Portland Rose (train)

The Portland Rose (renamed from Portland Limited in 1930) was a named passenger train that featured through-service to Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle. It was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad, but sections of the train scheduled east of Omaha operated over the Chicago and North Western Railway before 1955, and after over the Milwaukee Road.

Portland Rose
originally Portland Limited

The final remnant of the Portland Rose at Denver Union Station, reduced to just two coaches on the eve of Amtrak
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Central and Western United States
First service	1923
Last service	1971
Former operator(s)	UP and CNW/MILW
Route
Termini	East: Chicago, Illinois Cheyenne, Wyoming (1942) Denver, Colorado St. Louis, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri (1964) West: Portland, Oregon Pool service to Tacoma and Seattle, Washington
Train number(s)	17 (westbound) 18 (eastbound)
Line(s) used	Overland Route
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Seattle Tacoma Washington Oregon Portland Hood River The Dalles Hinkle Pendleton Baker Huntington Oregon Idaho Boise Shoshone Pocatello Idaho Wyoming Kemmerer Green River Rawlins Laramie Cheyenne Wyoming Colorado pre-1942 route Greeley Wyoming Nebraska La Salle Sidney Denver North Platte cut back 1964 Grand Island Limon Omaha Hugo Nebraska Iowa Cheyenne Wells Boone Colorado Kansas Ames Sharon Springs Marshalltown Winona Cedar Rapids Oakley Clinton Grainfield Iowa Illinois Quinter Sterling Wakeeney Dixon Ellis DeKalb Hays Geneva Russell Oak Park Wilson Chicago C&NW Ellsworth Salina Abilene Junction City Ft. Riley Manhattan Wamego St. Marys Topeka Lawrence Kansas City Kansas Missouri Kansas City

Features

The Portland Limited featured a lady's lounge, men's club, sightseeing salon, library, barbershop, and bath with shower which remained intact through the entire route. Renamed Portland Rose in 1930, the train was assigned heavyweight passenger equipment, but was regularly upgraded with streamlined equipment in line with the premiere "city trains". The 1930s service continued these features, adding a fully equipped soda fountain, a radio, and a glass-enclosed sun parlor.

Service changes and demise

The 1935 introduction of the City of Portland replaced the Portland Rose as the premier Union Pacific train to the Northwest, but the Rose remained important and operated through to the establishment of Amtrak in 1971.

In 1937, the year that Union Pacific introduced the Chicago–Los Angeles discount tourist-class train, The Challenger, Portland Rose split sections at Omaha, one through section to Chicago over the CNW, the other through to St. Louis over the Wabash. A section of Challenger sleepers were at that time exchanged between the Portland Rose and The Challenger (San Francisco #87/88) at Green River.

In 1942, Cheyenne, Wyoming, then became the east terminus of the Pacific Rose, (temporarily designated as trains 11/12) with a through section carried between there and Chicago by the Los Angeles Limited (trains #1/2), and another section via Denver and through Kansas to Kansas City and St. Louis carried by the City of St. Louis.

With the demise of the Pony Express, with which it had been combined east of Denver, the Portland Rose operated under that name alone from Portland to St. Louis as trains 17/18 by way of Cheyenne and Denver.

But by 1964, the Portland Rose terminated in Kansas City and in late 1969, service was curtailed to Denver.

In continuous service from its inception, the Rose outlasted some other more premiere Union Pacific trains until 1971, when Amtrak took over the nation's passenger services.

Gallery

• 
  Portland Limited brochure, 1923
• 
  Inaugural Portland Rose decor of the 1930s heavyweight era dining car
• 
  Portland Rose heavyweight club car, c. 1930s
• 
  Portland Rose track sign at Denver Union Station

Legacy

As part of the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet, 44-seat coach No. 5473 was renamed the Portland Rose in 1990.