In conjunction with the introduction of the Olympian and Columbian in 1911, the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway issued this gorgeous booklet filled with both sepia-toned and beautifully hand-colored pictures of a trip on the new rail line. The … Continue reading
Here is some distinctive stationery used by a passenger who rode the Olympian Hiawatha in 1949. While the stationery itself is quite beautiful, the letter written on it makes clear that the writer was not, at the time, a passenger … Continue reading
A few months ago I presented a 1912 booklet about the Olympian. This booklet is similar but, based on the list of agents in the back, I date it to 1913. It is worth noting that, in November, 1915, the … Continue reading
The brilliant cover of this booklet was designed to remind travelers that only the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul offered all-steel trains between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest in 1911. At that time, the steel industry, though more than 50 … Continue reading
This booklet is posted on archive.org, but the illustrations in that digitized version are so faded they are hardly visible. I’ve done my best to bring them out to what I hope is close to their original appearance. Click image … Continue reading
The Columbian, Milwaukee’s secondary Chicago-Seattle train, was discontinued in 1955, leaving just the Olympian Hiawatha in this corridor. Because the railroad had to get permission from each state to terminate the train, the Columbian disappeared in stages: first ending service … Continue reading
This timetable shows six trains a day between Chicago and the Twin Cities, but two of them — the Pioneer and the Columbian — are really the same train, so there were in fact just five. In addition to the … Continue reading
Several months ago, I wrote that since the St. Paul road was the last to reach the Pacific Northwest, it needed to “make a statement” with its transcontinental passenger trains. This booklet shows how it did so. Click image to … Continue reading
The 19th-century timetables recently presented here revealed that passenger train speeds in the 1870s averaged about 18 miles per hour including stops. Two decades later, the New York Central was running a passenger train that averaged more than 50 miles … Continue reading
The first railway post office car began operating in 1862 on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, a predecessor of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. In 1884, the Post Office Department decided it needed a fast-mail service between the east … Continue reading
