United We Stand

The United States had entered World War II by the time yesterday’s issue of West came out, but the editors of that issue didn’t know that when they were putting it together. They certainly knew by July, 1942, when this issue came out. The interior and back cover photos are all black-and-white and show Southern Pacific workers supporting war bonds and moving military freight across the country. This is the last issue I have and it may have been the last issue.

Click image to download a 6.2-MB PDF of this brochure.

I’ve seen, but do not have, the February, 1942 issue of West. The cover is the red-and-white stripes of a flag (with the West logo in blue) draped behind models of three SP locomotives: the Daylight, a cab-forward, and the E-2 City of San Francisco. (The locomotive on the above cover is a 4-8-2 Mountain type). The interior black-and-white photos show victory trains taking soldiers, tanks, and heavy artillery guns to war.


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