A few days ago, I noted that the Burlington had eliminated all of its large ads from its timetable in 1944, possibly due to wartime paper shortages. Yet here is a B&O timetable issued in the midst of the war that contains a total of seven full-page ads.

Click image to download a 31.2-MB PDF of this 52-page timetable.

Most of the ads have wartime significance. Unlike the Burlington, which sensibly put its main cover on the front, B&O put its main cover on the back while the front cover was used to encourage people to be patient and courteous while enduring the stresses of wartime travel. Similarly, the ad on the inside front cover reminds people that B&O freight trains are, among other things, shipping food to America’s fighting men, and “food for fighters comes first” before passenger trains.

In a similar vein, an ad on numbered pages 79 and 80 laments that B&O diners weren’t able to serve as much variety during the war as before it due to food rationing. Yet, the ad promises, “the quality you expect of B&O food will remain, within wartime limitations, at its usual high standard.”

A couple of other ads have wartime themes, including one placed by the Association of American Railroads noting that railroads deliver enough freight cars to military destinations every day “to make a train 150 miles long.” But one ad is for the West Virginia Transportation Company, a B&O subsidiary that provided bus service in its namesake state. A smaller ad points out to people living in Northwest Washington the convenience of using the B&O’s Silver Spring station when traveling north or west on the railroad.

In short, it doesn’t seem that wartime paper shortages prevented the B&O from fluffing up its timetable with large ads. This makes me suspect that there was some other reason why the Burlington stopped putting large ads in its timetables after 1940.