Both the Southern Pacific and the Rock Island jumped the gun in advertising the 39-3/4-hour Golden Rocket before SP cancelled the train in 1947. I’ve already shown the Southern Pacific’s ad; here is the Rock Island ad from 1946.
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When the 45-hour Golden State began service in 1948, the Southern Pacific placed color ads in many magazines. I’ve already shown one of them; here is a slightly different one that faced the inside front cover of the May, 1951, National Geographic.
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Apparently, the Southern Pacific believed that a major market for the Golden State train was people going to dude ranches and resorts in southern California, Arizona and New Mexico. This mailer to travel agents emphasizes that the Golden State “follows the low-altitude route between Chicago and Los Angeles.” The highest elevation on the SP-RI route was only 4,584 feet, compared with 7,107 on the Union Pacific and 7,244 on the Santa Fe.
Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this mailer promoting the Golden State to travel agents.
The mailer also mentions a through Pullman from St. Louis and a through Pullman and Coach from Minneapolis. The cars from Minneapolis would join the Golden State at Kansas City on the Kansas City Rocket. The cars from St. Louis would connect with the Golden State via the Missouri Pacific. The Golden State also had a sleeping car from New York City that connected at Chicago–with a long layover–via-, on alternate days, the New York Central and Pennsylvania.
As the years went by, advertising became less fancy. In 1953, the Southern Pacific placed black-and-white ads in National Geographic that followed the same theme of the previous color ads, which was, “Ride this train to see pretty girls.” Here is an ad from the April issue showing a pretty girl from California.
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This ad from the November issue shows a pretty girl who is supposedly in Arizona.
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In October 1954, the Southern Pacific had seemingly given up on the pretty-girl theme and just urged people to “try SP’s California streamliner.”
Click image to download a larger version. Click here to download a 6.1-MB uncompressed JPG of the ad.
In 1955, the Rock Island had a half-page ad in the December National Geographic emphasizing that California would provide a “bit of summer.”
Click image to download a larger version. Click here to download a 2.8-MB uncompressed JPG of the ad.
