| Page 62

Wabash 1886 Timetables

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Train LoverOctober 31, 2022

Wikipedia says that the first published version of the song Wabash Cannonball appeared in 1904, while before that a song with similar words was called the Great Rock Island Route, which is dated to 1882. However, the Wabash version of the song must have been known by 1886 because this timetable refers to the railroad’s Chicago-Kansas City route as “the Cannon Ball Train.” There were three daily trains on that route, designated numbers 1, 3, and 5, so it is likely that in 1886 the term just applied to the route, not one of the trains. Only in 1949 did the railroad officially run a train called the Cannon Ball between Detroit and St. Louis.

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

In 1886, the real name of the Wabash Railroad was Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, being shortened to just Wabash in 1889. In contrast to most railroads that were either east or west of Chicago and St. Louis, Wabash sprawled across the Midwest, reaching Detroit and Toledo on the east end and Kansas City and Council Bluffs on the west end. In between, the railroad had branches to Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Ottumwa, and Des Moines, among other cities. Continue reading →

Louisville & Nashville 1886 Timetable

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Train LoverNovember 3, 2022

The Louisville & Nashville‘s main line in 1886 was from Cincinnati to New Orleans (via Louisville and Nashville), with branches to Memphis, Knoxville, and Lexington plus another line or branch from St. Louis to Nashville. The railroad offered two trains a day between Cincinnati and New Orleans plus several more than went only part of the distance.

Click image to download a 17.7-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Train no. 1, identified as “Mail,” took 47-1/4 hours to go 921 miles from Cincinnati to New Orleans, for an average speed of 19.5 mph. Train no. 3, identified as “Fast,” made far fewer stops and took only 40 hours for an average speed of 23 mph. Train no. 5, listed as “Express,” only went as far as Louisville, taking 4 hours and 35 minutes to go 110 miles, averaging 24 mph. Continue reading →

Missouri Pacific 1886 Timetable

Posted on October 29, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

Like yesterday’s Iron Mountain Route timetable, this one is accompanied by a map showing all of Jay Gould’s railroads (I&GN, MKT, MP, and T&P) with thick lines, but the actual timetables focus on Missouri Pacific. One timetable does show the connection with the Texas & Pacific line to El Paso, mainly so that it could also show the El Paso connection with Southern Pacific to California.

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

The timetables also show connections with UP/CP to California, Burlington to Denver, Rio Grande to Ogden, and Santa Fe to New Mexico. But they don’t show connections to International & Great Northern to Houston or the Iron Mountain Route to Austin or San Antonio, which suggests the railroads weren’t cooperating as much as Gould would have wanted them to. Continue reading →

Iron Mountain 1886 Timetable

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

The eight years between 1878 and 1886 saw huge changes in the railroad industry. Some of these changes are visible by comparing the map in this brochure with the one in the Iron Mountain’s 1878 timetable. The 1878 map used the heaviest lines for just the Iron Mountain Route, namely St. Louis to Texarkana and branches to Columbus, Kentucky and Cairo, Illinois.

Click image to download a 11.2-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

By 1886, the Iron Mountain Route had been purchased by Jay Gould and, along with the Texas & Pacific and International & Great Northern, made a part of the Missouri Pacific system. As a result, the map in today’s brochure shows the entire Missouri Pacific and these subsidiaries in a heavy line. Continue reading →

Manitoba 1886 Timetable

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

In 1870, only a few hundred people farmed a few thousand acres in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. Then James J. Hill blanketed the valley with rail lines of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway supporting millions of acres of wheat farms. For example, the map in this brochure shows that, from the Northern Pacific’s east-west line, Hill ran six parallel Manitoba lines for nearly 50 miles north an average of about 8 miles apart from one another, putting all farmers in a roughly 2-million-acre area no more than 5 or 6 miles from a rail head.

Click image to download a 19.0-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

“It is here that no. 1 hard wheat is produced, in quality, in quantity and to a certainty that has surprised the world,” says the map. Hill’s rail lines transported a large share of the wheat production of the entire country to mills in Minneapolis and Buffalo, where he built the world’s largest grain elevator so he could ship wheat from Duluth by steamship rather than share revenues with railroads east of St. Paul. The profits he made from Red River wheat enabled him to build west to Minot, Great Falls, and eventually the Pacific Northwest. Continue reading →

Chesapeake & Ohio 1886 Timetable

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

The map on the back of this timetable shows a heavy-duty line from Norfolk and Washington to New Orleans. From approximately Louisville to Memphis, the line is labeled “Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern.” From Memphis to New Orleans it is labeled “Louisville, New Orleans & Texas.”

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

These lines were organized by Colis Huntington, one of the founders of the Southern Pacific who also held a controlling interest in the Chesapeake & Ohio. After this timetable was issued, Huntington lost control of these lines and they eventually became part of the Illinois Central. Continue reading →

Houston & Texas Central 1885 Timetable

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

In its 1884 timetable, Southern Pacific included condensed schedules of the Houston and Texas Central. At the time, this was part of the Charles Morgan family of railroads in the Gulf Coast area, but in 1927 it would become part of the Southern Pacific. In this timetable, the H&TC calls itself the “trunk line of Texas,” a claim that would probably be disputed by the Texas & Pacific.

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

Although this brochure has 20 panels on each side, only two panels are used to show the railroad’s actual schedules. It offered two express trains a day each way between Houston and St. Louis. It also had one train a day between Houston and Austin pletwo trains a day — one “1st class” and one mixed — between Houston and Waco. Several of the timetables mention a connection at Houston to New Orleans, but none provide any details.

Rock Island 1885 Timetable

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

Like the St. Paul, Burlington, and North Western, the Rock Island was a “granger railroad,” meaning it earned most of its money carrying grains and other farm products to mills and markets. But it was never situated quite as well as its competitors.

Click image to download a 8.5-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

This timetable shows that its route from Chicago to Omaha was 12 miles longer than the St. Paul’s. That didn’t add a significant amount of time to its trains, but it did add to the cost of operating them. Continue reading →

St. Paul Road 1885 Timetable

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

In 1885, the St. Paul Road (as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul then styled itself) was highly profitable, earning $24.4 million in revenues on $14.5 million in operating expenses. Although much of its profits came from shipping grain, $5.5 million, or close to a quarter, of its revenues came from carrying passengers.

Click image to download a 6.3-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

As this timetable makes clear, the St. Paul Road’s most-important passenger route was between Chicago and the Twin Cities, over which the railroad was produce to say that it carried the “fast mail” and connected with the Northern Pacific to Portland. It offered two passenger trains a day each way, one taking 16-1/2 hours and the other 19 hours to get from Chicago and St. Paul (plus another 45 minutes to get to Minneapolis). That’s slightly less than 25 mph for the faster train and 22 mph for the slower one. Compare this with 1938 when the Hiawathas took 6-1/2 hours between Chicago and St. Paul for average speeds of more than 63 mph. Continue reading →

Missouri Pacific 1885 Timetable

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Train LoverAugust 13, 2022

We’ve previously seen 1878 timetables for the International & Great Northern, Iron Mountain, and Texas & Pacific. By 1885, all three along with the Missouri-Kansas-Texas were firmly controlled by Jay Gould, who operated them together with Missouri Pacific. This timetable, however, focuses on core Missouri Pacific trains.

Click image to download a 12.9-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Most important were two trains a day between St. Louis and Omaha, thus reaching the Union Pacific and its connection to California. The timetable calls these “Day Express” and “Night Express” even though both required an overnight trip; the day express was overnight between Kansas City and Omaha while the night express was overnight between St. Louis and Kansas City. Continue reading →