Yes, Virginia, there was a Union Pacific train called the City of Kansas City. It replaced the City of St. Louis in June, 1968, when the Wabash decided not to operate that train on the St. Louis-Kansas City portion of the route. Instead, it changed the schedule to better fit the needs of Missouri travelers, which didn’t connect with the UP train to the coast. Ironically, Wabash had its own City of Kansas City, but it was a day train and UP needed an overnight train from St. Louis to meet with its train in Kansas City.
Click image to download a 451-KB PDF of this menu.
This was the “city of everywhere” era, so UP’s City of Kansas City only went from Kansas City to Cheyenne, where it met the City of Los Angeles, which itself had split from the City of Denver at Julesburg, Nebraska and would again split from the City of Portland at Green River, Wyoming and the City of San Francisco at Salt Lake City. The City of Kansas City had through coaches and sleepers to Los Angeles, Portland, and San Francisco, which made for some complicated switching operations in Cheyenne, Green River, and Salt Lake City. Although the City of St. Louis had a dome coach from St. Louis to Los Angeles, the City of Kansas City didn’t have any dome cars east of Cheyenne.
The menu itself has the same items as yesterday’s City of Denver beverage menu. Some items are priced a little lower, but one is priced higher. Also, the state rules about the sale of alcoholic beverages on page 4 has been edited by x-ing out some words: apparently, it was illegal to sell alcohol in California on election days while polls were open when the City of Denver menu was issued but not when the City of Kansas City menu came out. These changes indicate the two beverage menus have different dates, but the lower prices suggest an earlier date for the City of Kansas City menu while the editing of regulations suggests a later date.
Ah yes, the City of Everywhere. I rode the COKC as a little boy back in 1969, and my memory of it is pretty dim at this point. I do remember that it seemed like we were waiting forever in Cheyenne for the COLA to arrive and switch our car into its consist.
A few observations:
1. The COKC left KC at about 8 in the evening and a few minutes later crossed the MO-KS border. With no alcohol sales allowed in KS, if you wanted a drink you had to be fast.
2. I think the connection for St. Louis passengers was by then provided by MP, but it involved a cross-platform transfer, i.e. no through cars.
3. The COKC had through sleepers to L.A., but AFAIK only coaches to SFO. I think SP had axed the through sleeper sometime in 1967-1968.
4. UP timetables of the period show the hand off of the City of Denver being made at North Platte. Operationally it could have been at Julesburg, but North Platte was probably the preceding station stop for passengers.
5. The interchange point for UP & SP was Ogden, not SLC.
6. It was actually the Portland Rose that left KC in the morning (around 7 AM IIRC). That would have necessitated an overnight connection from St. Louis.
7. The City of Everywhere often ran late, due to its length requiring double stops at some stations, and switching stops at 4 locations.