“All American” meant taking the Northern Pacific or another U.S. railroad to Seattle and then taking an Alaska Steamship Company ship rather than a Canadian Pacific or Canadian National ship to Alaska. This brochure is mostly about Alaska but at least a quarter of it is about the Northern Pacific and its trains. This booklet is courtesy of NPRHA — Lorenz Schrenk collection.

Click image to download a 2.2-MB PDF of this brochure.

We’ve seen brochures similar to this one for 1936 and 1938, but they are marked for the Great Northern Railway. Clearly, the Alaska Steamship Company was happy to co-brand its publicity with any railroad reaching Seattle.

Great Northern clearly dated its versions of these brochures, but Northern Pacific did not. However, this brochure gives a clue when it states that “North Coast Limited observation-club and dining cars are air conditioned.” Based on 1933, 1934, and 1935 timetables in the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association collection, 1934 was the only year in which NP advertised that only the observation and dining cars were air conditioned. In 1935 and later, the entire train was air conditioned. Thus, this brochure dates to 1934.