Here are some pretty envelopes that I photographed at the Minnesota History Center. The first one features an illustration of a North Coast Limited vista-dome that we have previously seen on 1960-1963 timetables and a 1969 booklet. The envelope was printed in March 1958.

Click image to download a 297-KB PDF of this brochure.

The second one shows North Coast Limited observation car #390 with a vista-dome in the background. As I’ve noted before, only one North Coast Limited observation car was painted with the broad stripe shown in the illustration; all of the rest just had a pin stripe around the tail of the train. Apparently, NP officials took one look at the broad stripe and decided against painting any other cars that way.

Click image to download a 268-KB PDF of this brochure.

This ticket envelope is undated, but it is probably older than the previous one. When NP put an illustration of an observation car on its 1957-1960 timetables, it used the pinstripe paint scheme. I’ve conservatively dated it 1958 anyway, but it is more likely 1955 or 1956.