and Richmond.

Click image to download a 10.7-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

While all trains to Washington went to Union Station, Richmond had two different stations. Four of the 15 trains stopped only at the Seaboard/Chesapeake & Ohio Main Street station, eight stopped only at the ACL/Norfolk & Western Broad Street station, and three stopped at both.

Florida East Coast October 1956 Timetable

Posted on June 30, 2023 by Train LoverJune 30, 2023

Seaboard had its own line to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, but Florida East Coast was Atlantic Coast Line’s only access to those cities. FEC also was the only railroad serving St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Cocoa, and Melbourne, though except for St. Augustine these were not yet major resort towns in the 1950s.

Click image to download a 20.3-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

Naturally, FEC was happy to cooperate with any line that delivered passengers to it in Jacksonville. Its line from Jacksonville to Miami was a respectable 366 miles long, more than half of ACL’s line from Richmond to Jacksonville. This timetable advertises the same Atlantic Coast Line trains from New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati that were included in the ACL timetable. It also democratically lists both ACL and Seaboard trains from Jacksonville to Tampa and St. Petersburg down the west coast of Florida. Continue reading →

Louisville & Nashville July 1955 Timetable

Posted on June 29, 2023 by Train LoverJune 18, 2023

In addition to the ones already shown here, I am grateful to Ellery Goode for contributing more than 30 other timetables. I was going to present them in alphabetical order, but it makes more sense to group them by geography. Since I did the Atlantic Coast Line yesterday, I’ll do other southeastern railroads first, followed by New England railroads, then other eastern railroads, south central railroads, midwestern railroads, and finally western railroads.

Click image to download a 18.2-MB PDF of this timetable.

It seems appropriate to follow the Atlantic Coast Line with Louisville & Nashville, which had been controlled by ACL since 1902. ACL did not own 100 percent of the stock in L&N, however, and allowed the latter company to operate with little oversight. The two did cooperate such as by running through passenger trains between the Midwest and Florida including (in this timetable) the Georgian, Dixie Flyer, Dixieland, Southland, South Wind, and Flamingo. Continue reading →

Atlantic Coast Line October 1955 Timetable

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Train LoverJune 18, 2023

Here’s another timetable contributed by Ellery Goode. All of the timetables provided by Mr. Goode are from 1954 through 1956, which were the peak years of streamlined trains in the United States. The railroads were still buying new passenger cars, particularly dome cars, and were responding to declining ridership by eliminating heavyweight trains such as the California Limited and Los Angeles Limited.

Click image to download a 21.5-MB PDF of this timetable.

The passenger business was booming for the Atlantic Coast Line, which during the winter had eight daily trains heading south from New York City (via PRR to DC and RF&P to Richmond): three to the east coast of Florida, two to the west coast, one to Jacksonville, one to Savannah, Georgia, and a coach-only mail train to Florence, South Carolina. Two of the New York-Miami trains took just 24 hours each way — an average of nearly 58 mph — and the other about a half hour longer. The back cover of this timetable advertises that the faster trains were just speeded up, as they had previously required 24-1/2 hours. The shorter times were achieved by running trains at 100 mph over much of the route between Richmond and Jacksonville. Continue reading →

Santa Fe January 1954 Timetable

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Train LoverJune 18, 2023

Unlike the Pennsylvania and several other railroads, the Santa Fe put the main cover of its timetables on the front instead of the back. The back cover of this timetable provides detailed information about what trains carried dining cars and where other trains stopped to find Fred Harvey restaurants. Even as late as the 1950s, the Santa Fe, unlike other transcontinentals, didn’t offer on-board dining service on all of its overnight trains.

Click image to download a 38.1-MB PDF of this timetable.

Most notably, the California Limited, once Santa Fe’s premiere train, was now ranked fifth among its five Chicago-Los Angeles trains as it only carried a dining car between Wellington, Kansas and Gallup, New Mexico. That allowed for a dinner and breakfast but required passengers to provide for themselves or eat at station stops for at least four other meals. Continue reading →

Exquisite Interiors

Posted on June 26, 2023 by Train LoverJune 18, 2023

We’ve previously seen an elegant booklet introducing the Santa Fe’s first Super Chief, a rather ugly train consisting of heavyweight Pullmans towed by flat-faced Diesels known as 1 and 1A (but sometimes called Mutt & Jeff). That train was introduced in 1936 as Santa Fe’s hasty response to the Union Pacific’s City of Los Angeles.

Click image to download a 7.2-MB PDF of this 28-page booklet.

Today’s booklet was released for the first streamlined Super Chief, which was introduced almost exactly a year after the non-streamlined version. While I am sure other booklets covered the quality food and comfortable sleeping rooms on the train, this one focused on the interiors, and most importantly the rare woods used to decorate the cars. Continue reading →

Milwaukee Road April 1955 Timetable

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Train LoverJune 6, 2023

The Columbian, Milwaukee’s secondary Chicago-Seattle train, was discontinued in 1955, leaving just the Olympian Hiawatha in this corridor. Because the railroad had to get permission from each state to terminate the train, the Columbian disappeared in stages: first ending service in Washington in January, Idaho and Montana in the spring, a corner of North Dakota later in the spring, and South Dakota in the summer.

Click image to download a 22.8-MB PDF of this timetable.

Unlike the Great Northern, whose Empire Builder and Western Star were practically equals in the early 1950s, the Olympian Hiawatha was always clearly superior to the Columbian. While the former had a diner, Super Dome, and the skytop observation car, the latter just had a grill car with “buffet service.” The 1953 timetable noted that “dinner meals [were] obtainable at interstate restaurants.” The Hiawatha coaches also had legrest seats, while the Columbian‘s seats did not.

The back page ad on this timetable describes the Oly Hi‘s Super Domes as a “double-decked vacation” because people would watch the scenery from the upper deck or enjoy a drink in the lounge car of the lower deck. “No extra cost,” says the ad, indicating that the dome was open to coach, Touralux, and Pullman passengers. While the skycap observation car was only open to Pullman travelers, the diner was open to all passengers. Except for people getting on or off the train at a stop not served by the Olympian Hiawatha, there was little incentive for anyone to take the Columbian.

Milwaukee Road September 1953 Timetable

Posted on June 24, 2023 by Train LoverJune 6, 2023

This timetable shows six trains a day between Chicago and the Twin Cities, but two of them — the Pioneer and the Columbian — are really the same train, so there were in fact just five. In addition to the Morning and Afternoon Hiawathas, there was the Olympian Hiawatha and an unnamed local train. Unlike the Burlington, whose local train left Chicago at 8:30 pm and thus served most intermediate communities late at night, the Milwaukee’s local left Chicago at 1:30 am, so most Wisconsin and all Minnesota towns were served in daylight.

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

The back cover of this timetable advertises “the first end-to-end dome cars on any railroad.” The Super Domes were still fairly new, having been introduced in late 1952. Continue reading →

The Olympian in 1911 1912

Posted on June 23, 2023 by Train LoverSeptember 20, 2023

Several months ago, I wrote that since the St. Paul road was the last to reach the Pacific Northwest, it needed to “make a statement” with its transcontinental passenger trains. This booklet shows how it did so.

Click image to download a 9.4-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet.

“The Olympian is without peer,” says the booklet, representing “a new and better standard of passenger train service and equipment.” All-steel cars, electric lights, and bathing facilities were just some of the train’s improvements over its competition. Continue reading →