Hello! I hope this is the right place for this. I’m currently writing a young adult historical/modern fantasy novel that takes place during the great depression (1934).
I was considering having my main characters ride a private car from Seattle to Chicago. I was wondering how much that would cost (in the money of the time) to do so? Were there passengers routes directly from Seattle back then?
The story is about a boy who’s planning on running away and riding the rails (as many as 100,000 children did then), when a bird flies through his window and turns into a girl Now he has to help her find her way home and together they escape an alchemist who uses a power that’s either magic or science that wants to take her humanity.
Yes, there were three routes directly from Seattle to Chicago back then: the Milwaukee Road, The Great Northern/Burlington, and the Northern Pacific/Burlington; all three crossed Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Also, the Union Pacific/Chicago and North Western had through service, which crossed Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Iowa.
I do not have access to any tariffs, so I cannot help you on the cost. A private car did cost more than ordinary travel; as I recall, the standard tariff for this was eighteen first class fares for each private car.
In 1929 the schedule betw Chicago and Seattle became 63 hr westward, 61 hr 15 min eastward, same as the no-extra-fare schedule between Chicago and SF/LA. One-way fare Seattle to Chicago might then have been the same as from SF/LA: $79.84 plus the space charge. The RRs to California had reduced their fares by 1934, but dunno if the ones to Seattle had-- probably so.
Timz, I do not know when competitive fares came into use, but it may well have been at that time if you were traveling between Chicago and one of the four cities on the West Coast that the fare was the same, no matter which–Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, or Los Angeles–was your destination the fare was the same. Thus, even though the C&NW/UP route to Seattle was longer than the other three, the fare was the same. I could write more about some of the niceties of competitive fares, but such would be extraneous to this thread.
Yes, Mike, how did I forget that it crossed South Dakota–in much the same way that the Nashville and Chattanooga wandered back and forth between Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia as it came into Chattanooga from Nashville?
The faster trains took three nights and two days–leaving late in the day, and arriving the third morning. Depending upon the road, there was at least one other train, which took longer–perhaps with a morning departure and an arrival earlier in the morning than the deluxe train arrived, taking three days and three nights.
In 1930 one-way fare Chicago to SF/LA was $79.84, but in 1934 the coach one-way to SF/LA was down to $34.50. One-way first class was $65 I think, plus the charge for the bed/room. Dunno if Chicago to Seattle likewise reduced.
Excursion round-trip fares in 1930 were less than double.
The Milwaukee was the only railroad that ran from Chicago to Seattle on it’s own tracks. It’s line went north to Milwaukee, then westacross Wisconsin until it crossed the Mississippi. It then followed the west bank of the river to Hastings, MN. There it crossed over the east bank for the final 15 miles to St.Paul MN. It then ran west from there to Seattle.
Trains of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern were hauled by the Burlington Route (which the two railroads co-owned) west from Chicago across Illinois to the Mississippi, where it followed the east bank of the river to St.Paul. At St.Paul Union Depot, the CB&Q engines were cut off, and NP or GN engines hauled the trains the rest of the way west.
BTW today’s Amtrak Empire Builder uses the old Milwaukee route from Chicago to St.Paul, then former GN trackage to Seattle.
At that time, each railroad would have several trains covering the route. Prices for tickets would depend on whether you were in a compartment or berth on the Empire Builder or North Coast Limited, or in a coach seat on a lesser train.
As Deggesty noted however, hauling a private car would be a different matter. If it was the private car of an individual, it would be quite expensive. If you could afford to own (or hire a car from Pullman), you probably didn’t need to ask how much it would cost.
If it’s a private car owned by the railroad and assigned to a President, Vice President, Division Superintendent etc. for his use, it would be a different matter…
Most railroads would handle private cars, especially company business cars, on secondary trains, particularly if the premier train had its own observation.
The Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Coast Extension “strayed,” rather, into North Dakota, nipping only the southwest corner, as the tracks do to this day on the surviving segment owned by BNSF.
The route’s main Dakotas trackage is in South Dakota, via Aberdeen, Mobridge and Lemmon.
OK, if they’re just travelling in a Pullman sleeper, not a private car, they’d probably just get berths, not a private compartment / room. Pullman car primarily had open sections - pairs of seats facing each other. The backs folded forward to create one berth, and the other was pulled down from it’s suspension up above. (If you’ve seen the movie “Some Like It Hot”, it has some good interior scenes in a heavyweight Pullman.)
The kids could sit together during the day, then one use the upper berth and one the lower. Not sure of the exact cost, but would be a lot less than a stateroom / compartment / drawing room. Some railroads, like Great Northern, had some Pullman “tourist sleepers” that were a bit less fancy - and less expensive - than the normal Pullman cars.
What was called a “compartment” in the US had two beds, but not two facing bench seats. One bed became a bench seat and the other passenger had a chair during the day. Dunno how common double bedrooms were in 1934-- that would be two beds, one bench seat and no extra chair-- a little less room and a slightly lower charge.
As I recall the Chicago-California fare in a compartment was a bit lower in 1934 than it had been before 1932-- maybe ditto Chicago-Seattle.
In a Pullman section, just as in Amtrak roomettes, the part of the seat on which you sat was pulled away from the back, and the back of the seat dropped down to form one half of the berth–and the same action was performed on the facing seat. Then a mattress was taken down from where it was stowed in the upper berth. This was a real mattress, not a thin pad such as is used in Amtrak roomettes. The porter would bring you a ladder when you wanted to get up to, or down from, the upper berth.
In 1930, a compartment was essentially an enclosed section that had more floor space than a section–and had a toilet and a washbasin in the same room and a ladder. A drawing room also had two berths arranged in the same way (and with a ladder), plus a sofa with a back that swung down to provide a third berth–and the toilet was enclosed in an annex.
The cars that were rebuilt with bedrooms (for two) in the thirties had the berths at a right angle to the sides of the cars, and the lower berth was essentially a sofa seat during the day, I believe. These rooms also had the toilet in the room itself.
When the car builders began building lightweight sleepers, the section berths were essentailly the same, though in the fifties new cars had a folding ladder by each upper berth so it was no longer necesary to ring for the porter when the passenger wanted to get up to or down from the upper berth. also, the bedrooms and compartments in thse new cars had the toilet in an annex, just as the drawing rooms did. Some bedrooms were built with two chairs for day use and the bed swung down from the wall for the lower berth (just as it did in a real roomette). Other bedrooms had a transverse sofa seat wh
I don’t know if this was still the situation in the 1930s, but in the early days, the Pullman lower berth was sold for 2 passengers, and the upper berth for 1 passenger. The 2 boys would have shared the lower berth, and the upper sold to some one else.
The price of a lower was the same, no matter how many slept in it. Likewise, the price of an upper was the same. Two boys probably would not have been crowded.
Remember that the standard berth occupancy on troop trains was two to a lower and one to an upper