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Jasper National Park in 1952

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Train LoverMay 24, 2022

We’ve previously seen Canadian National’s Jasper booklets for 1951 and 1953. This one from 1952 more closely resembles the one from 1951 for the very good reason that Jasper Lodge burnt in 1952 and so the 1953 booklet includes several pages of color illustrations for the replacement lodge.

Click image to download a 18.6-MB PDF of this 46-page booklet.

CN graphics artists still weren’t efficiently using color printing in the way I described in my recent description of the 1947 booklet. Aside from the front and back covers, today’s booklet has color photos on pages 3, 6, 11, 15, 18, 26, and 29, none of which are on the same four-page spreads. On page 35, it also has color drawings illustrating clothing one might want to wear in Jasper Park. These drawings use the same colors — cyan, yellow, magenta, and black — that make four-color photos, but again page 35 isn’t on the same spread as another color photo.

Descriptive Notes on the Journey to Alaska

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Train LoverApril 7, 2022

We’ve previously seen editions of this booklet from 1937 and 1950. Today’s is from 1951. I’ve seen booklets like these dating back to at least 1928, but the sun-ray-and-totem-pole covers only began in the mid-1930s.

Click image to download an 8.7-MB PDF of this 36-page booklet.

Other than the colors on the cover, differences are small. The interior pages in the 1950 booklet were printed in a reddish-brown color; in 1951 they were black. A photograph on page 10 was replaced with text describing how train passengers can have their luggage transferred to the ship, as CN’s Vancouver station (unlike CP’s) was located about two miles away from the docks. Some white space on page 2 of the 1950 edition was used to remind readers of the 1951 edition that starboard is right and port is left. Continue reading →

Meals on Wheels A La Carte Menu

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Train LoverApril 7, 2022

The typeface on this menu is a little different from yesterday’s, but the items and prices are almost identical. CN apparently used this a la carte menu for all three meals and then added an insert dedicated to each meal.

Click image to download a 727-KB PDF of this menu.

The prices and items on this menu are nearly identical to those on this 1949 menu but differ from this 1948 menu. Unfortunately, I don’t have a 1950 CN a la carte menu to compare, but I suspect prices would have changed due to the post-war inflation, which was 6 percent between 1949 and 1950.

Meals on Wheels Breakfast Menu

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Train LoverApril 7, 2022

Here is Canadian National’s entry into the competition for the most-boring dining car menu cover of the post-war era. The menu is a la carte with an insert for “club breakfasts,” meaning table d’hôte breakfasts for 75¢, $1.25, or $1.50. The 75¢ breakfast is what would later be called a continental breakfast: juice or cereal, bread or muffins, and coffee, tea, cocoa, or milk. The more expensive ones have fish or the usual egg dishes.

Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu.

The inside pages, including the insert, all use the phrase “Meals on Wheels” at the top. Today, meals on wheels is a program that aims to help feed seniors who want to live at home but can no longer cook their own meals. When this menu was printed Canadian National was referring to dining car meals, as if everyone didn’t know that dining cars were on wheels. Continue reading →

Halifax Bicentenary Lunch Menu

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Train LoverApril 7, 2022

By 1949, when this menu was issued, the wartime restrictions found on the 1944 menu should have ended. Though this is only a lunch menu, it is still a little surprising that it doesn’t offer any steaks or chops. Other than bacon and cold meats, there are no red meats on the a la carte menu and the only red meats on the table d’hôte insert are beefsteak pie and roast leg of veal.

Click image to download a 1.5-MB PDF of this menu.

Edward Cornwallis, whose statue is on the cover of this menu, was an officer in the British army who was named governor of Nova Scotia at the age of 37. When members of the Mi’kmaq tribe opposed the establishment of Halifax, Cornwallis offered settlers a bounty on Mi’kmaq scalps. Continue reading →

CN’s 1947 Canadian Rockies Booklet

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Train LoverApril 7, 2022

Unlike many of CN’s pre-war booklets, the pretty image shown below is on the front cover, rather than the back cover, of this guide. The first half covers what to do in Jasper and the second half describes the Triangle Route. A statement in some CN advertisements that the Triangle Route was 2,000 miles long has been toned down to 1,850 miles.

Click image to download a 7.4-MB PDF of this 16-page booklet.

When I see a photo like this, I wonder how the boy waving at the locomotive managed to scramble his way onto the fill. As near as I can tell from maps, the train is westbound (and therefore going downhill). The photographer is looking northeast towards Mt. Robson. At this location, the railroad is on a hillside east of the Robson River valley, while the Yellowhead Highway is in the valley bottom west of the river. Today, at least, there is a hiking trail from the highway towards Mt. Terry Fox that crosses the rail line not too far from this photo location, so perhaps the photographer and the boy took that trail. Continue reading →

Jasper National Park in 1947

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Train LoverApril 7, 2022

We saw a Canadian National Jasper booklet from 1946 a few days ago, and one from 1948 several years ago. This one from 1947 looks closer to the 1946 booklet than the one from 1948.

Click image to download a 17.7-MB PDF of this 46-page booklet.

In addition to the covers, the 1946 and 1947 booklets each have four color photos, two of them being the same in both booklets. The 1948 booklet has seven interior color photos. Continue reading →

Pyramid Mountain, Pyramid Avenue

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

Pyramid Mountain is 9,075 feet high, which makes its summit about 5,600 feet above the town of Jasper, just six miles southeast of the peak. As such, it appears in many photos of the town and the nearby area, including the one on this 1946 dinner menu.

Click image to download a 281-KB PDF of this menu.

The lake in the foreground is called Pyramid Lake (though it is shaped more like the letter C than a pyramid) and is about halfway between the town and the mountain. From the lake a dirt road climbs to nearly 6,000 feet, allowing hikers to scramble up to the mountain top. Continue reading →

Canadian National 1946 Jasper Booklet

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Train LoverMay 24, 2022

If Jasper was closed during the war, this was the first CN booklet about the park since 1942. The booklet barely mentions the war except to brag that the entire golf course was rebuilt during that troubled time.

Click image to download a 15.7-MB PDF of this 38-page booklet.

Aside from the wraparound cover, this booklet has four “natural color” photos. One shows the lodge and cabins from Lake Beauvert. A second shows a gravel road with Mount Edith Cavell in the background. The third shows Lake Maligne. Finally, there is a Jasper Park Lodge motorcar with chauffeur escorting a young couple to the Columbia Icefield. More than three dozen black-and-white photos are also included. Over the next ten years, color would gradually replace more and more black-and-white photos in CN’s Jasper booklets.

Salute to Canada’s Fighting Services

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Train LoverApril 2, 2022

This 1944 menu salutes “the unconquerable breed of Canada,” more than 600,000 of whom were “poised on the battle fronts of Democracy” in World War II. The menu was accompanied by a “sugar and butter rations” notice that “in compliance with government wartime regulations, butter and sugar rations are served only when requested by patron.”

Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.

The menu itself included a wide range of items, but red meat was clearly in short supply. The a la carte menu offered most of the usual items, including fish and omelets, but no chops or steaks, and not even ham or bacon with the eggs. The table d’hôte insert listed broiled salmon, fried halibut, or lobster salad, but the only red meats were veal cutlets and “Meat – Chef’s Selection,” which could have been anything from canned ham to sweetbreads. Canada was clearly reserving the best of its food production for those 600,000 young men and women fighting the war.