page_title: City of Denver (train)
section_title: Route
hierarchical_section_title: City of Denver (train) / Route
caption_attribution_description: English: Map from "The OVERLAND ROUTE to the Road of a Thousand Wonders: The Route of the Union Pacific &amp; Southern Pacific from Omaha to San Francisco - A Journey of Eighteen Hundred Miles Where Once the Bison &amp; the Indian Reigned" Union and Southern Pacific Railroad Passenger Departments, 1908. (The Cooper Collection of US Railroad History)
context_page_description: The City of Denver was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Union Pacific Railroad between Chicago, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado. It operated between 1936 and 1971. From 1936–1955 the Chicago and North Western Railway handled the train east of Omaha, Nebraska; the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad handled it thereafter. The train was the fastest long-distance train in the United States when it debuted in 1936, covering 1,048 miles in 16 hours. For almost its entire career its principal competitor was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Denver Zephyr. When Amtrak assumed operation of most intercity trains in the United States in 1971, it discontinued the City of Denver, preferring to use the Burlington's route between Chicago and Denver.
  On its launch in 1936 the City of Denver used a pair of articulated trainsets built by Pullman-Standard. The streamliners would remain in service until 1953, when conventional locomotive-hauled rolling stock replaced them. The City of Denver always carried both sleeping cars and coaches. A notable feature of the 1936 version of the train was the "Frontier Shack" tavern, which had the feel of a Western saloon.
context_section_description: Between 1936–1955 the City of Denver used the Chicago and North Western Railway between Chicago and Omaha. After 1955 it used the Milwaukee Road. The train's Union Pacific route west of Omaha remained unchanged for the duration. The train followed the Overland Route from Omaha to Julesburg, where it diverged southwest for Denver. In March 1950 it made the following stops west of Omaha: Columbus, Grand Island, Kearney, and North Platte in Nebraska and Julesburg in Colorado. On the C&NW it made the following stops west of Chicago, all in Iowa: Cedar Rapids, Ames, Boone, and Council Bluffs. The westbound train departed Chicago's Chicago and North Western Terminal at 5:00 PM and arrived at Denver's Union Station at 8:30 AM the following morning.
  With the switch to the Milwaukee Road the train's Chicago terminus shifted to Union Station. In June 1960 the City of Denver stopped in Davis Junction (for Rockford) and Savanna in Illinois, Marion (for Cedar Rapids) and Perry in Iowa. West of Omaha the station stops were unchanged. The new routing forced new timing; the westbound City of Denver departed Chicago at 3:45 PM and arrived in Denver at 7:35 AM the following morning. Although the new route took 20 minutes longer, by an odd coincidence it was exactly the same length as the previous one, at 1,048 miles (1,687 km).
caption: A 1908 map depicting the Union Pacific's "Overland Route."
exif: {}