These blotters from the Dale Hastin collection don’t fall into any particular category. The first one advertises freight service from Wichita to Chicago and Kansas City, and while I’m not particularly interested in freight trains, the background pattern on the … Continue reading
Today’s blotters, all of which are from the Dale Hastin collection, advertise some of Santa Fe’s less-important trains, starting with the Scout, Santa Fe’s answer to Union Pacific’s Challenger. Inaugurated in 1916, the train died in the early years of … Continue reading
These blotters each advertise one of Santa Fe’s leading trains. The first is for the Super Chief and notes that passengers from St. Joseph, Missouri can take a Burlington train to Kansas City, arriving at 9:25 pm, and then occupy … Continue reading
Here are some blotters that clearly date from World War II. The first one looks to be early in the war. This blotter is from the collection of Dale Hastin. The blotter advertised Santa Fe’s agent in Lamar, Colorado, a … Continue reading
Based on the fonts and logos, these blotters date from the 1930s or, possibly, a little earlier. All three are from the Dale Hastin collection. Click images to download PDFs of these blotters, which are all around 0.4 MB in … Continue reading
Here are five Southern Pacific blotters from the Dale Hastin collection. The first one, dated 1937, advertises “two famed trains to California,” the Sunset and the Argonaut. It lists SP agents in Birmingham and Chattanooga, neither of which were actually … Continue reading
Though not as colorful as yesterday’s blotters, these offer some variety and show that GN was still calling its two-year-old train the “New Oriental Limited.” The first blotter is a convenient combination of a notepad and blotter. While this might … Continue reading
These attractive blotters advertised the not-quite-so-new Oriental Limited in 1926. The illustrations are signed “FG,” but I have no idea who that might have been. As we will see on later blotters, two years after the train began service, GN … Continue reading
“If its Service, Go Great Northern,” say these two blotters. What the heck does that mean? It must mean, “If you want good service, go Great Northern.” Click images to download a 0.4-MB PDF of each blotter. The real message … Continue reading
The four 1925 blotters shown here mostly have a vacation theme in common. The first one, which was distributed by GN’s Kansas City agent, encourages people to go to Glacier Park. This would be on trains 43 and 44, sometimes … Continue reading
