At least one of these three posters is often credited to an artist named W. Haines Hall, but according to Travel by Train they were all a collaborative effort. “Their family resemblance stemmed from the fact that one man, German-born … Continue reading
Maurice George Logan was born in 1886, three years after Oscar Bryn, and like Bryn grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied at, among other places, the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. In 1915, he helped form … Continue reading
Though born in England in 1881, Sam Hyde Harris was an artist for the Southwest: though he did not move to the United States until he was 15, he was already drawing scenes of what he imagined the West looked … Continue reading
The Southern Pacific claimed that most dome cars were too tall to fit through its tunnels. So it designed and built its own dome cars out of older cars it had on hand. Its first car was built from a … Continue reading
“Wonderful Ways West” continues with the Southern Pacific’s theme that it has four routes into California, and travelers from the East to California can take different routes to and from the state “for little or no additional rail fare.” This … Continue reading
Many railroads had a theme they used–year after year, sometimes decade after decade–in their passenger advertising. The Santa Fe’s theme was “all the way,” meaning that only the Santa Fe could get you all the way from Chicago to the … Continue reading
The on-board stationery I have for the Sunset Limited uses old English lettering, suggesting that it dates from the heavyweight era. The envelope even says “San Francisco-Los Angeles New Orleans,” showing it is either from before 1930 or between 1936 … Continue reading
As with the Shasta Daylight and Golden State, the Southern Pacific sent out a mailer to travel agents and others in the industry featuring the ad below. The ad itself was placed in Saturday Evening Post, Time, Holiday, and National … Continue reading
For many years, the Southern Pacific considered the Sunset Limited its premiere transcontinental train, because it followed the only transcontinental route entirely owned by the Southern Pacific. Yet, as Wikipedia notes, it was also “the last among the big American … Continue reading
Although my collection includes at least ten different kinds of Southern Pacific on-board stationery, none of them are specifically marked for the Shasta Daylight. At least in its later years, it is likely that passengers aboard the train would use … Continue reading
