We’ve previously seen a 1949 UP calendar, but that copy was missing the page showing the December 1948 and 1949 full-year calendars. Also, when I wrote about that calendar, I was under the mistaken impression that UP changed the size of its calendars in 1949, issuing 10″x18″ calendars before then and increasing the size to 12-3/4″x22-3/4″ in 1949.

Click image to download an 12.8-MB PDF of this 16-page calendar.

In fact, as near as I can tell, UP calendars came in both sizes during much of the 1940s. My 1940 and 1941 calendars are the larger size, while 1942, 1943, and 1944 are the smaller size. This wasn’t just a wartime economy measure, as my 1948 calendar is also the smaller size and I have both sizes for at least one of the years between 1942 and 1947.

As it happens, the 1949 calendar I previously presented here is the larger size while today’s is the smaller size. Thus, not only does today’s calendar fill in the blanks of the missing pages, but it demonstrates that, for at least some of the 1940s, UP issued both sizes of calendars. As far as I can tell, calendars after 1950 all came in the larger size.

The photographs on the missing pages (one of which is shown above) are interesting, but they confirm what I wrote previously: neither were also used on a dining car menu. The only photograph on this calendar that was also used on a menu was of Mount Rainier, which appeared in August.

Union Pacific issued this style of calendars for 57 years, from 1940 through 1996. It operated passenger trains and used these calendars to advertise those trains for 31 of those years. During those 31 years, 458 unique photos and 28 paintings appeared on the calendars, of which 87 photos and 6 paintings also appeared on Union Pacific menus.