Midwest Hiawatha

Midwest Hiawatha 1943

The Midwest Hiawatha was passenger train service of the Milwaukee Road. The service was inaugurated on December 11, 1940 and operate between Chicago's Union Station and Omaha, Nebraska, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, through northern Illinois and Iowa and South Dakota. For most of its history the train was financially successful despite not directly serving most of the major population centers in Iowa.

Initially, the train utilized Atlantic [4-4-2] steam engines and rolling stock freed from the 1938 re-equipping of the Twin Cities Hiawathas. Bus and "gas-electric" services were utilized to connect passengers to major cities near the route such as Dubuque, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. Unlike the Milwaukee's well-established competition between Chicago and the Missouri River, the Midwest Hiawatha was scheduled during daylight hours, which helped boost patronage for the train. For most of its history it carried coaches for both Omaha and Sioux Falls with tap-diners and parlor services generally run between Chicago and Sioux Falls. The two sections of the train were split at Manilla, Iowa.

The final trip for the Midwest Hiawatha from all terminals occurred on October 29, 1955. On the next day, October 30, 1955, the Milwaukee Road assumed operation of Union Pacific Railroad's City of San Francisco, City of Los Angeles, City of Denver, City of Portland and Challenger trains. The Midwest Hiawatha was combined with the Challenger and was designated in the Milwaukee Road timetable as Challenger-Midwest Hiawatha. A year later in 1956 the Midwest Hiawatha name disappeared altogether when the Challenger was combined with the City of Los Angeles and moved to an evening schedule.

The Union Pacific/Milwaukee transcontinental services continued to operate over the same route as the former Midwest Hiawatha until 1971 when Amtrak selected the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's route across Iowa for its San Francisco Zephyr and later California Zephyr transcontinental services.

See also

• Hiawatha (passenger train)