It’s 1955, and Canadian Pacific has replaced its heavyweight, steam-powered transcontinental passenger trains with the streamlined Canadian and Dominion led by the newest Diesel locomotives. Yet passengers on the Empress of France wouldn’t know it, being given this menu showing the steam-powered Mountaineer on the cover. The back cover proudly states that the train is air conditioned, which by 1955 was considered a given.
Click image to download a 914-KB PDF of this menu.
The back also says that the cover was “printed in England 1951,” so the Empress staff must have had some extra menu stock left over from four years before. Somehow I don’t think that Ian Warren, the railway’s passenger manager at the time, would have approved.
Nevertheless, the scene at what would later become known as Morant’s Curve is quite beautiful. According to page 176 of J.F. Garden’s book, Nicholas Morant’s Canadian Pacific, the black-and-white photo that is the basis for this colorized version is “the only steam photograph on file made by Morant at mileage 113.0.” The photo was taken in 1947; by 1951, when the cover was printed, it was already outdated as CP had replaced steam with Diesels on its premiere passenger trains.
This menu was used on the same voyage as yesterday’s and is dated August 15. Since yesterday’s covered were commonly found on dining car menus, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one was as well (but before 1955 and probably before 1951). However, I believe this is the first I have seen of it.