Reply To: Travel from Tulsa to Little Rock 1933

[Bill Pollard]

In the midst of the Depression, amenities were a bit sparse. No. 117 (The Rainbow Special) carried an observation-cafe-parlor car between KC and Coffeyville, so that car would have already been removed by the time a passenger boarded at Claremore. Also carried was the KC-Hot Springs sleeper, a 12-section, 1 drawing room car — pretty standard for Pullman accommodations of that era. It also picked up another 12-1 sleeper at Fort Smith for Little Rock, but that would not have affected the Claremore passenger other than perhaps being awakened slightly when the car was switched into the train. There was no food service into Little Rock on No. 117 at this time, again thanks to the economy cutbacks of the Depression.

Once the KC-Hot Springs sleeper had been added to #17, there was a dining-lounge car in the train which operated all the way to Hot Springs, so breakfast or brunch was possible leaving Little Rock. With a 10:20am scheduled arrival in Hot Springs, I doubt that there was any early lunch service, probably just extended breakfast.

Train 17 was a train of many names and many purposes. Between St. Louis and Knobel, it was also known as the Tennessean. At Knobel, a St. Louis-Memphis sleeper, cafe-lounge and coaches were removed to continue to Memphis via Wynne. A few miles down the railroad, a Newport-Hot Springs dining lounge was added, so passengers on No. 17 could have breakfast into Little Rock, with the car continuing to Hot Springs as noted above. At Benton, all of the Hot Springs cars were removed from No. 17 to continue to the Spa city. No. 17 continued to Texarkana, and at Gurdon a Little Rock-El Dorado dining-parlor was remove for movement on train No. 847 to El Dorado. The remainder of No. 17 (now coaches and head end cars only) continued to Texarkana where it terminated. All that is of no consequence to your passenger traveling Claremore to Hot Springs, LOL, but its interesting to see how the railroad back in the day was capable of having one train serve multiple functions efficiently and in a timely manner, day after day, with multiple episodes of switching en route. Most of the time, it all worked like clockwork. Those of us dealing with today’s railroading and Amtrak can only shake our heads in amazement.

Bill