The West Coast has a “wonderful climate” and “gorgeous scenery.” But this 1934 booklet exaggerates more than a little when it says that people in Seattle “pick roses, play golf the year round.” That might be a little more accurate if applied to Pasadena.

Click image to download a 10.4-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

After spending 12 pages promoting the West Coast, the booklet says (in the different type sizes), “Having decided to go West, the next question is How?” The answer, in three more type sizes, is “We recommend ‘the Empire Builder.'” Did we think they would recommend something else? Eight pages of the booklet promote the train, with plenty of interior photos to satisfy railfans.

The inside back cover claims that train travel is less expensive “actually cheaper than highway travel.” Great Northern, it notes, pioneered coach travel at 2 cents a mile, making it even more affordable.

The problem the railroads faced, however, is that trains, like all commercial forms of travel, pretty much had to charge people the average cost of travel. In contrast, once someone owned an automobile, they only had to pay the marginal cost for any additional travel. Even if trains were less expensive than the average cost of driving, but they were still more expensive than the marginal cost, which means the railroads lost customers as soon as they purchased their first automobiles.

One other point to note is that 1934, when this booklet was issued, was the interim period when Great Northern had air conditioned its dining and observation cars, but not yet its coaches and sleepers. The entire train would not be air conditioned until 1937.