Dated November 1, 1942, this issue of West doesn’t promote any vacation destinations or announce new trains, which would have been inappropriate in the midst of the world war. Instead, it relates how Union Pacific and Southern Pacific ceremoniously “undrove” … Continue reading
Here’s another menu with a cover painting by Michel Kady, similar to ones we’ve seen featuring Chinatown and other California scenes. This one is special because it has a train in the picture, something not found on most Southern Pacific … Continue reading
This timetable replaces the plain blue covers of pre-war and early-post-war SP timetables with a beautiful image of the Coast Daylight on its southbound journey to Los Angeles. This image was apparently first used on SP’s August, 1946 timetables. Click … Continue reading
The military-only trains in the March 1946 timetable have been replaced by trains that were apparently open to the public. On the Overland Route, a coach-only train called the Advanced Pacific Limited departed two hours before the regular Pacific Limited … Continue reading
A 1940 issue of West advertised that California was “throwing a winter party” consisting of “more than 300 colorful pageants, fiestas, celebrations, and sports events.” This one repeats the theme for the winter of 1941-42. No one knew that most … Continue reading
The S.S. Dixie was built in 1928 and used by the Southern Pacific to carry passengers from its rail terminus in New Orleans to New York City. As described in this issue of West, it had a swimming pool, a … Continue reading
Although the cover is bare of anything except the 1940 Golden Gate Exposition logo, inside this brochure are ten beautiful color images of what travelers might see on their Southern Pacific trips to and from the expo (plus one of … Continue reading
Here’s another condensed timetable, meaning it is missing most of the advertising found in the system timetable. Being so soon after the end of the war, the trains it features are pretty much the same as the pre-war trains, minus … Continue reading
In the midst of war, Southern Pacific continued publishing 56-page timetables and the print runs were upped to 115,000 copies. The main difference between this and pre-war timetables was that the full-page advertisements in this one emphasized war-related freight shipping … Continue reading
As far as I can tell, San Francisco was the only major city west of Chicago to be served by commuter trains — passenger trains serving mainly commuters that operated on the same tracks as freight trains — before 1980. … Continue reading
