Until I began researching this timetable, I was unaware of the extent of Union Pacific's interests in Washington State. I had known for a long time that UP had a main line through route from the east into Portland, Oregon and that they shared trackage rights on the Great Northern's line along the coast into Seattle, but up until now I had always considered eastern Washington the private property of the Hill roads Great Northern and Northern Pacific...with a bit of incursion from that late interloper the Milwaukee Road. Not necessarily so.

Looking at the timetables for these trains, I'm reminded of how much the world has changed. Today, if you're planning to establish a major business facility like a factory, you look for cheap land near a freeway or major highway on the outskirts of a large city with airline service. That well has been gone to so many times by so many businesses that there is no "cheap land" left near freeways; indeed you may have to look fifty or sixty miles or more from the city center for any suitable vacant land at all. But, up until the 1950s, all you needed was land near a railroad. The nearest town could be large or small; it hardly mattered. Grenada, MS had exactly the same fast express and freight service as urban Memphis a hundred-odd miles north, and quite comparable passenger transport options as well. Postal service was top-notch; posting a letter at the RPO (yes, you could do that!) as the afternoon passenger train came through town virtually guaranteed next-day delivery to towns large or small within five-hundred miles or so. Even the availability of utilities was not an issue as long as there was water available; factories traditionally generated their own power and the railroad would gladly deliver coal.

There really isn't much in the way of "major cities" in eastern Washington state. Spokane certainly qualifies and Yakima comes close, but as far as I can see that's about it for cities of 100,000 or more. The rest falls into what some now deride as "flyover country". But into the mid-1950s, Union Pacific and its competitors were offering first-class transportation options to dozens of these small communities in the region. You could travel from Spokane or any other town on the main line east of Hinkle all the way through to Los Angeles with no change of car if you booked a sleeper.

I apologize for the complexity of this timetable; it arises from a request by a correspondent that I cover Union Pacific's coordinated schedules for trains in this region. In order to do so completely, I wanted to list all stops for trains in the coordinated service, not just the major stops that I usually show for connecting services. So this timetable actually contains the complete timetables of five different trains. Train 19/20, the Spokane, is the glue that binds them all together.

For more information on the connecting service to Lewiston and points eastward in Idaho, check the Camas Prairie Railroad timetables on Track 12.