| Page 78

Gala Dinner

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

We’ve seen this menu cover before in a 1964 edition. Today’s is dated July 5, 1971, but both are identified as “gala dinners.” I’m still a bit ignorant about steamship cruises, so all I really know about gala dinners is that people dressed up just a little fancier than at regular steamship dinners, which in this case apparently meant silly hats. For some reason, the circle on the back where a photo would normally be shown, is blank on both gala menus.

Click image to download a 726-KB PDF of this menu.

On July 5, the Prince George was scheduled to arrive at Prince Rupert at 1:00 pm, departing at 4:30 pm. Prince Rupert is the one city on this cruise that I’ve never visited. While it is mainly a transshipment point for Canadian National freight trains and ocean freighters, I’m sure it has its share of shops designed to separate tourists from their money. Continue reading →

Chief Shakes Didn’t Live Here

Posted on May 24, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

“Chief Shakes lived here,” says the photo caption erroneously. Shakes was not actually a specific individual but a title, one that had been held by seven different Tlingit Indians. What is known as Chief Shakes’ tribal house, the entrance to which is shown on the front cover of this menu, was actually built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940. While it was built by genuine Tlingit Indian craftsmen, it was designed by a Forest Service architect named Linn Forrest.

Click image to download a 726-KB PDF of this menu.

Whoever collected these menus didn’t have one for July 3, probably because the ship was docked in Skagway for that entire day and most if not all passengers ate at a restaurant in town. The ship was scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am and didn’t depart until 11:00 pm, giving passengers plenty of time to take a short White Pass train trip, see some dancing girls at the Days of ’98 show, or shop in some of the tourist traps, which weren’t as bad as they are now. There are some very nice art studios even today, but too much of the town has been taken over by cheap jewelry stores. Continue reading →

Mendenhall Glacier

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

This dinner menu is dated July 2, 1971, which appropriately enough was the day the Prince George was scheduled to tie up in Juneau from 3:30 pm to 11:30 pm. Mendenhall Glacier is located on the edge of Juneau, making it one of the most accessible glaciers in the United States. While it wasn’t visible from the ship, passengers would have had plenty of time to take a bus tour to see it.

Click image to download a 753-KB PDF of this menu.

The back cover of this menu shows Ketchikan from the harbor, with the caption noting that the town is “a good port to stop, look and shop.” Given passengers only had 3-1/2 hours in Ketchikan the previous day, part of which time they were probably eating dinner from this menu, they didn’t have much of a chance to shop. Continue reading →

Snug Harbors and Fishing Boats

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

“Snug harbors and fishing boats almost outnumber the totem poles in Alaska,” says the back of this menu. Actually, I’m pretty sure that fishing boats greatly outnumber totem poles. The front cover photos also shows evidence of a logging industry: the industry in the background is identifiable as a sawmill by the large wigwam burner on the left. Today, wigwam burners have disappeared, both to reduce air pollution and because no one wants to waste potential wood products by burning them in pointless fires.

Click image to download a 663-KB PDF of this menu.

This menu is dated July 1, which is Dominion Day in Canada (renamed Canada Day in 1982), the day Canada first became a nation in 1867. The menu celebrates with Canadian and British flags on page 2. Page 2 also has an excerpt from the Robert Service poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, which doesn’t really seem an appropriate for Canada Day. Continue reading →

The Prince George and Alaska Call It a Day

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

While this menu was used aboard the Prince George in 1971, we previously seen similar menus from 1964. Both the 1964 and 1971 menus have black covers with photographs in a circle and both were used in service on the Prince George to Alaska.

Click image to download a 720-KB PDF of this menu.

This menu is dated June 30. The Prince George was scheduled to leave Vancouver at 10:00 pm on June 29, so this would have been the first full dinner on this cruise. The Prince George didn’t make any stops on that day. Continue reading →

Canadian National February 1971 Timetable

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

In early 1971, U.S. railroads were getting ready to turn most of their passenger trains over to Amtrak, but Canadian National (which was then owned by the government) still had plenty of trains. Yet there were fewer than just two years before, since this timetable is just 40 pages long compared to 52 in the 1969 timetables.

Click image to download a 18.5-MB PDF of this 40-page timetable.

The Panorama, which I described a couple of days ago, made its last run in 1969. The Ocean and Chaleur were merged into one train between Montreal and Moncton. A lot of local trains were replaced by buses. Still, there were plenty of trains going to many places in this timetable.

Alaska Cruises in 1970

Posted on May 19, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

Instead of the pre-war booklets which were 20 or more pages long, in 1970 CN advertised its Alaska steamship service with this brochure, which opens up to the equivalent of about six pages. But those pages are filled with color photos that show off the journey much better than the black-and-white photos of the earlier booklets.

Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

Although this booklet has 17 color photos, only five of them are actually taken in Alaska, and two of those were indoors. One shows a tourist browsing through some of the local crafts that people could buy at a souvenir shop and the other shows dancing girls at a Days of ’98 show in Skagway. Both the souvenir shops and musical shows are still available in abundance in southeast Alaska. A third photo, which we have to presume was taken in Alaska, shows passengers disembarking from the ship with a local band playing and being ignored by those passengers. Continue reading →

Canadian National April 1969 Timetable

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

The nine photos on the cover of this menu depict such sights as the S.S. Prince George cruising to Alaska, Niagara Falls, and Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, all of which were accessible from CN trains (and steamships). At 52 pages, the timetable is thicker than almost any U.S. railroad timetable would have been in 1969.

Click image to download a 25.0-MB PDF of this 52-page timetable.

A few days ago I presented a 1960 brochure advertising CN’s two transcontinental trains, the Super Continental and Continental. I noted that the Continental would have disappointed any long-distance traveler as it didn’t have much in the way of food services and only intermittently had sleeping car accommodations. Continue reading →

CN Alaska Cruise Information

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

This 1966 booklet is an evolution of the Midnight Sun booklets describing the facilities on board CN’s steamships and views along the way to Skagway, Alaska. In the 1960s, CN evidently decided to replace the totem pole shown on the covers of the 1937-1951 or so versions with a different color photo each year showing a beautiful couple on board the ship. The totem pole theme, however, was continued on the back with a modernistic painting of two faces of a pole.

Click image to download a 7.6-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet.

Inside, the text has been updated but still follows the same outline and even uses much of the same text as was found in the 1928 edition. “Three sharp blasts of the whistle,” the descriptive notes began in both 1928 and 1966. “The order is given to ‘let go’ the lines. The steamer backs majestically into Vancouver harbor.” Continue reading →

Jasper Park Dining Car Menu

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

Here’s a 1964 menu showing a collage of eleven photos of Jasper Park and Jasper Lodge on the front cover. Inside, the menu itself is printed on a separate piece of paper that was attached to the cover with paperclips. The inside front cover has a caption reading, “Cover: Jasper Park Lodge, all-day, all-way summer fun in the Canadian Rockies.”

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

The size of this menu is similar to this 1963 menu. The cover collage is similar to this 1965 menu, which featured Alaska instead of Jasper, and this 1965 menu, which featured scenes from the Atlantic provinces. Continue reading →