FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Classic Trains contributor Kevin P. Keefe recalls Amtrak's first in-house provided system timetable, which took effect on 14 November 1971.

What got me thinking about the system timetable this week was an email from my friend and former boss Kevin McKinney, founder of Passenger Train Journal and now a columnist for the magazine. McKinney, you see, is also a timetable true believer, and has the war stories to prove it, including this one from November 1971, 50 years ago this week.

Back then, McKinney was working as the railroad’s manager of scheduling and timetables, having graduated the year before from the transportation program at Michigan State. A big day loomed on the calendar: November 14, the day the first Amtrak-created timetable was issued; earlier ones had come from the publishers of the old Official Guide.

You'll find scans here of both the original, Official Guide typeface timetable and the airline-style quick reference part (subsequently eliminated as connectivity went in the dumper) of the 14 November issue.  There might not be the collectible value of a baseball card, and yet among ferroequinologists, there might be some collector value.  "That Nov. 14, 1971, timetable would be a nice collector’s item to have. The full-page ad on the back is an interesting blend of promotion and apologia. More than anything, it reminds me of the dedication of those early Amtrak officials — Kevin McKinney among them — who considered the passenger train a calling, not just a job."

Yes, it had to be a challenge selling a new service under the blurb "We're making the trains worth traveling again," and in a later campaign bragging on selecting the 1200 or so best cars from among what the freight railroads had left, and had allowed to run down.

For a while, though, the timetable and the revised train consists were encouraging things to see.  There's a series of pictures here from Thanksgiving weekend, 1971.  Just for a tease, though, imagine Burlington Northern coaches and a Gulf Mobile and Ohio parlor car running on a Hiawatha service to Minneapolis.

These days, there's only one train between Chicago and St. Paul, and you're on your own making connections between the St. Louis trains and the Milwaukee trains, let alone among any of the other regional trains stemming from Chicago.