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 →

M&B Air Line 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 17, 2022
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The Montreal & Boston Air Line wasn’t a railroad but a route service by a consortium of connecting railroads. Most prominently mentioned are the Boston & Lowell Railroad, the Passumsic Railway, the South Eastern Railway, and the Portland & Ogdensburg. The first three were were needed to go from Boston to Montreal while the latter was also needed to go from Portland to Montreal.

Click image to download a 10.9-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

For getting to other destinations, the timetables also refer to an alphabet soup of other railroads, including (to name a few) the P&FN, the P&W, the N&W, the W&M, the W&J, the CRR, and several others. Travel must have been pretty confusing for New England train riders in the 1880s.

Grand Trunk 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 17, 2022
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This timetable is for the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway, which was the U.S. portion of the Grand Trunk. The railway extended from Detroit and Port Huron to Chicago, with a branch line to Grand Haven (with a ferry link to Milwaukee) owned by subsidiary Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway.

Click image to download a 10.9-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The main timetable shows three trains a day between Chicago and Port Huron and four trains a day between Grand Haven and Detroit. Some of those trains met Grand Trunk trains at the border that continued east in Canada and the brochure suggests that Pullman passengers could go from Chicago to Montreal, Toronto, or Buffalo without changing cars. Continue reading →

Manitoba 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 17, 2022
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What a difference a single year can make when a railroad is being managed by someone as dynamic as James J. Hill! I previously noted a railroad whose timetable was unchanged in the eight years between 1878 and 1886. By comparison, the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba’s timetable drastically changed in just one year between 1886 and 1887.

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

Comparing the maps reveals that Hill had built or extended rails in many places. I previously noted that the 1886 map showed six parallel north-south lines serving farmers in the Red River Valley; the 1887 map shows a seventh line under construction. He also opened new lines to Hutchinson and Brownsville, Minnesota, Aberdeen, South Dakota, and towards the Canadian border in the Dakota territory. Continue reading →

Central Vermont 1887 Timetable

Posted on by August 15, 2022
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The map on the back of this brochure has the heaviest lines going from Boston and New York in the East to Detroit and Chicago in the West. But Central Vermont only owned a tiny portion of this route, with the rest owned by the Grand Trunk and a variety of tiny New England railroads. While the bright orange cover of this brochure says “Central Vermont and Grand Trunk Line,” the rest of the brochure makes it clear that it was issued by Central Vermont, not Grand Trunk.

Click image to download a 9.9-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

In 1887, Central Vermont basically consisted of a line from St. Johns, Quebec south to Essex Junction, Vermont, where it split into a line to Bellows Falls and one to White River Junction, Vermont. There was also a branch from St. Johns to Sherbrooke, Quebec and one from St. Albans to Richford, Vermont, but there are no timetables for these lines. Continue reading →

Debate Over Railroad Land Grants

Posted on by August 15, 2022
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In 1871, Kentucky Congressman J. Proctor Knott gave a humorous speech on the floor of the House of Representatives ridiculing the idea of giving land grants to western railroads. He focused on Duluth, which at the time had about 3,000 residents, and his basic argument was that U.S. taxpayers in general should not be required to subsidize projects that benefitted only a few.

Click image to download a 16.1-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The speech was widely reprinted by those skeptical of government pork barrel (a term that first became popular about the time Knott gave his speech). Sixteen years later, Northern Pacific, which received what was probably the largest land grant to a private company in American history, reprinted the speech in this brochure. Continue reading →