The purpose of this booklet isn’t entirely clear. The main cover shown below (which, this being the Rock Island, is the back cover) is boring and uninformative. The front cover is the painting of Carriso Gorge by W.H. Bull, which I have noted before is unrealistically colored and doesn’t say anything about why the booklet was issued.

Click image to download a 14.9-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet.

The inside front cover announces the “new, modern-in-every-respect Golden State Limited,” which offered a ladies’ lounge, maid and manicure service, and shower bath, services previously found only on the Santa Fe de Luxe. Although the booklet has a printer date of 11-24, this train didn’t enter service until December 28, 1924. The booklet also mentions the Californian “from Kansas City” to Los Angeles, the Memphis-Californian, plus an new but unnamed “fast train from Chicago and Kansas City” to California. As we will find out tomorrow, that train would initially be called the Golden State Express.

The rest of the booklet, however, forgets about these new trains as it is focused exclusively on California. The emphasis is on resorts, hotels, and sports such as golf, polo, and sailing, subjects not really hinted at by the booklet’s covers.

Every right-hand page has a little slogan such as “Golden State Route — Only 2027 miles, 65-3/4 hours — St. Louis — San Diego” or “Golden State Limited — Only through Sleeper Chicago-Santa Barbara.” Almost half the slogans recite the miles and hours between Chicago, Twin Cities, Kansas City, or St. Louis and Los Angeles or San Diego, but the numbers probably didn’t mean much to people who didn’t have the timetables of competitors memorized.

So this is mostly a booklet about California contained in an advertisement for Rock Island trains. That’s true of a lot of other railroad booklets, but most are more up-front about it.