The history page in this edition is about the Alamo, which of course has absolutely nothing to do with railroads except it was/is in a future city that would be served by Missouri Pacific. The artwork is signed “Keil.”
Click image to download a 25.7-MB PDF of this 48-page timetable.
The inside front cover advertises the Eagles for vacations featuring golf, fishing, or horseback riding. The other full-color ads are more oriented to freight than to passengers. For example, the page after the centerfold map focuses on Kansas as a possible site for new industry.
The unsigned artwork on the back cover features a bloodhound, which makes me wonder if Keil had anything to do with it as he later became famous for a cartoon bloodhound-looking dog called McGruff the anti-crime dog. A similar ad in yesterday’s timetable featured a kangaroo.
One other thing to note about this timetable is the stripe on the bottom of the front cover has changed from yellow on black to yellow on red. The two combinations are about equally readable but yellow on red is aesthetically more pleasing, especially as the MP logo is red.
I think the rationale for the freight advertising was that executives for companies who were potential shippers were riding the trains for business, or at the very least on family vacations. As business travelers began abandoning the rails for the skies, this sort of advertising began to go away. Am pretty sure most of the western roads used this sort of advertising.