In 1950, Rio Grande changed from the glued-on photo menus such as the one presented yesterday to nearly full-page photos printed on both the fronts and backs of the menus. Today’s photo shows one of the Twin Lakes, which is also the name of a nearby community in Lake County. In 1951, when this menu was issued, passengers taking the Royal Gorge from Denver who wanted to visit Twin Lakes would probably get off at Malta, about 12 to 14 miles away (depending on which lake).
Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.
The back of the menu has a photo of a Diesel-powered, heavyweight Royal Gorge passing through its namesake gorge. In 1949, Rio Grande had added a vista dome to the otherwise heavyweight train, but didn’t bother to update the photo used to publicize the route.
The menu itself was used on a Prairie Farmers tour from Chicago to San Francisco and offered entrées of fish, chicken pot pie, omelette, or cold meats served with the usual side dishes. Desserts included strawberry shortcake, freshly baked pie, maple nut sundae, or vanilla ice cream and cake. Yum!