For this timetable, the westbound Western Star continued to run 10 minutes ahead of the combined Mainstreeter/Black Hawk. Curiously, however, eastbound it is the Mainstreeter that runs separately, with the combined Western Star/Black Hawk departing St. Paul 15 minutes ahead of the NP train and arriving in Chicago 40 minutes ahead.

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Burlington may have made this change if NP had a problem bringing the Mainstreeter into St. Paul on time. Burlington passengers depended on the Black Hawk to get them to Chicago at the beginning of the business day, and holding the train for the Mainstreeter would have led to disgruntled customers.

I don’t know if that was really the problem, but it seems possible because the Mainstreeter continued to rely heavily on older, heavyweight equipment through much of the 1950s and to some degree into the 1960s. In addition, west of St. Paul at least half of the Mainstreeter‘s 1953 consists were express and railway post office cars, many of which were added in various cities along the way, creating several opportunities for delays.