We’ve seen this photograph before on a 1941 menu in what I call the Bodoni series (with vertical lines framing the photo) as well as on this 1947 menu in what I call the Center Portrait series, which also had Bodoni type but no lines. Today’s menu is from 1949 and is in what I call the Upper Left Color series because most of the menus in the series have blue, yellow, green, magenta, or rose backgrounds. This one is distinguished by having a grey background.

Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu.

On most U.S. railroads, the distinctions between one menu series and another are quite obvious. But, as I noted on the Canadian Pacific menu series page, Canadian menu series seemed to evolve rather than leap from one series to another. Even within many of the series I have defined there are differences: for example, only a few of the Center Portrait series also use Bodoni type. In any case, this “Mounted” (the title of the text on the back) is clearly different enough from the other menus that used the same photo that I was glad to fill in this gap in my collection.

All the menus I’ve seen in the Upper Left Color series are from 1949 to 1951 and this is no exception, being dated January 1949. Nearly all the ones I have from 1949 also have the word “Menu” in Bodoni on the front, but the 1950 and 1951 menus instead have a short photo caption in smaller type.

This particular menu was used on the Dominion, Canadian Pacific’s premiere train in 1949. This particular menu offered fish dinners for $1.75 (about US$17 in today’s money) or dinners with one of four other entrées — beef ribs, chicken pie, omelet, or cold cuts — for $2.00 (US$19.50). The more expensive meals came with an appetizer (olives or celery) plus Canadian cheese with crackers after the dessert but otherwise the less expensive ones differed only by the entrée.