1958-Atlanta to Kearney,NE

Interesting post for sure especially for me since I live in Kearney, NE.  Unfortunately I can't help you much on the Atlanta to Chicago portion.  Obviously from Kearney to Omaha it would have been Union Pacific.   The line that went to Chicago from Omaha was C.M. St.P. & P.  I got this information from an UPRR time table which was dated 1968 so it may not obviously have been the same in 1958.  It also showed the trains as being the City of Sanfrancisco/Los Angeles and the City of Portland/Denver.  Sorry not much help.  Hopefully someone else can provide some better information.

Do you still have any ties to the area?  Small world, I've been around here nearly my entire life.

Ken

Obviously this is nothing  but conjecture on my part, but you may have left Atlanta on the L&N on one of the trains they operated jointly between Atlanta and Chicago with the C&EI.  I believe the NC&St.L had been merged into the L&N by this point, so they would have been out of the picture.  If my L&N books are to be believed, odds are you were riding behind either an E-7 or E-8.

Curt

Ken in Nebraska,

I think you'll find that the UP interchanged their passenger trains with The Chicago and North Western RR for through service from Omaha to Chicago.

So would that made them go through St. Louis up to Chicago?  I was kind of wondering since I saw a City of St. Louis train mentioned in that time table.  I was hoping that you would chime in with any info you may have.  Thanks.

Ken

No Ken, St. Louis is way south of Omaha & Chicago. Check out an atlas, and you will see that the C&NW goes right across Iowa, crosses the Mississippi River at Clinton, then across Illinois thru Rock Falls, Rochelle, Wheaton, and into Northwestern Station in Chicago.

As of 1955 the Union Pacific pulled it's Chicago-bound passenger trains from the C&NW and turned them over to the Milwaukee Road, as the CNW service had deteriorated so badly. The CNW was nearing bankruptcy and was saved by the take-over by the Ben Heineman administration in late 1955-early 1956. The CNW was run so poorly that a new VP Motive Power found that the RR had enough diesels on hand to eliminate 156 steam locomotives still in commuter and secondary freight service, literally overnight, in May 1956. It was at the 1955 turnover to the Milwaukee, that the Milwaukee abandoned (sadly, depending on your perspective) it's orange/maroon/black paint scheme and adopted UP Armour yellow w/red trim for all it's mainline passenger trains. 

Which Milwaukee Road line did the passenger trains use, the one through Savanna, Illinois?  Is this line now CP (former DM&E)? 

Yes, the Milwaukee Omaha main went through Savana, IL. Believe it is now DM&E. The Milw KC main also broke just across the MS River from Savana, at Sabula, IA.

Thanks Mark. I didn't realize that the change-over to the Milw. Road happened so early.

Jack - The CNW/Milw passenger turn-over was described in a 1955 Trains news article. It's funny to contemplate the twists and turns life and economics take. The Milw looked like the stronger company then, but by 1980 the poor old Milw was bankrupt and the CNW was in pretty good shape! But none of that would have occured without Ben Heineman. And Heineman was a lawyer, not a railroader. His son was the Chief Legal Counsel for General Electric in the 1990's.