Portland-Seattle On-Board Stationery

In the streamlined era, the route between Portland and Seattle was served by three trains per day, one operated by Great Northern, one by Northern Pacific, and one by Union Pacific. To avoid duplication, the three railroads agreed to pool there efforts and split the proceeds evenly. Although timetables varied over the years, generally travelers had their choice of a morning train, a midday train, and an evening train.


Click image to download a 156-KB PDF of this letterhead.

Despite the pooling, the trains were far from equal. The Great Northern train was mainly coaches, while the NP train had a parlor car for first-class passengers, lounge car, and diner. The Union Pacific train was best of all, at least in the 1950s, when it carried the domes from the Train of Tomorrow. By the early 1960s, it only had the dome parlor car, but still had a diner. Lacking lounges or parlor cars, the GN train probably didn’t carry this on-board stationery, but the stationery nevertheless listed all three railroads equally.


Click image to download a 94-KB PDF of this envelope.


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