In 1910, The Great Northern offered in-car phone service which must have been seen as being just absolutely high-tech and luxurious. Because these were the days before radio-telephones, this service required a hook-up at a station stop.
I imagine it was a great marketing gimmick, but not very practical. Can't you see the stand-offs between a conductor and a long-winded user.
Looking at a timetable from that era, it would seem that the only en-route station stops that could accommodate this service - because the dwell time was at least 15 minutes - would have been at St. Paul MN, Grand Forks ND and Havre MT. Besides having to connect the phone line to the car, this was back in the days when calls required operator assistance, several decades before direct distance dialing was implemented. It doesn't seem as though there would be much time available for a long-winded conversation. More like 'we'll be arriving tomorrow on the Oriental, have the chauffeur meet us at the station'.
