| Page 32

To Seattle via the Canadian Rockies

Posted on August 25, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

I have this beautiful cover listed as a “missing menu” on my page of Canadian National menu series. Rather than a menu, however, today’s item is the itinerary of a 1949 trip of the American Association of Railroad Ticket Agents to their annual sales meeting in Seattle.

Click image to download an 3.3-MB PDF of this booklet.

The itinerary began in Chicago, from which the agents took the Chicago & North Western to Duluth. There they transferred to the Canadian National, which took them to Saskatoon, Jasper, and Vancouver. The trip included a day-long tour in Jasper and an overnight stay at the Jasper Park Lodge so that the agents could know what they were selling to their customers. There were also short sightseeing trips in Duluth, Saskatoon, and Vancouver. Continue reading →

Minaki Lodge 1949 Dinner Menu

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

This dinner menu has a different view of Minaki Lodge from yesterday’s lunch menu. The water in the background is supposed to be the Winnipeg River, but the river is really more of a series of lakes beginning with Lake of the Woods and continuing with Big Sand Lake at Minaki and ending at Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.

Click image to download a 876-KB PDF of this menu.

Although you can’t tell from the above image (as I size all images to be about the same), this menu is larger than the lunch menus shown over the past three days: about 7″x10″ rather than 6″x9″. Almost three years ago, I presented another dinner menu that, like today’s, was used for the American Association of Railroad Ticket Agents’ trip to Seattle. That menu featured Percé Rock near Gaspé. Continue reading →

Minaki Lodge 1949 Lunch Menu

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

Minaki Lodge was a misbegotten effort by CN predecessor Grand Trunk Pacific to build a resort in the middle of nowhere. Although Minaki is in Ontario, it is only 114 miles east of Winnipeg but 1,244 miles west of Toronto. Grand Trunk Pacific executives probably reasoned that a resort that was a day’s travel away from Canada’s main population centers would be more attractive to residents who didn’t have the time or money to travel all the way to the Canadian Rockies.

Click image to download a 1.6-MB PDF of this menu.

When Grand Trunk Pacific went bankrupt and was taken over by the government and made part of Canadian National, the new owner rebuilt the lodge, whereupon it immediately burned down. CN rebuilt it again, including a golf course that required 30 trainloads of soil to cover up the rocky outcroppings of the Canadian Shield. It apparently did well for a few years but CN sold it after WWII. It passed through several owners until 2003 when it again burned to the ground. It is an indication of the lodge’s lack of profitability that the owners had no insurance. Continue reading →

Fishing in Jasper 1949 Lunch Menu

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

This menu was used on the same trip of the American Association of Railroad Ticket Agents as yesterday’s. While the back of yesterday’s menu noted that hunting was illegal in Jasper Park, this one points out that fishing was “not only permitted but it is encouraged” partly by a government fish hatchery that stocked many of the park’s lakes.

Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu.

A close look at the cover photo indicates that the women in the canoe don’t appear to be fishing; they are merely paddling on Lac Beauvert. Fishing is mentioned only on the back of the menu. Continue reading →

Shooting in Jasper 1949 Lunch Menu

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

“Shooting” in this case means shooting photographs with a camera. The back cover of this menu explains that Jasper Park mountains, wildlife, rivers, and glaciers, such as the Angel Glacier on Mount Edith Cavell shown on the cover, are all worthy of photographs.

Click image to download a 1.1-MB PDF of this menu.

The front cover shot is perhaps unintentionally comical with the Scottish hat on the photographer contrasted with the Smokey Bear hat on the ranger. And what is in the ranger’s hand: a microphone? A musical instrument? Why are they both so contorted just to get a straight-up photograph of the glacier? Continue reading →

Jasper National Park Pictorial Map

Posted on August 20, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

This map presents Jasper National Park in heavy relief, or what the Great Northern called an “aeroplane view.” Frankly, all of the mountain peaks look alike, making the map hard to read.

Click image to download an 7.1-MB PDF of this brochure.

The front of the map (from which the above cover is excerpted) is printed in sepia tone, but less than half the panels have any printing on them. As I’ve suggested before, this represents a huge missed opportunity to advertise CN trains, hotels, and/or Jasper Park services. Continue reading →

Triangle Tour, Alaska & the Yukon Maps

Posted on August 19, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 16, 2023

This brochure unfolds to present not one but two very large maps. On one side is a relief map of southern British Columbia and Alberta showing the “Triangle Tour”: CN train from Jasper to Prince Rupert, CN steamship from Prince Rupert to Vancouver, and CN train from Vancouver back to Jasper. On the other side is a map of British Columbia and southeast Alaska showing some of the same routes but also the steamship route to Skagway and White Pass & Yukon Route to Dawson.

Click image to download an 10.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

These maps are from the David Rumsey collection; I brightened them up a bit and turned them into a single PDF. Rumsey says one map is 43cmx76cm (17″x30″) and the other is 42cmx75cm. Both can’t be true but I laid them out to be about 17″x30″. Continue reading →

Jasper Park Lodge in 1925

Posted on August 18, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 9, 2023

This booklet followed the same design as yesterday’s 1922 booklet: a front cover that covered only half of the width of the booklet and whose illustration wrapped around to a full-width back cover. Together, as shown in the image below, the covers form a beautiful picture of the lodge, the lake, the mountains, and recreational activities including golf, boating, horseback riding and motor touring. The lake is printed in a shiny silver ink or foil that unfortunately reproduces as gray in the scanned images.

Click image to download an 14.2-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet. Click here to download a full-sized PDF of the cover as shown above.

As I noted yesterday, a 1924 Jasper Park booklet also used this design. The interior pages of the 1922 booklet are printed only in black ink, while the 1924 booklet has green highlights and today’s has orange highlights. Other than the color of the highlights and a few photographs and some minor text changes, the 1924 and 1925 booklets are practically the same. Continue reading →

Jasper Park Lodge in 1922

Posted on August 17, 2023 by Train LoverAugust 3, 2023

This booklet is unusual in that the front cover is only half the width of the interior pages while the cover illustration wraps around to a full-width back cover. We’ve previously seen a 1924 Jasper Park booklet that was also designed this way. Starting in 1926, however, CN adopted a more sensible design in which a nicely illustrated front cover covers the entire booklet.

Click image to download an 11.3-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet. Click here to download a full-sized PDF of the cover as shown above.

Although separated by just two years, today’s booklet and the one from 1924 differ in many ways. Both cover similar topics, of course, but not necessarily in the same order and generally with different text. Both present similar photos in collages, but the 1922 booklet has five to seven photos per collage while the 1924 booklet has just four to five. Both have centerfold maps, but the 1922 booklet has a key showing the location of 74 different lakes, peaks, and other features in the park. Continue reading →

Western Pacific April 1955 Timetable

Posted on August 16, 2023 by Train LoverJuly 29, 2023

The map inside of this timetable folder has a thick red line showing the route of the California Zephyr from Oakland to Chicago. The same style of line shows Western Pacific branches to Bieber, Loyalton, Moy, and San Jose, California; Reno; and several small towns in Utah even though those branches did not have any passenger service. Plus the same red line is used to show the routes of the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads between Chicago and New York City.

Click image to download a 4.3-MB PDF of this timetable from the Ellery Goode collection.

The lines to New York City are shown because one sleeping car went through from Oakland to New York every day, alternating on the Central and Pennsy routes. The timetable doesn’t say so, but when on the PRR the car went on the General eastbound and on the slightly slower Pennsylvania Limited westbound. On the New York Central it went on the Commodore Vanderbilt in both directions. Continue reading →