Starting with this timetable (scans for which were provided by Bryan Howell), both the Mainstreeter and Western Star were combined with the Black Hawk going in both directions between Chicago and the Twin Cities. According to John Strauss’ books, in 1954-1955 both the Mainstreeter‘s solarium-observation car and the Star‘s lounge-observation car went all the way to Chicago, which seems unlikely. More likely is that Chicago-bound coaches and sleeping cars from both trains were switched out at St. Paul and added to the Black Hawk, which carried its own diner-lounge car.
Click image to download a 25.2-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.
For those who are trying to keep track of the Western Star, this review of timetables has shown that the Oriental Limited was operated separate from the Black Hawk when it first began its post-war incarnation in February 1947. For a brief time starting on May 30, 1948, the North Coast Limited was combined with the Black Hawk in both directions, but on September 26 1948 it was the Oriental Limited that was combined with the Black Hawk and the North Coast Limited was run as a separate train.
The Western Star continued to be combined with the Black Hawk when it first replaced the Oriental Limited. However, when Northern Pacific speeded up the North Coast Limited and introduced the Mainstreeter in November 1952, the Western Star was operated separately from the Black Hawk in both directions. The eastbound Mainstreeter was separate from the other two trains but was combined with the Black Hawk westbound. In May 1953, the Mainstreeter was combined with the Black Hawk in both directions.
In October 1953, the Burlington played a curious dance, pairing the Black Hawk with the Western Star eastbound but with the Mainstreeter westbound. I speculated this was because the eastbound Mainstreeter may have had a poor on-time record. This arrangement continued until today’s timetable, after which the Black Hawk, Mainstreeter, and Western Star were combined into one train.
Fate wasn’t done playing with the Western Star, however, as another major change would take place in 1960. We’ll get to that in a couple of weeks.