Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-09-27
What is a Trunk Line.

The readers of the newspapers of the
day constantly see mention made of Trunk
Line railroads, but comparatively few
fully understand what is intended by the
designation. Some three or four railroad
lines running westward from the Atlantic
sea-board, are sometimes not wrongly
called Trunk Lines, as they form the main
arteries Of traffic toward the West. If
any railroad in the country deserves or is
entitled to the name of grand Trunk
Line, it is the Chicago & North Western
Railway The company operating this
great line now controls more miles of rail
way than any other in America, if not in
the world. 1t is by all odds the most i'm
porant line of railroad in any way con-
nected with Chicago. No other road run
ming out of Chicago carries anything like
as many passengers or hauls anything like
the volume of freight that is transported
over this road. 1t alone runs in and out
of Chicago every day in the year, nearly
as many passenger trains as all the other
Chicago roads put together. As it is with
passenger trains so is it with freight-it
not unfreouently brings into Chicago fif
teen hundred loaded freight cars in sim
Gle day, and if it does not bring IN a
thousand cars its managers think il is
doing poorly. Forty to fifty passenger
trains daily. leave and arrive at its depot
at Chicago. Of suburban passengers, it
carries more than all the other roads that
run to or from Chicago. These are facts
that can be established by any one wish
ing to do so. No road but the very best
could do the business that this great line
does. Its track is of the heaviest steel
rail, and is kept in constant repair by the
constant vigilance of an army of track
men, and is patrolled day and nighl, the
year through, for the double purpose of
keeping every thing connected with it in
perfect condition, and for the entire safety
of its patrons who are travelling over it
No road any lOhere can show superior
track, finer coaches, stronger, swifter or
better locomotive enjines; and no other
road west of Chicago have ever attempted
to approach it in its equipments of Pull
man Hotel or Sleeping Coaches. 1t alone
of all the western roads have the celebrat-
ed Hotel cars, and on this line only can the
traveller between the Missouri river and
Chicago procure the comforts and luxuries
that these cars alone can furnish. Other
lines may talk of Dining cars, and sixteen
wheel coaches, but not one of them can Of
fer you Pullman or any other form Of no.
tel car. These cars combine luxury with
the greatest obtainable comfort, and at no
increase in expense over the common, old
fashioned sleeping car. The marvel of
those that travel on them is to know how
the company can afford to run them and
charge no more for berths than is charged
in the old fashioned sleeper. The answer
is found in the great volume of travel this
road is carrying. Ten thousands flock TO
its lines where hundreds seek its cOmpeti-
tors. We are sure that no one who has
once seen these cars would ever use any
other if travelling in the direction which
they run.
They are uot for the exclusive use of the
rich, but are just as comfortable and ele-
giant for the poorer traveler-costing to oc-
cupy these cars, no more than does the Oc-
cupancy of the old fashioned sleeper, no
one ueed, for fear of expense, be prevented
from using them. They have become the
rage, so to speak, with the Californlans,
and have attracted the majority of that
class of travel.
If you are about to travel east or west be-
tween Chicago and Council Bluffs, Omaha
Denver or San Francisco, it will pay you
to see that you get your tickets by the Chi
cago & Northwestern Railway. At some
future time we may give you further ideas
about this great road,-Ihe Democrat.