C&NW Passenger Trains

Unfortunately, I think, a lot of the most interesting railroads have been merged out of existence into a handful of mega railroads. For instance, the current Union Pacific Railroad consists of the old original Union Pacific plus Chicago and North Western, Missouri Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Western Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Denver and Rio Grande Western. These railroads include numerous other railroads as well.
My original and current favorite is the Chicago and North Western. It’s because I grew up near the C&NW mainline in the Chicago area and it has a rich history of passenger trains. I also worked for them for a couple of years in the early 1980’s.
The C&NW has a long history that goes back more than 150 years. When it was absorbed into Union Pacific in 1995, it was one of the oldest companies in the United States. How many companies can you think of that still exist that are over 150 years old an still operate with the same name as 150 years ago?
The C&NW line that went west out to Omaha, Nebraska was the host of many famous passenger trains that originated in Chicago including the “City” trains that were operated in conjunction with Union Pacific: City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco, City of Portland, City of Denver. There were also trains like the Pacific Limited (Chicago to LA), San Francisco Challenger, San Francisco Overland Limited, Los Angeles Challenger, Los Angeles Overland Limited, The Columbine (to Denver), The Portland Rose, The Forty Niner (to San Francisco). They also had trains that went north and northwest to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Trains like The 400, The Viking, The Victory, and the North Western Limited. These were the "big" and famous trains on the C&NW. There were lots of other trains that had names and many that had only numbers.
Not a single one of these trains made it to the Amtrak era. And, I never saw a single one of the big named trains other than in pictures.
So I have a model of one of them using Walthers’ passenger cars and Proto 2000 E6, E7 and E8 locomotives.
In February of 1950, the westbound City of Denver, train 111, had the schedule shown below. The train was turned over to Union Pacific in Omaha. The train had an overall average speed of 64 mph for the 1048 mile run from Chicago to Denver. This was one of the faster Chicago to Denver trains in 1950.
Station	Leave	Total Miles	Miles	Minutes	Avg Speed
Chicago	5:00 PM
Sterling, IL	6:37 PM	110	110	97	68
Clinton, IA	7:04 PM	138	28	27	62
Cedar Rapids, IA	8:15 PM	219	81	71	68
Marshalltown, IA	9:18 PM	289	70	63	67
Ames, IA	9:51 PM	327	38	33	69
Boone, IA	10:10 PM	340	13	19	41
Council Bluffs, IA	12:17 AM	485	145	127	69
Omaha, NE	12:30 AM	488	3	13	14
Columbus, NE	1:55 AM	570	82	85	58
Grand Island, NE	2:50 AM	632	62	55	68
Kearney, NE	3:28 AM	674	42	38	66
North Platte, NE	4:47 AM	769	95	79	72
Julesburg, CO	5:00 AM	851	82	73	67
Sterling, CO	5:55 AM	908	57	55	62
La Salle, CO	7:20 AM	1001	93	85	66
Denver, CO	8:30 AM	1048	47	70	40