The Route Through Lincoln Nebraska
Travel by train guaranteed lovely scenic rides through major cities, with luxurious accommodations and the individualized service and attention from a Pullman Porter. There is a record of one main route to the west, that traveled through Lincoln. The Burlington Route, that left Lincoln every Thursday and arrived in San Francisco the following Sunday and in Los Angeles the following Monday. Offering passengers, a three-day ride from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, boasting again of a comfortable travel, complete with a ‘uniformed Pullman Porter , wide vestibules and Pintech gas high back seats, clean bedding, spacious toilets and tables with a heating range”.
The second Burlington Route also left Lincoln every Tuesday and Thursday and arrived in Seattle the following Friday and Sunday again promising a uniformed Pullman Porter “whose sole duty is to attend to the wants of the passenger”. Cost of the trip from Lincoln to Seattle was a low $5.00.
Lincoln had a complete system of railroads and was the hub for three eastern railroad lines, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Freemont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley (Northwestern) and the Missouri Pacific, which had its terminus in the Lincoln. Lincoln was the at one time the “best distributing point in the western half of the United States” and the advantage of these routes stopping in Lincoln not only provided jobs for the Lincoln resident porters, but provided guests for Lincoln residents and hotels for the railway porters to "lay-over" and patronize local businesses as they waited for their next trip.
