This 1938 brochure advertises the Forty Niner, UP/SP/C&NW’s all-Pullman train designed to supplement the five-times-a-month City of San Francisco for fast, luxurious travel between Chicago and San Francisco. The train, which began operated in July, 1937, was pulled (at least … Continue reading
Five years after the Great Northern re-equipped the Oriental Limited in 1924, the Northern Pacific completely re-equipped its North Coast Limited. Unlike GN’s premiere train, the North Coast Limited had the extra cache of being an all-Pullman train. Click image … Continue reading
This brochure is undated, but based on the hair and clothing styles it is almost certainly from before World War II. UP and Chicago & North Western inaugurated the Challenger in 1935 as a second-section of the all-Pullman Los Angeles … Continue reading
To mark the opening of the railway’s Cascade Tunnel, on June 11, 1929, the Great Northern inaugurated a new train, the Empire Builder, named for the railway’s founder, James J. Hill. This brochure describes it as a “companion train” for … Continue reading
According to the Union Pacific Railroad, the Portland Rose entered service on September 12, 1930, and was the premiere train on the Portland route, though not quite the equivalent of the all-Pullman Overland Limited or Los Angeles Limited (the latter … Continue reading
The Oriental Limited was the Great Northern’s premiere train from 1905 through 1929, when it became secondary to the Empire Builder. The Empire Builder himself, James J. Hill, always had his eye on the Orient, briefly owning steamships Dakota and … Continue reading
In the pre-streamlined era, the Santa Fe Railway ran numerous named passenger trains between Chicago and Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Limited (a name later also used by the Union Pacific); the California Limited; the Chief (which started in … Continue reading
One-upping the Great Northern, Northern Pacific advertises that its North Coast Limited is not only air-conditioned, but roller-bearinged. This refers primarily to the railroad’s steam locomotives: NP bought the Timken “Four Aces“–locomotive 1111, the first to be fully outfitted with … Continue reading
This 1940 brochure notes that the Pacific Limited was “completely air conditioned,” including both coaches and Pullmans. The Pacific Limited was a distinctly secondary train on the Chicago-San Francisco route, a cut above the Challenger but not as luxurious as … Continue reading
This little brochure is undated but is probably from somewhere between 1938, when the Winnipeg Limited began, and World War II. The brochure describes the all-heavyweight version of the train whose streamlined version was previously featured here. Click image to … Continue reading
