| Page 34

Great Northern October 1949 Timetable

Posted on December 28, 2023 by Train LoverDecember 24, 2023

This timetable was published nine months after the January timetable shown here three months ago and has the same front cover. When writing the today’s post, I was embarrassed to discover that the cover of the PDF for that one was misaligned; I’ve fixed it.

Click image to download a 28.3-MB PDF of this 44-page timetable.

While the back cover of the January timetable advertised Glacier National Park, this edition offers the slogan, “East or West, Great Northern’s Best.” This could mean either that GN’s east- and westbound trains were the best it had to offer or that GN was the best way to go east or west. Of course, the second meaning was the one the marketing department had in mind but I’m sure they didn’t mind that there was a double meaning.

Montana Mountain Resorts

Posted on December 27, 2023 by Train LoverOctober 27, 2023

We’ve previously seen Great Northern booklets advertising dude ranches from 1939, 1940, 1949, and 1950. This one appears to be from 1927 and is the nicest of the lot.

Click image to download a 13.1-MB PDF of this 44-page booklet.

The cover art is signed Cameron Booth (1892-1980), who later became known as the Dean of Montana painters. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Booth’s family moved to Minnesota in time for him to go to high school in Moorhead, across the river from Fargo. Upon graduation, he went to the Art Institute of Chicago, where his artistic skills were recognized by the award of a “traveling fellowship,” $425 (more than $10,000 in today’s money) to study art in Europe. Continue reading →

Iceberg Lake Lunch Menu

Posted on December 26, 2023 by Train LoverOctober 27, 2023

Here’s a menu that was used in the Glacier Park Hotel on Tuesday, August 3. The menu doesn’t state what year it was used, but August 3 fell on a Tuesday in 1915, 1920, 1926, 1932, and 1937. The Glacier Park Hotel didn’t exist before 1910 and I doubt the menu is from the post-war era, so it must be from one of those years.

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

The photograph of Iceberg Lake says “Photo by Hileman.” That would be Tomar Jacob Hileman (1882-1945), who was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Kalispell, Montana in 1911. He clearly loved Glacier Park as he and Alice Georgeson were the first couple to marry in the park. Continue reading →

Season’s Greetings Blotter

Posted on December 25, 2023 by Train LoverOctober 15, 2023

A century ago today, Great Northern wished its customers “a joyous Christmas and a happy and successful New Year” with this blotter. After a minor post-war recession, the United States had enjoyed rapid economic growth in 1923, and that growth would continue, of course, until 1930.

Click image to download a 789-KB PDF of this blotter from the Minnesota History Center.

That prosperity was not shared by America’s passenger railroads. Passenger-miles had grown in 1923, but declined in every year after that until 1934. Most of this decline was due to automobiles replacing trains for short trips. Long-distance passenger trains such as the Oriental Limited didn’t suffer as much, which probably made Great Northern’s investment in new equipment in 1924 worthwhile. Continue reading →

Adventure Journey on the Railbelt

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Train LoverNovember 14, 2023

In 1956, the Alaska Railroad still had trains called the Aurora (now spelled AuRoRa to emphasize the railroad’s initials) and Midnight Sun, but they operated on very different schedules than in 1931. In the earlier year, both trains went from Seward to Fairbanks on the same schedules but different days of the week and seasons of the year. In 1956, the trains went from Anchorage to Fairbanks with the Midnight Special, appropriately enough, going overnight while the AuRoRa was the day train. Mixed trains to Seward were nameless, suggesting most tourists were arriving by air rather than steamship.

Click image to download a 2.2-MB PDF of this brochure.

Trains no longer spent the night in Curry, but this brochure still promoted the Curry Hotel as being in “one of the most scenic spots on the Alaska Railroad.” In fact, while it was less expensive than the McKinley Hotel, it was nowhere near as scenic and anyone who stopped was probably disappointed that they didn’t instead spend another day in the park. The hotel burned to the ground in 1957 and was not rebuilt. Continue reading →

The Land of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Train LoverNovember 14, 2023

The rock cut sheltering part of the train shown on the (back) cover of this booklet is obviously not the same as the rock cut on yesterday’s booklet, but where might it be? The illustration appears to portray the train route into a town located on the west side of a large river with McKinley or some other large mountain in the background.

Click image to download an 24.4-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

The Alaska Railroad follows the Susitna River between Anchorage and McKinley Park but the tracks and towns are on the east side. Further north, the town of McKinley Park is not on a river, and while Nenana and Fairbanks both are, the tracks are not located in such a way that a portrait such as this one would be possible. I also don’t see any places south of Anchorage that look like this painting. Illustrators often exaggerated distances or proximities, but this image seems purely imaginary. Continue reading →

Big Game Hunting in Alaska

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Train LoverNovember 14, 2023

The train on the front cover of this 1932 booklet appears to be going through the same rock cut as on yesterday’s 1931 booklet — except that the tracks appear to be curving to the right today while they went to the left yesterday. Also, the train cars on today’s cover don’t magically bend to follow the curve.

Click image to download an 9.4-MB PDF of this 12-page booklet.

On today’s cover, the train is joined by images of a mountain goat, big horned sheep, black bear, moose, and elk. The black bear in particular looks as friendly as a large dog, but what we are supposed to see is not cute or friendly animals but living targets we can shoot. Continue reading →

See Alaska in 1931

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Train LoverNovember 14, 2023

This is the 1931 edition of yesterday’s booklet, which was from 1927. One major change is that, instead of having a centerfold map of Alaska, this one has photos on the center pages and a much larger map that unfolds from the inside back cover. This map is glued into an otherwise blank page; since I was unable to scan all of the back of the map without detaching it, my scan includes part of the back cover (which is the cover shown below).

Click image to download an 20.2-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet plus map.

That cover shows an intensely colored painting of a train passing Mount McKinley. The train must be headed south because the mountain is on the right. Like a Bern Hill painting, the passenger cars are subtly and impossibly bent to match the curve of the tracks. Unfortunately, the painting is unsigned. Continue reading →

Alaska–The Great Country in 1927

Posted on December 20, 2023 by Train LoverNovember 14, 2023

We’ve previously seen booklets promoting the Alaska Railroad from 1934 and 1939. This one is from 1927, which was just four years after the line between Anchorage and Fairbanks was completed in 1923.

Click image to download an 17.5-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

In addition to promoting the Anchorage-Fairbanks route (and Mount McKinley, which is on the way) and the Seward-Anchorage route, this booklet describes a Yukon River cruise and the “Golden Belt” tour via Alaska Railroad to Fairbanks, an auto tour south to Kennecott, and the Copper River & Northwestern Railway to Cordova. The latter railroad had been built by the same engineer, Michael Heney, who had previously built the White Pass & Yukon Route. Continue reading →

The Willamette Valley Express

Posted on December 19, 2023 by Train LoverNovember 14, 2023

In 1980, Amtrak persuaded the state of Oregon to subsidize two trains a day between Eugene and Portland. Known as the Willamette Valley Express, the train lasted 17 months before the state, hard pressed by a major recession, stopped funding it. Amtrak later convinced the state to renew its subsidies and today the trains operate under the name of Cascades.

Click image to download an 2.0-MB PDF of this brochure.

I was on the very first run of the Willamette Valley and wrote an article about it for Passenger Train Journal. Southern Pacific president Ben Biaginni, who wasn’t a big fan of Amtrak, gave a speech at the dedication and concluded, “Now, let’s get this train moving so we can get it out of the way of our freight trains.” The audience half-heartedly laughed, not sure whether he was serious or trying to be funny. Continue reading →