California Zephyr passengers were greeted with this card on their tables when they sat down to eat in the dining car. Note that the printing uses green ink but they took the trouble to print one letter in red, giving the card a slightly more festive look. A third color, silver, embellishes the train, even the locomotives which were, in reality, orange.
Click image to download a 634-KB PDF of this card.
The locomotives would have been silver when the train was on the Burlington, but this image is based on a postcard showing the train on the Rio Grande Railroad in western Colorado. We’ve seen the postcard before but I’m repeating it below for comparison.
Click image to download a 340-KB PDF of this postcard.
The postcard photo was obviously taken in the summer but the artist has added snow to the Christmas card to make it appear to be winter. As if that’s not enough snow, the artist took the liberty of adding some snow-capped mountains behind the hills shown in the postcard. The ranch car, horseback riders, and telegraph poles are gone but the trees and ranch gate on the table card match the postcard, though the artist changed the aspens in the postcard to evergreens in the table card.