This menu is dated June, 1948, so it was used on the semi-streamlined North Coast Limited, though the menu makes no mention of streamlining or includes advertising of any kind. The back of the elegant orange folder is completely blank.
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Unlike the Great Northern, which inaugurated its streamlined Empire Builder with great fanfare on February 23, 1947, the Northern Pacific did not have an inaugural run for its streamlined North Coast Limited. Instead, it simply replaced heavyweight cars with streamlined cars as they arrived. First, it added streamlined coaches (and the coach-buffet car) at about the same time Diesels replaced steam in January, 1947. But streamlined dining and Pullman sleeping cars weren’t added until 1948. Tourist sleepers and sleeping cars destined to Yellowstone remained heavyweights for several more years, so even in June 1948 the railway couldn’t honestly call its premiere train a streamliner.
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All of the cars in this this postcard appear to be streamlined. In fact, the baggage cars would have been heavyweights at the time this card was issued, as would some of the sleepers which are out of the picture.
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I’ve dated this postcard 1948 because it is clearly a companion to the previous one and NP didn’t really use the word “streamlined” until 1948. But General Motors delivered both locomotive 6000, shown in this card, and 6500, shown in the North Coast Limited card, to the NP in January, 1947, so it is possible the card or cards came out in 1947.