The Great Northern punched its line through the Cascade Mountains to Seattle in January 1893, almost a decade after Northern Pacific and eight years after Union Pacific reached Portland. While NP didn’t name any of its trains or offer a … Continue reading
Northern Pacific’s land grant called for it to build from Lake Superior to Puget Sound. However, it was nearly financially exhausted when it reached Washington territory in 1883. There, it met with the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, which went … Continue reading
Competition between Chicago and San Francisco was much less intense than in the Los Angeles corridor mainly because the Overland Route was by far the shortest route. In 1911, when Western Pacific began serving this corridor, the Overland Route was … Continue reading
In late 1905, a new competitor entered the market for premium Chicago-Los Angeles trains: the Los Angeles Limited. This route was made possible when the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad completed its line between Salt Lake City … Continue reading
In late 1901, Rock Island completed a 264-mile extension from Liberal, Kansas to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Its goal was to reach coal mines that were opening up in the territory, which wouldn’t become a state until 1912. To that … Continue reading
We’ve previously seen booklets for the 1900-1901, 1904-1905, and 1906-1907 winter seasons. The one here, for the 1908-1909 season, says it is the “Fourteenth Season.” That suggests that the train didn’t operate for three seasons between 1892 and 1904 (which … Continue reading
For nearly 70 years — roughly 1902 through 1971 — the competition for passenger business between Chicago and Los Angeles was nearly as intense as that in the New York-Chicago corridor. When Santa Fe arrived in southern California in 1887, … Continue reading
In 1905, the Pennsylvania Railroad used 4-4-2 Atlantic-type locomotives to power the 18-hour Pennsylvania Special. With 80″ driving wheels and about 21,000 pounds of tractive effort, these locomotives weren’t as powerful as the newer 4-6-2 locomotives, but the Special didn’t … Continue reading
My recent post about all-steel passenger cars raises the question: what was the first all-steel intercity train? The first all-steel train of any kind was undoubtedly an IRT subway train. The first all-steel intercity train was also clearly a Pennsylvania … Continue reading
The end of the World’s Columbian Exposition also saw the end of the Exposition Flyer‘s 20-hour schedule. Initially, New York-Chicago passengers had to be content with journeys of at least 26 hours. In September 1894, the Central speeded up its … Continue reading
