The 83 hour journey was completed by the Transcontinental Express train, however even the slowest train could do the journey in little more than 10 days, which was a vast improvement on a coast-to-coast stagecoach journey.

Only 75 years earlier it had taken 10 days to travel 225 miles via horse and stagecoach. To cross the entire USA would take about 6 months on the Oregon Trail.

Those who could afford it traveled in great luxury, but those who couldn't tolerated the cramped uncomfortable conditions hoping for a new life in the West.