Time Tables - And More! Part 2 of 5

Seattle, 1961. So now we are back in Seattle, and I soon discovered that the intimate relationship I had with the Canadian National Railways was impossible to duplicate in Seattle. However, that lack of intimacy was more than made up for with the diversity of operating lines at our front door!

Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Pacific Coast, Milwaukee Road!

One of the things us kids loved to do in December or January of each year was to grab a bus and head down to downtown Seattle. The purpose of these expeditions was to hit travel agencies and ticket agents clustered up and down 4^th and 5^th Avenues, asking for the new year’s calendars and time tables. Back in those days, everyone was competing for the best calendars, and there was plenty to go around.

The agencies were clever enough to know that it was smart to give kids these give-aways, knowing that they were going to end up being hung in plain sight, possibly influencing the parents or friends next travel plans.

While the Great Northern and Union Pacific had nifty poster size calendars with a full year and photograph, I would have to say that the greatness prize each year was the Pan American Airlines calendar. They always had “wow” appeal with magnificent photographs of far away exotic lands that we’d knew we’d never see!

This Great Northern Passenger schedule – the words “time table” are noticeably absent – is from 1961. Lovingly carried around all these years, it too, has a wealth of information. The “center fold” is a complete route map, with, as an extra bonus, a simplified track profile from east to west.

In addition to the usual condensed schedules for long distance travel, we find schedules breaking down the major through lines, and a gaggle of branch line schedules, which generally connected to the "Hound." That was back in the days when Greyhound went everywhere!

Scattered here and there are a few advertisements:

Detailed equipment lists for major trains:

And this particular Great Northern schedule also featured a complete fare schedule for all classes of travel.