Columbian (MILW train)

The Columbian was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("the Milwaukee Road") between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle/Tacoma, Washington. The westbound train was Milwaukee Road train #17, and the eastbound train was train #18.

One of the last great railroad construction projects in the United States took place in the Pacific Northwest between 1906 and 1909, when the Milwaukee Road built its new line from the Midwest to Puget Sound. The new route gave the Milwaukee Road a continuous line from Chicago to Seattle/Tacoma, an asset claimed by no other single railroad. Soon, the Milwaukee began operating through freight and passenger trains on the route. Two daily Chicago - Puget Sound passenger trains were instituted on May 28, 1911—the Olympian and the Columbian. The Olympian was the premiere train on the route, with a faster schedule and more luxurious equipment; the Columbian was a secondary train, providing a more basic level of service on a slower schedule.

Both trains operated throughout the 1910s and 1920s, initially surviving the bankruptcy of the Milwaukee Road in 1925. The Columbian, however, was discontinued in 1930, the victim of a downturn in rail traffic caused, in part, by the Great Depression. The Olympian continued to serve the entire Chicago - Tacoma line, and shorter-distance trains provided additional service on parts of the route.

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