The
Arrow offered the
Milwaukee RoadThe Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...
's overnight service between
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
Cedar RapidsCedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
, and
OmahaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, Nebraska. The train ran with coaches, a tap-diner and sleeping cars. A separate section of the train including a parlor and tap diner continued on to
Sioux CitySioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
and
Sioux FallsSioux Falls is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Sioux Falls is the county seat of Minnehaha County, and also extends into Lincoln County to the south...
. The train was split at
Manilla, IowaManilla is a city in Crawford County, Iowa, United States, along the West Branch of the West Nishnabotna River. The population was 839 at the 2000 census...
. Service to and from
Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
was also provided via a connection with the
Southwest LimitedThe Southwest Limited was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad on an overnight schedule between Chicago, Illinois, and Kansas City, Missouri. The westbound train was Milwaukee Road train No. 25, and the eastbound train was train No. 26...
at
Savanna, IllinoisSavanna is a city in Carroll County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,062 at the 2010 census, down from 3,542 at the 2000 census. Savanna is located along the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Plum River. Going from north to south, the second automobile bridge between Iowa and...
.
The train was the overnight equivalent of the Milwaukee Road's daylight scheduled
Midwest HiawathaThe Midwest Hiawatha was passenger train service of the Milwaukee Road. The service was inaugurated on December 11, 1940 and operate between Chicago's Union Station and Omaha, Nebraska, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, through northern Illinois and Iowa and South Dakota...
. When the Milwaukee Road assumed operation of the Union Pacific's
Overland RouteThe Overland Route was a train route operated jointly by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad / Southern Pacific Railroad, between Council Bluffs, Iowa / Omaha, Nebraska, and San Francisco, California over the grade of the First Transcontinental Railroad which had been...
trains in 1955 the
Midwest Hiawatha was combined with the
Challenger, then eliminated. The
Arrow continued to operate as a separate train into the mid-1960s. The Milwaukee Road-Union Pacific "Cities" trains continued to operate over the same route until 1971.