Northern Pacific’s last calendar before the BN merger featured a painting of General Electric U33C locomotives, a more advanced and higher-powered version of the U25C shown on the 1967 calendar. This is one of the big (26″x42″) calendars, so it … Continue reading
I have both the 20″x26″ and 26″x42″ versions of the 1968 calendar and they have the same differences from one another as the 1966 calendars: the photos are cropped differently and the typefaces used on the smaller calendar are wider … Continue reading
For 1967, Northern Pacific’s calendar featured a painting commissioned by General Electric showing off its U25C locomotive, a six-axle version of the 2500-horsepower U25B. As an advertisement for the locomotive, it was rather late, as the lead locomotive shown in … Continue reading
The ratio of 42 inches to 26 inches is much bigger than the ratio of 26 inches to 20 inches. In today’s digital world, NP’s (and GN’s) smaller calendars would be exact duplicates in miniature of the big calendars, which … Continue reading
Having featured the Seattle World’s Fair on its 1962 calendar, the company’s sort-of centennial on its 1963 calendar, and the North Coast Limited in 1964, NP no doubt felt it was time to get back to the railway’s bread and … Continue reading
Starting some time in the 1930s, Northern Pacific produced an annual calendar that displayed the entire year on one page. In the early years, the tops of the calendars simply had a Northern Pacific logo, but starting in 1955 other … Continue reading
Burlington’s 1965 calendar attempts to show the history of transportation in the American West in one picture. At the top is a stagecoach, pony express rider, and covered wagons on their way to Oregon. Below are five Burlington locomotives ranging … Continue reading
In 1962, Burlington still favored passenger trains enough to put the Twin Cities Zephyr on its calendar. But it realized that freight was important enough to put a freight train there as well. Click image to download a 1.2-MB PDF … Continue reading
Burlington introduced the vista-dome Denver Zephyr in late October, 1956, so it was an obvious candidate for a photo on the 1957 calendar. The most frequently used publicity photo of the train showed the rear end — the better to … Continue reading
Perhaps trying to avoid the debacle of the 1968 calendar, Great Northern put a painting on its 1969 edition. For 1970, it went back to a photograph, but company executives admonished the local official who arranged the photo shoot, Tom … Continue reading
