Union Pacific introduced the Challenger, its low-cost train to Los Angeles, in June, 1935. This brochure must have been issued about that time or soon after. Although it is undated, times shown in the brochure for trains arriving in Las Vegas match those of UP’s 1935 timetables. The brochure doesn’t mention a lounge car that was added to in April 1936, confirming that it was issued before then.

Click image to download a 4.2-MB PDF of this brochure.

The train carried coaches and tourist sleepers but not first-class Pullmans, which went on the Los Angeles Limited. Later brochures emphasized the economical nature of the train, but this one emphasized “luxurious comfort,” suggesting that UP hadn’t yet figured out the best way to market it.

Santa Fe had first introduced a budget Chicago-Los Angeles train, the Scout, in 1916, but it was discontinued at the beginning of the Depression. Facing pressure from the Challenger, Santa Fe restored the Scout in May, 1936. The El Capitan eventually replaced the Scout as Santa Fe’s main budget train, but UP kept operating the Challenger (though combined with the City of Los Angeles) until Amtrak took over.