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Substituting Luxury for Speed

Posted on January 18, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

In April, 1900, the fastest Burlington and Union Pacific Chicago-Denver trains were speeded up to about 27-1/2 hours. That was a big improvement over 1890, when the fastest trains were over 30 hours, and an even bigger improvement over 1882, when the fastest were over 45 hours.

Click image to download a 252-KB PDF of this postcard.

For some reason, however, these improvements stopped almost until the age of streamliners. In 1930, the fastest trains were still about 27-1/2 hours. In 1935, Burlington’s fastest eastbound train took 25-1/2 hours, but the westbound train still took 27-3/4 hours. Continue reading →

What’s in a Name?

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

As the 20th century opened, Burlington’s train #1 was a stiff competitor, offering speed and comfort, if not exclusivity, in the Chicago-Denver corridor. One thing it didn’t have was an evocative name. Despite the Denver Post and William Henry Jackson calling train #6 the “Chicago Special,” neither the official guides nor Burlington’s own timetables nor any Burlington advertising I’ve been able to find used that or any other name for its any of its Chicago-Denver trains until late 1909.

Unfortunately, the impact of this ad in the July, 1902 Official Guide was somewhat offset by the many times the typesetter confused “e” and “o.” Click image for a larger view.

When Burlington finally did start naming its Denver trains in its timetables, the names weren’t very original: westbound train #1 became the Denver Limited, train #9 was the Colorado Limited, and #3 was the Overland Express, all of which were similar to names already used by Union Pacific. Eastbound, train #10 (counterpart to #1) was the Atlantic Coast Limited; train #6 (counterpart to #9) was the Chicago Limited (an upgrade from Chicago Special); and train #2 was the Overland Express. Again, these names weren’t very original. Wikipedia says at least a dozen railroads had a train called the Chicago Limited, and Burlington itself had at least three, with the other two heading to Chicago from Minneapolis and Kansas City. Continue reading →

The Handsomest Train Ever Seen in Denver

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

“The handsomest train ever seen in Denver steamed out of the Union Depot at 1:40 o’clock yesterday afternoon and disappeared down the tracks toward the east,” reported the Denver Post on May 4, 1899. “It was the first of a new service inaugurated today by the Burlington and will be known on the time cards as the Chicago Special.” According to the Post, the train consisted of five cars: a Pullman sleeper, two coaches, a baggage car, and a “composite” car that included a library and buffet.

This colorized photograph by William Henry Jackson is supposed to be of the Burlington Route’s Chicago Special. The train looks similar to the one described in the Post article with the addition of one more car, possibly a diner. The locomotive is a 2-6-0, which is an unusual choice for a passenger train. Built in 1899, the loco had 64″ drivers and almost 25,000 pounds of tractive effort. This must have been enough for Burlington’s train #6, which in 1899 took 29 hours and 35 minutes from Denver to Chicago, averaging 35 mph. Click image for a larger view of this photo from the Library of Congress.

The Post didn’t say so, but according to the Official Guide the train also included a diner. The Official Guide says the train started operating in April and doesn’t refer to the name Chicago Special or any other name. In fact, the train, which was designated #6, had been operating on the same schedule for about a year, and the only thing really new in April 1899 was the library-buffet car. Nevertheless, I am sure Burlington appreciated the publicity as the Chicago-Denver route was the railroad’s longest and one of its most heavily contested routes. Continue reading →

Take Union Pacific to the Pendleton Round-Up

Posted on January 15, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

The Pendleton Round-Up is one of the largest rodeos held in the western United States. It first took place in 1910, just a few years after Sam Jackson, owner of the Pendleton East Oregonian newspaper, had taken over the floundering Portland Evening Journal, which he renamed the Oregon Journal.

Click image to download a 1.1-MB PDF of this menu.

Jackson saw the round-up as an opportunity to bring the two cities his newspapers served closer together, so starting in 1912 he had the Journal charter a Union Pacific train of sleeping cars and a diner to both take Portlanders to the rodeo and also provide food and sleeping quarters while they were there. With thousands of people attending the round-up each year, local hotels were totally booked so the Let ‘Er Buck Special was welcomed by people in both cities. Continue reading →

A Great Place to Go…A Great Way to Get There

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Train LoverJanuary 14, 2023

Whereas pre-war brochures assumed that the only easy way to get to Glacier Park was by train, GN devoted a fifth of the front of this brochure to promoting the Western Star, which was having to compete with auto travel in 1952, when the brochure was published. The map on the back shows the Star approaching the park from the west.

Click image to download an 17.3-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

The map is signed “Wessel.” The only American artists I can find by that name who were alive to do this illustration are Herman Wessel and Bessie Hoover, who became a Wessel when she married Herman. Both lived in the wrong part of the country — Cincinnati — and neither were known for this style of illustration. So the map was probably done by someone else. Continue reading →

Great Northern 1940 Timetable

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

We’ve previously seen a summer, 1937 Great Northern timetable. This one is from three years later, and there are only minor differences. The schedules of the Empire Builder appear to have been left completely unchanged. Minor trains have slightly different schedules, but differences are small.

Click image to download a 20.9-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

Although GN’s secondary transcontinental, the Oriental Limited, was taken off the timetable in the early part of the Depression, GN still operated trains 3 and 4, but they only went as far west as Williston, North Dakota. Another St. Paul-Seattle train was available, however, the Fast Mail. In fact, it was even faster than the Empire Builder. Continue reading →

Pictorial Map of Glacier Park

Posted on January 12, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

There are “four ways to see Glacier Park,” says this 1939 brochure: hiking, motoring, horseback riding, or boat. Each of these are illustrated by one or more of the eight black-and-white photographs on the front of the brochure.

Click image to download an 18.9-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

The map on the back is more realistic than yesterday’s. Though it still shows oversized images of trains, autos, boats, hotels, and people, none of them are presented in humorous situations. The map, unfortunately, isn’t signed, but whatever artist did the map didn’t need to do a separate cover illustration as the cover is merely a detail of the map showing Many Glacier Hotel and Going-to-the-Sun Chalets. Continue reading →

Vacations for All

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Train LoverMarch 24, 2023

The cartoon-style map of Glacier Park in this brochure shows hikers hiking with walking sticks and backpacks, bears hiking with walking sticks and backpacks, mountain goats ice skating on a glacier, and golfers imbibing at the 19th hole of the golf course at Prince of Wales Hotel, a reminder that prohibition didn’t extend into Canada. The cover illustration and map are by Joseph Scheuerle (1873-1948), who was born in Austria but whose family moved to the U.S. when he was 9 years old. After studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, he began painting portraits of Native Americans. In 1910, Louis Hill hired him to, among other things, design the Great Northern’s first mountain goat logo, which the railway first used in 1914.

Click image to download a 14.6-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

The Rumsey collection dates this brochure to 1925, but the mention of the Prince of Wales Hotel means it must be from 1927 or later. The brochure mentions that the road that would become known as the Going-to-the-Sun Highway had reached Logan Pass from the east, but was yet to be completed on the west side. The road reached Logan Pass on the east in 1927 and was completed on the west side in 1932. The brochure also also promotes the Lake McDonald Hotel, which the Great Northern purchased in 1930 and did not advertise much until then. Based on these clues, I date the map to 1930 or, more likely, 1931.

The Scenic Northwest in 1915

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

The front of this brochure features eighteen photos of sights along the Great Northern from St. Paul to Seattle. Instead of a full-spread map, the map on the back covers only about a third of the page with the rest devoted to another eighteen photos.

Click image to download a 6.8-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

The brochure is undated and the Rumsey collection estimated it is from 1925. However, a photo on the map side shows one of the Great Northern Pacific steamships that operated between Astoria and San Francisco. Since these entered service in 1915 but were conscripted into military service in 1917, the brochure must be from that period. Pictures of the Columbia River Highway and Many Glacier Hotel, both of which opened in 1915, confirm these dates. Continue reading →

Glacier Park Map in 1914

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 23, 2022

The Great Northern published many “aeroplane maps” of Glacier National Park over the years, and David Rumsey has several in his collection. The one I’ve presented here before is undated but is from sometime after 1927 (when the Prince of Wales Hotel opened) and before 1936 (when the “red jammers” began taking tourists through the park).

Click image to download a 19.5-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

This one is from 1914. Unlike the circa 1930 map, which is looking down at the park from an almost vertical viewpoint, the map in this brochure is more oblique, as if someone is hovering above Kalispell and looking north. The map pretty much ends at the Canadian border, possibly because Canada’s Waterton Lake Park only reached its present size in 1914, probably after this brochure had gone to press. Continue reading →