Burlington was a very different railroad in 1885 from the one I am familiar with in the mid-20th century. Burlington’s lines to South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, Kentucky, and even Minnesota were all in the future.

Click image to download a 6.7-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

In 1885, Burlington’s three main trains left Chicago for Council Bluffs or Omaha each day. Two of the trains split at Galesburg, with part going to Kansas City. The trains then split again at Pacific Junction, 25 miles east of Omaha, with part going to Denver.The map makes it appear that stopping at Omaha on the way to Denver would take the train nearly 50 miles out of its way. By the early 20th century, the stop in Omaha on the way to Denver was routine.

The 1885 timetable also shows two trains a day from Chicago to St. Paul and Minneapolis. But Burlington’s line from Chicago to St. Paul on the north side of the Mississippi River wouldn’t open until 1887. The trains in the 1885 timetable went on Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul tracks on the south side of the Mississippi River. It isn’t clear whether Burlington is advertising St. Paul Road trains or the St. Paul Road allowed Burlington to run its own trains on St. Paul tracks even as it was building a competing line on the other side of the river.

The timetable offered an alternate route to Minneapolis over the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern. This later became part of the Rock Island Railroad and for a time hosted the joint Rock Island-Burlington Zephyr Rocket. This route took 24 hours to get between Chicago and St. Paul (23 hours to Minneapolis), compared with less than 21 hours on the Mississippi River route (22 to Minneapolis). Years later, the Twin Zephyrs would make the Chicago-St. Paul journey in 6-1/2 hours.

A few other trains operated out of St. Louis, Atchison, and St. Joseph. None of the trains on any route were dignified with names. The brochure advertises through Pullman sleepers and coaches to Omaha, Council Bluffs, Denver, and Kansas City, but these are all on Burlington’s own lines. None of the trains had through sleepers over other roads to, say, Oakland, Portland, or Los Angeles.