The Union Pacific competed with the Santa Fe between Chicago and Los Angeles and with the Northern Pacific between Chicago and Portland, so when those two railroads added domes to their streamliners, the UP reluctantly followed. Domes were expensive–the UP … Continue reading
Naturally, the Northern Pacific featured dome cars and other improvements in its advertising for the North Coast Limited. I don’t know where the following ad came from, but it was put together well before the domes arrived and obviously is … Continue reading
In an effort to compete with the California Zephyr and City of San Francisco, in July, 1954, the Santa Fe inaugurated its San Francisco Chief. In addition to coaches, sleepers, and a diner, each of the six trains included a … Continue reading
The Southern Pacific claimed that most dome cars were too tall to fit through its tunnels. So it designed and built its own dome cars out of older cars it had on hand. Its first car was built from a … Continue reading
In addition to ads featuring the interior of the train, the Santa Fe ran a long series of brown- or turquoise-colored ads featuring Southwest Indian art. One reason may have been that two-color printing cost less than four-colors, but another … Continue reading
The Santa Fe ran two distinctly different series of ads for the Super Chief and its other trains. One series featured four-color illustrations of scenes on board the train–mostly of some part of the Pleasure Dome. The other series, which … Continue reading
Santa Fe publicity promoted the Turquoise Room as “the only private dining room on rails.” After 1954, when Union Pacific included a private dining room in the dome-diners of the City of Los Angeles and City of Portland, this changed … Continue reading
In addition to the General Motors ad that appeared in the July, 1949 issue of National Geographic, several other companies placed CZ-related ads in Nat Geo or other magazines. One of them, naturally, was the Budd Company, which built the … Continue reading
Four different Western Pacific story-board ads–ads made up of several black-and-white photos illustrating features of the train–were featured in 1956 issues of National Geographic. Two more story-board ads signed by all three railroads appeared in the February 1964 and February … Continue reading
I count nine different photo ads–ads dominated by one large photo, usually with one smaller photo–in various issues of National Geographic. The first two were placed by Western Pacific, and the remainder by all three railroads. Click any image for … Continue reading
