H. Armstrong Roberts (1883-1947) was an American photographer who started Retrofile, one of the first stock photo companies. Today, his photos are owned by Getty Images. Roberts apparently spent a few days at Lake O’Hara and Getty has posted several of his photos of the Canadian Pacific bungalow camp there. I didn’t find this one in the Getty system but (although the menu doesn’t say so) it is also Lake O’Hara.
Click image to download a 1.4-MB PDF of this menu.
This is a breakfast menu for an unspecified train. A printer code says “13-14 M.J. 16 – 34.” This menu is probably from the early 1930s, so 34 may indicate the year. I don’t have a 1934 CP timetable, but a 1943 timetable indicates that trains 13 and 14 were the Canadian Pacific numbers for the Soo-Dominion, so it is possible this was used on that train. The 13 & 14 numbers were only used between the U.S.-Canadian and Moose Jaw, in which case “M.J.” may stand for “Moose Jaw.”
The Dominion left Vancouver as train number 4, and arrived in Moose Jaw 36 hours later. After being divided into the Canadian and American sections, train 14 left Moose Jaw at 8:20 am and arrived at the U.S. border at 1:30 pm. From there it was the Soo Line’s train number 4 to St. Paul with continuation to Chicago over the C&NW. Train 13 in the other direction went between the border and Moose Jaw in the afternoon, so if this interpretation is correct this breakfast menu was really only used on train 14.
In 1943, there were two other trains 13 & 14 in the Canadian Pacific timetable. One was a train from Halifax to Boston, listed as 59-13 in one direction and 14-4 in the other. The 59 and 4 were Canadian Pacific trains between Halifax and McAdam, New Brunswick, so 13 & 14 must have been a train from there to Boston on the Maine Central and Boston & Maine railroads. There are also trains 13 & 14 listed as pool trains in Montreal-Toronto service, so they were probably Canadian National numbers. That leaves the Soo-Dominion as the only true Canadian Pacific 13 & 14 — at least in 1943. Of course, it is also possible that 13-14 in the printer code doesn’t refer to train numbers at all.
Trains 13 and 14 were indeed the “Soo-Dominion” for many years, running between the Twin Cities and Moose Jaw; moreover, summer trains ran through from Chicago or St Paul to Vancouver and return as the “Mountaineer” (or under other names), on and off from 1911 to 1960.
Starting in 1911, train 13 was the “St Paul-Seattle Express.” and train 14 the “Seattle-St Paul Express.” They ran between St Paul and Vancouver, with through cars to Seattle via the Northern Pacific connection at Sumas, east of Vancouver. These trains ran year-round for a few years, until the Seattle through service ended.
By 1915, trains 13/14 were called the Soo Express in the summer, and ran through to Vancouver (without a Seattle connection). In 1916, it was renamed the Soo-Pacific Express.
In 1932, the summer version of trains 13/14 was relaunched as the Mountaineer, running through from/to Chicago. (The Soo-Pacific Express came back as trains 5 and 6 in 1928, and for 3 summers, there were 2 through trains each day from the US Midwest to Vancouver.)
The summer service to Vancouver still ran in 1930, but ended by circa 1931. Trains 13/14 continued to run year-round as the Soo-Dominion, however, as you’ve noted; connecting St Paul to trains 3 & 4 at Moose Jaw.
The Mountaineer ran again from 1936 to 1941, didn’t run from 1942 to 1946, then ran again from 1947. It was cut back from Chicago to St Paul in 1950, and went through various reductions in service in 1959-60.
Throughout all this time, the Soo-Dominion was the winter version of the train; but at the end of the summer of 1960, the Soo-Dominion ceased to exist. Through service was provided instead by the Winnipeger from St Paul to Winnipeg and thence via the Dominion. It was branded as the “Soo Dominion” in the October 1960 timetable, but it was just a Winnipeger-Dominion combined service.
All of the above information comes from timetables from the UBC Library’s Chung Collection, and Timetable World (timetableworld.com).
Correction: in the 4th paragraph, I wrote:
“In 1932, the summer version of trains 13/14 was relaunched as the Mountaineer, running through from/to Chicago.”
But actually, it should read:
“In *1923*, the summer version of trains 13/14 was relaunched as the Mountaineer, running through from/to Chicago.”