Great Northern January 1965 Timetable

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

We’ve previously seen eight different timetables with this cover, including May 1964 and May 1965. Somehow I overlooked this January 1965 edition.

Click image to download a 16.7-MB PDF of this 28-page.

In the mid-1960s, Great Northern published three timetables a year: January, May, and October. There weren’t a lot of differences between them. The May timetables note that a passenger services representative rode the Western Star and Empire Builder in the summer months to help passengers obtain the best experiences on board the trains. The Empire Builder‘s 60-seat coach for short-distance passengers didn’t require reservations in the winter but did in the summer. Continue reading →

Glacier National Park in 1948

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

This brochure offers one-day, two-day, and three-day tours of Glacier National Park. The one-day tours cost $23.76 ($280 in today’s money) including bus transport in the park, boat fare on Two Medicine Lake, four meals, and one night’s lodging. Starting at the Glacier Park Hotel, the tour went to Two Medicine Lake, then over the Going-to-the-Sun Road to Lake McDonald.

Click image to download a 3.7-MB PDF of this brochure.

Two-day tours cost $36.72 (about $435 today), including bus and boat fare, seven meals, and two nights’ lodging. This covered the same route as the two-day tour but with a side trip to Many Glacier. The three-day tours were $54.56 ($650 today) including bus fare, ten meals, and three nights’ lodging and included side trips to both Many Glacier and Prince of Wales hotels. Continue reading →

Ralph Budd on Airline Service

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

About a year ago, I posted a 1928 Great Northern Railway brochure advertising air service between Minneapolis and Chicago. This potentially saved passengers aboard the eastbound Oriental Limited several hours of their journey. Since the Pennsylvania Railroad didn’t start joint air/rail service until 1929, I suggested that Great Northern was the true pioneer in such service.

Click image to download a 228-KB PDF of this letter.

This brochure, which I found at the Minnesota History Center, sounded to me like something that would come from the mind of Ralph Budd, the railway’s innovative president who effectively co-founded both Greyhound and Trailways lines. He seemed to be less worried about competition than about how the railroads could adapt new technologies that would save money and improve service for their customers. In that post, however, I noted that I didn’t find any files at the history center suggesting what Budd thought of this program. Continue reading →

Same Front, Different Backs

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

These two pairs of See America First postcards have the same photos on the front but different rhymes on the back. The first pair shows Going to the Sun Camp. This opened as a dining hall and cabins for 38 guests in 1912, then expanded into a full chalet with room for 200 guests in 1915, suggesting that the cards were issued in 1913 or 1914.

Click image to download a 215-KB PDF of this postcard.

The back of the first card reads, “The grandeur of the scenes seen there/You’ll carry with you–everywhere.”The back of the second card reads, “Grandeur dwells on every side/See it on a horseback ride.” At least both mention grandeur. Though the photo was probably taken by Fred Kiser, there is no copyright notice. Continue reading →

Even More “See America First” Postcards

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

These cards are distinguished from yesterday’s solely by the fact that they are printed portrait style (taller than wide) rather than landscape style (wider than tall). The backs, of course, are still printed landscape style.

Click image to download a 214-KB PDF of this postcard.

Like most of yesterday’s cards, the front of this card says the photo was copyrighted in 1909 by Fred Kiser. The back reads, “Grandeur dwells on every side/See it on a horseback ride.” Continue reading →

More “See America First” Postcards

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

We’ve previously seen some of Great Northern’s series of See America First postcards. In addition to having GN’s See America First logo on the back, many also had a little rhyme about Glacier Park, such as “Where Nature speaks from snow-covered peaks.”

Click image to download a 200-KB PDF of this postcard.

When I posted those cards, I noted to myself that the rhymes on the back didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the images on the front. Now I have several more cards and learned that, for any given image, more than one rhyme might be used, almost as if the fronts and backs were printed separately and at random. This was possible because the image descriptions were on the fronts, not the backs, of the cards. The back of this card above says, “The grandeur of the scenes seen there/You’ll carry with you–everywhere.” Continue reading →

Looking at Scotland

Posted on by May 24, 2022
Reply

I acquired this booklet when I was thinking about Vilma and Helen Hruska’s voyage from Canada to Greenock, Scotland. After arriving in Greenock, they must have taken a train to London via Glasgow, possibly on the London & North Eastern route. However, there were two main routes between Glasgow and London, and it is more likely that they took the other route over the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway. By 1953, when the sisters were traveling, the government had nationalized all of the main railroads anyway.

Click image to download a 8.2-MB PDF of this 38-page booklet.

This booklet is undated. One clue regarding the date is a New York City telephone number for an agent of the London & North Eastern Railway: Caledonia 3234. New York City adopted seven-digit phone numbers in 1930, so the booklet must be from the 1920s. Continue reading →

The Incomparable Northland

Posted on by May 31, 2022
Reply

We’ve seen several White Pass & Yukon booklets about Alaska and the Yukon from the 1930s and 1940s. This one is from 1923. I found it on archive.org, but I didn’t like the way they cut the color illustration on the cover in half, so I relaid it out.

Click image to download an 11.6-MB PDF of this 16-page booklet.

I learned a few things I didn’t know before. I knew that, on their way from Skagway to Whitehorse, the White Pass trains stopped in Carcross, where they met a lake steamer called the Tutshi, which took passengers down Lake Tagish. What I didn’t know is that the boat eventually got to a place called Taku Landing where it met a 2-1/2-mile portage railroad originally known as the Atlin Short Line, but colloquially called the Taku Tram. Passengers crossed a narrow neck of land on the portage railroad to Lake Atlin, where they boarded another lake steamer called the Tarahne, which took them to the town of Atlin. Continue reading →

Dinette Menu

Posted on by May 19, 2022
Reply

We’ve seen this menu before with a red background and blue and white illustrations of dinnerware. CN also had one with a black background and red and white illustrations. Today’s menu is undated, but I estimate these menus were issued in around 1970.

Click image to download a 666-KB PDF of this menu.

The red menu was used on a full diner, but this one says it was used on a dinette. Both had entrées that could be purchased either a la carte or table d’hôte (meaning it included an appetizer, dessert, and beverage). The dining car menu had five entrées while the dinette has only four. Upgrading from a la carte to table d’hôte Today’s menu cost $1.10 on the dinette menu but $1.45 on the dining car menu. Entrée prices in the dining car were higher too: halibut steak with potatoes and peas was $3.65 while filet of sole with potatoes and carrots on the dinette menu was $3.00. Multiply prices by 6 to get today’s U.S. dollars. Continue reading →

The Wealth of Ontario

Posted on by May 18, 2022
Reply

This 1949 lunch menu is in the same series as menus we’ve previously seen featuring British Columbia and western Canada (meaning Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, but not B.C.). There was also a menu in the series for the Canadian Rockies, which means there were probably ones for the Maritimes provinces and Quebec.

Click image to download a 1.2-MB PDF of this menu.

This particular menu has a la carte service printed inside plus an insert featuring several table d’hôte lunches. The full lunches include a choice of six entrées, with juice, bread, potato, vegetable, dessert, and beverage for $1.75 (about US$!7 in today’s money). For $1.50 (US$15), two of the entrées are available with the same accompaniments except dessert while $1.25 (US$12) would buy a chicken salad with juice, bread, and beverage. The insert is undated but the a la carte folder is dated May 1949, so it must have been used after that.