It seemed rather a slap in the face of its parent company for the Burlington to combine the North Coast Limited, Northern Pacific’s premiere train, with the Black Hawk, as it did in yesterday’s timetable. So it is no surprise that in today’s timetable (scans for which were provided by Bryan Howell), issued four months later, the North Coast Limited was once again operated as a separate train between St. Paul and Chicago and it is the Oriental Limited that was combined with the Black Hawk.

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In 1948, both the Black Hawk and Oriental Limited were heavyweight trains. Northern Pacific advertised the North Coast Limited as streamlined, but that was only partially true: it still carried heavyweight tourist sleepers as well as head-end cars. Perhaps Burlington thought it could get away with the indignity of combining the NCL with the Black Hawk because most of the journey would be in the dark. Whether Northern Pacific complained or for some other reason, that combination only lasted for the summer of 1948.