Going into effect exactly four weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, this timetable has four fewer pages than yesterday’s from 1940. This was accomplished by reducing the number of ad pages by two and eliminating two pages of rail fares. I wonder if the railroad deleted the fare pages because it thought prices would be likely to change due to the war.

Click image to download a 24.5-MB PDF of this 40-page timetable.

In one of the ads, “Transportation for the Emergency,” Burlington pats itself on the back for having the foresight to buy “thousands of new freight cars and many powerful locomotives” in preparation for the war. The point of the ad is that the railroad expects to be able to meet war demands without reducing service to the general public. This is meant to be reassuring but it verges on admitting that the railroad is looking forward to profiting from the war.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, the back cover ad, “Streamlined Mother Goose Rhymes,” incorporates Zephyrs into familiar children’s poems. “This little pig walks to market/This little pig stays at home/This little pig rides the Zephyrs/Which proves he uses his dome.” I imagine this ad was written before December 7.