California and the Pacific Coast

One more Milwaukee Road booklet from the Spokane Public Library’s Northwest Collection shows scenes in California, Nevada, and Oregon, three states not actually served by the Milwaukee. The 32-page booklet was published in 1960, just a year before the Milwaukee ended passenger service to the Pacific Northwest. After that, its only connection to California was via the Union Pacific City trains.

Click image to download a 27.1-MB PDF of this booklet.

Perhaps in reflection of the Milwaukee’s poverty, all of the photos in the booklet are black-and-white in an era when the Great Northern, Union Pacific, and other competitors lavished their promotional booklets with color photos. Among the major western roads, only the Northern Pacific was as stingy with color as the Milwaukee.


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