Rocky replaced Old Bill in 1936, so all of these blotters from the Dale Hastin collection are from that year or later. The first two are simple, with the only difference between them being the color. Unusually for blotters, the same color of paper is used through the entire thickness of the blotter, instead of different colors in different layers as on many blotters.
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The message, “Fast, Convenient, Save, Economical,” is, by coincidence, echoed by my own theory of transportation investments: such investments pay off only if they meet the SECS test with SECS referring to Speed, Economy, Convenience, and Safety. In other words, new transportation systems are a waste of money if they don’t improve most if not all of these factors.
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Here we have a more modern-looking blotter which is dated 1940. By coincidence, when the Great Northern had a contest ten years later to name the streamlined train that would replace the Oriental Limited, the winning entry was the Evergreen. Of course, the train was actually named the Western Star.
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All of the streamliners named on the blotter below were put into service in 1950 or 1951, so the blotter probably dates from 1951 or shortly thereafter.
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Although the Western Star was inaugurated in 1951, I don’t think the Great Northern began the “Two Great Trains” theme until a couple of years after that.
Click image to download a 287-KB PDF of this blotter.