Burlington 1893 Timetable

Posted on by October 2, 2022
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The Burlington Route made several expansions since the 1885 timetable presented here a month ago. Most importantly, it opened its own line from Chicago to the Twin Cities, ending its reliance on St. Paul Road tracks. In the West, it had new lines to Cheyenne, Sheridan, and the Black Hills.

Click image to download an 18.3-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The map in today’s timetable shows that it planned to continue building north from Deadwood into Montana as well as a line to the town of Buffalo, Wyoming. Neither of these lines were built, although something called the Wyoming Railway built a short-lived line to Buffalo. Instead, the Burlington would extend its lines from Denver and Sheridan to Billings. Continue reading →

Southern Pacific 1892 Timetable

Posted on by October 2, 2022
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This is an update of the 1884 timetable shown here a month ago. At that time, I noted that the timetable was “peculiar” because it focused on connections with other railroads rather than displaying the Southern Pacific’s own timetables. The times of SP’s once-a-day, unnamed New Orleans-San Francisco train were shown but in a condensed format (only 16 intermediate stops) as part of the connections with eastern railroads.

Click image to download an 18.3-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Today’s timetable rectifies this by using two panels to show the detailed timetable from New Orleans to San Francisco (though not the reverse), including roughly 300 intermediate stops. The timetable identifies the train as the “Sunset” Pacific Express, quotation marks in the original. The Sunset Limited, which made far fewer stops, would begin running in 1894.

A second train from New Orleans to San Antonio is also shown in the connecting-train schedules. These include connections with the Chesapeake & Ohio and Erie (which were also in the 1884 timetable) as well as the New York Central and Pennsylvania (which were not). The timetable also has several panels of steamship connections, but like the 1884 one doesn’t have a schedule for Southern Pacific’s own steamships between New Orleans and New York City, even though they are marked on the map.

C&NW 1892 Through Train Timetables

Posted on by April 29, 2024
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Unlike yesterday’s brochure, which was mostly text with only two panels of timetables, this one is mostly timetables with no supplementary text other than footnotes. One side has nine panels of timetables while the other has one timetable panel, one panel with condensed timetables, a list of agents, a map that fills four panels, and the two panel cover.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

All of the timetables are outbound from Chicago. These include trains to Omaha, the Twin Cities, the Dakotas, California, the Northwest, Michigan, the Black Hills, and Milwaukee. Continue reading →

Gulf Coast Sports & Winter Resorts

Posted on by October 2, 2022
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Biloxi, Mississippi; New Orleans; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida are familiar names among the Gulf Coast resort towns advertised in this brochure. But some are not so familiar, including De Funiak Springs, Florida; Evergreen, Alabama; Ocean Springs, Mississippi; and Harrogate, Tennessee.

Click image to download a 17.1-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

De Funiak (now spelled Defuniak) was named after a vice president of the Louisville & Nashville. It is home to a nearly circular, spring-fed lake that in 1890 was imagined to have some healing powers. Continue reading →

Boston & Maine 1888 Timetable

Posted on by October 2, 2022
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In 1879, Boston & Maine consisted of a line from Boston to Portland with one or two minor branch lines. By 1888, it had leased or acquired enough other railroads to become a New England powerhouse.

Click image to download a 12.0-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

First, it leased the Eastern Railroad, which had a competing line to Portland as well as lines to Conway, Saugus, Wakefield, Marblehead, and Rockport. Next, it leased the Worchester, Nashua & Portland, giving it a line from Portland to Worchester, Massachusetts. Then it leased the Boston & Lowell, giving it lines to central Massachusetts and northern New Hampshire. It also owned a large share of the Maine Central, which continued to operate as a separate but cooperative company. Continue reading →

Free Land in Central Dakota in 1888

Posted on by August 20, 2022
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The Black Hills gold rush was over by 1888, when Chicago & North Western issued this brochure about the Dakota territory (which would be made into states the following year). Instead of mentioning gold, the brochure focuses on the productivity of the land for growing wheat, oats, barley, rye and flax and the free government land that was still available in nine Dakota counties.

Click image to download a 13.2-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The map on the back of the brochure shows that the C&NW had two lines into the middle of Dakota territory, one reaching Pierre, which would become the capital of South Dakota, and one reaching Gettysburg, a small town just south of what would become the North Dakota border. These lines went through several of the counties where free government land was still available.

The timetables in the brochure show two trains a day on the 781-mile trip from Chicago to Pierre. One left Chicago and 9 am and arrived in Pierre at 6 pm the following day for an average speed of 23-2/3 mph. The other was much slower, leaving at 9 pm but taking 44-1/2 hours for an average speed of 17-1/2 mph. Landseekers headed to Gettysburg could take the 9 am train out of Chicago, change trains in Tracy, Minnesota, and arrive at 7:45 pm, for an average speed over the 763-mile trip of 22 mph.

This brochure and map were printed by Rand McNally. It may be my imagination, but it appears to be a bit more hastily put together than other Rand McNally railroad maps. The biggest problem is that the map misspelled the Sisseton-Wahpeton Indian Reservation as Sisseton-Warpeton. (It is now known as the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation.)

RW&O 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 20, 2022
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The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad was one of the alphabet soup of New England railroads, this one extending 300 miles from Massena Springs, New York to Niagara Falls, with branches to Ogdensburg, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, and other cities along the way. With connections to the New York Central, Michigan Central, and Grand Trunk at Niagara Falls and the Central Vermont at Norwood Junction, which was 13 miles short of Massena Springs, the RW&O formed an important link of travel between New England and the Midwest.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The timetable shows that the railroad offered two unnamed trains a day on the mainline from Massena Springs to Niagara Falls, plus more trains that didn’t go all the way to Niagara Falls and several branchlike trains. The brochure also has four panels of “condensed time tables,” which are really suggested routings that would use the RW&O for journeys between the Northeast and Midwest. Continue reading →

Pittsburgh & Western 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 20, 2022
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The Pittsburgh & Western was a narrow-gauge railroad extending from Allegheny (across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh) to Orrville, Ohio, and also had a line north from Allegheny to Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania, almost on the New York border. This timetable shows two trains a day to Orrville and one a day to Mount Jewett plus a number of local trains.

Click image to download a 2.9-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The timetable advertises that through sleeping cars from Pittsburgh to Chicago. These went over the Wheeling and Lake Erie from Orrville to Monroeville, Ohio, and then the Baltimore & Ohio to Chicago. The B&O and W&LE were both standard-gauge railroads, but the through cars were apparently accommodated by changing trucks at Orrville. Continue reading →

NYP&O 1887 Timetable

Posted on by January 31, 2024
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The owners of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad, later shortened to the NYPANO Railroad, leased it to the Erie, giving that road connections to Cincinnati and Cleveland This timetable gives a better look at the Erie’s express trains between New York City and the Midwest.

Click image to download a 10.3-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Erie trains going to the Midwest by-passed Buffalo, meeting the NYPANO at Salamanca, New York, which is almost on the Pennsylvania border. At Marion, Ohio, NYPANO met the Chicago and Atlantic Railway, which was independent of the Erie in 1887 but purchased by it in 1895. Continue reading →

Erie 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 19, 2022
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Due to repeated bankruptcies, what became known as the Erie Railroad after 1895 was previously known as the New York & Erie (1832-1861), the Erie Railway (1861-1878), and the New York, Lake Erie & Western (1878-1895). One of its problems was that it had been originally built to 6-foot gauge, supposedly more stable but making interchange with other railroads difficult. The cost of converting it to standard gauge sent it into one of its bankruptcies.

Click image to download a 13.1-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

As of 1887, the Erie was trying to compete with the New York Central between New York City and Buffalo and the Midwest. However, it didn’t actually go into New York City, instead ending at terminals across the Hudson River in Jersey City. It also went over the Appalachian Mountains rather than following a largely water-level route. Because the New York Central went north for 140 miles before turning west at Albany, its route to Buffalo was 18 miles longer than the Erie’s, but the Central’s fastest train (at least in 1884) took 10-3/4 hours to get from the city to Buffalo while the Erie’s needed 11-1/2. Continue reading →