This is one of at least five Union Pacific color-photo menu covers featuring a photo of Mt. Hood. Indeed, it is possible that no other geographic feature appeared on so many UP color-photo menus.
Click image to download a 1.9-MB PDF of this menu.
Unlike many of the UP color-photo menus in my collection, this one doesn’t have the name of the train it served. The lower-left corner of the interior says “11&12 1E-W 7-29-54.” Trains 11 & 12 were the Idahoan, but that train was dropped from the timetable in January, 1954. Later timetables list trains 11 & 12 as “mail and express” trains that ran “between Pocatello and Portland” with “only a rider coach for passengers; no sleeping car; no dining car.” If this menu is from July, 1954, it may have been for the Portland Rose (trains 17 & 18) or possibly the Challenger (though the Challenger menus often if not always had the name of the train on them).
The table d’hôte side has salmon, pot roast, omelet, and ham. While salmon is considered a somewhat rare treat today, in the 1950s it was quite common. At $2.45 (about $18 today), ham was the most expensive meal. Entrées on the a la carte side were limited to fish, lamb chops, roast beef hash, and a variety of egg dishes. The charcoal broiled sirloin steak featured on most UP streamliner menus is not available on whatever train used this menu.