Southern Pacific 1884 Timetable

Posted on by August 13, 2022
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Today’s timetable is peculiar in several ways. Like several we have seen before, it mainly has westbound schedules, probably because its goal is to entice people to emigrate west. (It does have one very brief eastbound schedule.) Also like several we have seen before, it repeats the schedule of SP trains several times, eight to be precise, each one showing a different combination of connections emigrants could make from Boston or New York to New Orleans, the beginning of SP’s westbound rails.

Click image to download a 17.9-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Other peculiarities are unique to this timetable. The cover says this is for the SP’s “Atlantic System,” as opposed to the “Pacific System.” One panel of the brochure indicates that the Atlantic System consisted of Louisiana and Texas (though neither were on the Atlantic Ocean). The timetable includes condensed schedules of the Houston & Texas Central, an SP subsidiary in Texas. Continue reading →

Ohio & Mississippi 1883 Timetable

Posted on by August 13, 2022
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The Ohio & Mississippi Railway connected Cincinnati with St. Louis. Ten years after this timetable was issued, it was taken over by the Baltimore & Ohio.

Click image to download a 12.4-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

This timetable gives names to many of the trains, but they are really more descriptions than actual train names. Westbound, train 1 is listed as “Day Express,” train 3 is the “Night Express,” train 5 is the “Pacific Express” (which was also a night train but left four hours later than the Night Express), and train 9 was “Accommodation.” Presumably, trains 2, 4, 6, and 8 or 10 went in the other direction, but like other early timetables we have seen, this one only lists westbound trains. Continue reading →

Lake Shore 1881 Timetable

Posted on by August 13, 2022
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In 1877, the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad gained control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Though the two weren’t formally merged until 1914, the Lake Shore was New York Central’s main connection between Buffalo and Chicago. It was over the Lake Shore that the New York Central ran the Exposition Flyer in 1893, getting passengers between New York and Chicago in a then-breathtaking 20 hours.

Click image to download a 18.4-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The Columbian Exposition was still a dozen years away when Lake Shore issued this timetable offering four trains a day each way between Buffalo and Chicago. Each of these trains had names. Westbound were the Special Chicago Express, Toledo Express, Pacific Express, and Michigan Express. The eastbound counterparts were, respectively, the Mail, Special New York Express, Atlantic Express, and Chicago & St. Louis Express. The latter was also a counterpart to the westbound Special St. Louis Express, going over what would become the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway, which was eventually also absorbed by New York Central. Continue reading →

Great Western 1881 Timetable

Posted on by August 13, 2022
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The Great Western was one of the oldest railroads in Canada, having begun operating at least a dozen years before the nation of Canada was even created. Its main line was from Niagara Falls to Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River from Detroit. Branch lines went to Toronto and Sarnia, which was across the St. Clair River from Port Huron, Michigan. In 1882, the year after this timetable was issued, the Great Western Consolidated with the Grand Trunk, and today it is part of the Canadian National.

Click image to download a 3.2-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

In 1881, the Great Western offered six trains a day from Niagara Falls to Windsor. This is the earliest timetable we’ve seen that indicates names: westbound were the Morning Express, Pacific Express, Chicago Express, Steamboat Express, and the Mail. The timetable lists the remaining train as “Accommodation,” which referred to the type of train than the name of the train, “accommodation” meaning a local train that makes all stops. (Mail was probably also a type, not a train name.) Continue reading →

Northern Pacific to the Black Hills in 1879

Posted on by August 13, 2022
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Congress gave Union Pacific and Central Pacific loans and land grants to build the first transcontinental railroad. In contrast, Northern Pacific received a much larger land grant but no cash grants or loans. This made construction more difficult, especially since a lot of the land in the land grant wasn’t suitable for farming and thus had little market value in the nineteenth century.

Click image to download a 3.5-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

As of 1879, NP had reached Bismarck in the Dakota Territory. At the same time, a gold rush was taking place in the Black Hills. NP was the closest anyone could get to the gold by rail. The map on the back of this brochure shows a line from Bismarck to Deadwood marked “NWES&T Co Line.” This would have been a stagecoach line, as no railroad was ever built in this corridor. Continue reading →

Union Pacific-Central Pacific 1879 Timetable

Posted on by August 7, 2022
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This timetable is somewhat similar to the one from 1872, with a map on one side and a large timetable on the other surrounded by woodcuts of scenes along the route of the first transcontinental railway along with some text. The timetable itself shows schedules for four trains: two freight and two passenger. Neither of the passenger trains are named but on is identified as “1st and 2d class” while the other is “emigrant.” There is a column for an additional passenger train, but it only went between Oakland and Stockton.

Click image to download a 20.7-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The 1872 timetable claimed that the passenger train took four days and 6 hours between Omaha and San Francisco, but the timetable actually indicated 4 days and 10 hours. This timetable does show the 1st and 2d class train taking 4 days and 6 hours for an average speed of 18.8 mph. The emigrant train took 7 days and 13-1/2 hours for an average speed of 10.5 mph. Continue reading →

Portland & Ogdensburg 1879 Timetable

Posted on by August 7, 2022
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One of the railroads the Boston & Maine connected with in Portland was the Portland & Ogdensburg, which headed west to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The aim of the railroad’s builders was to reach Ogdensburg, New York, thus giving Portland the same access to the West as Boston. However, the company was unable to complete the line and the part that was built came under the control of Maine Central.

Click image to download a 3.2-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

As of 1879, when this timetable was issued, the line had been built as far as Fabyan House, a grand hotel at the foot of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. One panel of yesterday’s Boston & Maine timetable was devoted to advertising P&O trains to Fabyan House. Continue reading →

Boston & Maine 1879 Timetable

Posted on by August 7, 2022
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This timetable had 18 panels per side, but just one of them is sufficient to show Boston & Maine’s numerous passenger trains between Boston and Portland. The railroad offered four trains in each direction, plus a fifth train went part of the way southbound and for some reason wasn’t balanced by a northbound train. This single panel also shows connections over other railroads with trains going to Montreal, Bangor, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Click image to download a 10.4-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

A few of the other panels have more details about some of the connections, but most are devoted to advertising summer resorts in Maine and nearby states and provinces. Another panel has a map of downtown Boston showing the location of Boston & Maine’s station along with seven other train stations that then existed in the city. Three of those stations were for railroad that were eventually absorbed by B&M, which built the current North Station to serve all four routes. Continue reading →

Texas & Pacific 1878 Timetable

Posted on by August 7, 2022
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Like most railroads with “Pacific” in their name, the goal of the Texas & Pacific was to build to the Pacific Ocean, in this case, San Diego. By the time this time table was issued, it had only built from Texarkana (where it met the Iron Mountain Route) some 253 miles to Fort Worth. Eventually, it made it another 500 miles to a town called Sierra Blanca, where it met and exchanged traffic with the Southern Pacific. T&P was independent in 1878, but Jay Gould gained control of it the very next year and eventually it was merged into the Missouri Pacific.

Click image to download a 8.3-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Like the International & Great Northern, T&P only had one train a day over its main line, but used three panels of this brochure to show the timetable so it could show connections to Chicago, Cincinnati, and Chattanooga. A fourth panel shows a second train on a branch line from Texarkana to Sherman, Texas. Also like the I&GN timetable, this one only shows the schedule for westbound trains; presumably another timetable was printed for eastbound trains. Continue reading →

Iron Mountain 1878 Timetable

Posted on by August 9, 2022
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The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway was, like the International & Great Northern, an independent railroad when this timetable was published but would be taken over by Jay Gould in 1883 and eventually became part of the Missouri Pacific. The railroad’s main route was from St. Louis through Little Rock to Texarkana, where it met the Texas & Pacific.

Click image to download a 12.2-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The Iron Mountain had two trains a day in each direction between St. Louis and Texarkana, one leaving in the morning and one in the evening and each taking about 22 hours to go 489 miles. A third train went from St. Louis over the main line to Knobel, Arkansas, then over a branch line to Nettleton, where it continued on to Memphis over the rails of the Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis Railway. However, neither Nettleton, the branch line to Nettleton, nor the KCS&M are shown on the map. Continue reading →