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Wartime Jasper Booklet

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

Canada declared war on Germany in September, 1939, but that apparently had no immediate affect on Jasper Lodge. CN booklets for 1940 and 1941 don’t mention the war. However, this one, from 1942, has a paper glued to the cover noting that “there have been changes in conditions brought about by the war.”

Click image to download an 20.5-MB PDF of this 54-page booklet.

Inside, another small paper glued onto page 1 says, “Opening and closing dates of Jasper Park Lodge are revised to JUNE 15 – AUGUST 31” (instead of June 15-September 15). Further, the “Golf Tournament (Sept. 6-12) will not be held. Sightseeing drives and other motor services, including motor coach service over the Columbia Icefield Highway, also All-Expense Tours listed on pages 41-46 will NOT be operated.” Continue reading →

A Superb Panorama of Towering Mountains

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

This 1939 brochure unfolds into a massive 24″x33″ sheet that has slightly more space than one of Canadian National’s 20-page booklets. CN issued many 16- to 24-page booklets covering similar material, including one with the same name as this in 1940. Those booklets were much easier to read, so I have to wonder why they published this one as a brochure (which it did for several years before 1939 as well).

Click image to download an 11.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

The brochure’s nearly three dozen black-and-white photos are overpowered by the highly saturated colors of the dozen illustrations, one of which is signed “Simpson.” That probably refers to Charles Walter Simpson (1878-1942), a Montreal landscape painter who, as we saw a few months ago, did work for Canadian Pacific as well as Canadian National. Continue reading →

Tonquin Valley 1938 Dining Car Menu

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

The Tonquin Valley’s “unrivaled” scenery is accessible only on foot or horseback in the summer or by cross-country skis in the winter. This means that few Canadian National passengers ever got to see the view of the mountains, known as the Ramparts, shown in this photo. To protect wildlife, no dogs are allowed, so I’ll probably never go either.

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

The back of the menu says nothing at all about the cover photo and instead reminds passengers that occupants of rooms and lower berths could direct a fan of “nice, filtered fresh air” at themselves during warm summer days. Apparently, people worried that “drafts” had “cold-developing propensities,” but the menu assures sleeping car customers that the air conditioning provided only “healthful, filtered air.” Continue reading →

Eastern Canada’s Seaside Fares in 1937

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

This joint Canadian National/Canadian Pacific brochure advertises “really low summer fares” to seasides and resorts in eastern Canada. However, they don’t appear to be that low to me. The roundtrip fare from Toronto to St. Andrews, for example, is CAN$30.85, which in today’s money is US$459 (CAN$590). That doesn’t sound very affordable to me, especially if it is multiplied across a family. In general, multiply prices by about 15 to approximate today’s U.S. dollars and by 19 to get Canadian dollars.

Click image to download a 701-KB PDF of this brochure.

Canadian Pacific and Canadian National ran pool trains–meaning each railroad provided its own equipment on its own schedules but the two shared revenues and some costs–between Montreal and Toronto, and passengers on some of the trips contemplated by this brochure would ride those trains. However, a brochure like this, effectively turning a duopoly into a cartel, would probably be illegal in the United States. In Canada, they could get away with it because one of the railroads was owned by the government.

Where Vast the Horizons Begin

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

This undated booklet is similar in many ways to the 1926 booklet presented a couple of days ago. It has the same format — a half-page photo and a smaller photo with a few paragraphs of text on most pages. Some of the photos are identical, though the text appears to be mostly rewritten. The map in the centerfold is identical except for the highlight color; both are dated 12-9-25.

Click image to download an 8.5-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

One major difference is the list of Canadian National officers in the back. The officers listed on this booklet, however, are nearly identical to those listed in a 1928 Alaska booklet, whose format, however, is somewhat different to both the 1926 booklet and today’s example (smaller photos, no secondary photos, more text). Based on these similarities and differences, I’m dating this booklet to 1927.

What to Do in Jasper

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

Golf, swimming, hiking, saddle trips, motor trips, boat trips, dancing, and motion pictures are just some of the things this booklet says were available to do in Jasper in 1936. The prices seem incredibly low — $2 for a round of golf, $5 a night to stay at a chalet, meals included — but remember to multiply by 16.5 to convert to today’s U.S. dollars.

Click image to download a 6.6-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

As was common for many CN booklets about Jasper, the cover shown above was the back cover. It was also the only color image in the booklet; black-and-white was good enough for people who were already at Jasper Lodge looking for things to do. Continue reading →

2000 Miles of Scenic Grandeur

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Train LoverSeptember 6, 2023

The 1933 edition of CN’s Triangle Route booklet has the same painting of a CN train in Jasper Park that was on the front cover of yesterday’s booklet. Otherwise, however, the text has been mostly rewritten, most of the black-and-white photos have been replaced or at least cropped differently, and the color paintings of totem poles by Langford Kihn and Emily Carr have disappeared.

Click image to download a 12.8-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

In place of those color images this booklet has two larger color images, one showing the then-new Cavell Drive in Jasper Park and the other showing the Bulkley Gate on the Bulkley River on the Skeena route from Jasper to Prince Rupert. Cavell Drive, “a twisting, turning 14 kilometre route through sub-alpine forests to the slopes of Mount Edith Cavell,” was built by Canada’s version of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression. Bulkley Gate is a rock formation that looks like it once dammed the river. Continue reading →

Land of the Midnight Sun in 1932

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

Canadian National titled its 1932 booklet advertising trips to Alaska and the Yukon “The Land of the Midnight Sun.” This shouldn’t be confused with postcard-sized welcome-aboard booklets for its Alaska steamships that were titled just “Midnight Sun.” This booklet is much larger and features 48 black-and-white photos and two paintings by Charles W. Simpson, whose work we’ve seen before on at least two pieces of Canadian Pacific literature.

Click image to download a 8.4-MB PDF of this 28-page booklet.

Instead of having a fold-out map in the back, this booklet includes a map of the route from Seattle to Dawson City on the inside front and back covers. I Photoshopped them together, but in 1932 someone wanting to see the whole map would have to rip out the interior pages. Continue reading →

The Midnight Sun in 1931

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

We saw a 1928 edition of this on-board booklet for cruises to southeast Alaska a few days ago. This one has a much nicer cover, but many of the interior pages are similar.

i>Click image to download an 6.5-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet.

The 1928 booklet included a photo of the S.S. Prince Rupert, a steamship that had been built for CN’s predecessor, Grand Trunk Pacific, in 1910. Today’s booklet features the S.S. Prince Henry, which was built for the Canadian National and went into service in 1930. The Prince Henry was almost 60 feet longer and 15 feet wider than the Prince Rupert. Unfortunately, due to the Depression, CN turned out not to need the added capacity, and sold the ship in 1938. Continue reading →

Jasper Park Lodge in 1930

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

Here’s another Canadian National booklet about Jasper that is not from my collection. I downloaded this one from archive.org. I didn’t like the way they had laid it out, so I cleaned it up a little and made it into a new PDF. The booklet they scanned was bound in a hard cover, so a fraction of the interior could not be copied. Fortunately, that only affected the front and back cover; notice the “C” in “Canadian National” is partly cut off.

Click image to download an 16.4-MB PDF of this 36-page booklet.

The booklet has a more lively layout than yesterday’s from 1928. While most of the pages in the 1928 booklet had a half-page square photo and a half-page of text, this one has photos cut into a variety of shapes, with sometimes one and sometimes several photos per page. I don’t know why it was once popular to use electrically bright colors to represent nature, as shown on the front and back covers, but we’ve seen it before on some Burlington booklets from the same era.