This menu proudly features three of Burlington’s most modern locomotives on its cover. The back cover has a description of each from right to left, instead of the more usual left to right.
Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu.
The cover simply calls the right-most locomotive the “Zephyr,” even though, on one hand, there were nine locomotives that shared the slant-nose design and, on the other hand, the left-most locomotive also hauled Zephyr trains.
The middle locomotive is the oldest. No number board shows but the back cover calls it number 3000, the first of Burlington’s twelve 4-6-4 Hudson locomotives. Built in 1930, this locomotive produced 47,676 pounds of tractive effort. The back cover notes that Burlington’s 5600-series locomotives were even more powerful. This group of 36 4-8-4s, the first of which were also built in 1930, produced 67,541 pounds of tractive effort.
The steam engines were quickly being made obsolete by the left-most locomotive, which the back cover lists as “No. 9900 Diesels.” This is confusing as both the left and right locomotives were numbered in the 9900 series. The slant-nose Diesels portrayed on the right were numbered 9900 through 9908 while the E5 Diesels represented on the left were numbered 9909 through 9915. In any case, the cover says the E5s (when operated as an A and B unit) produced 4,000 horsepower and could go over 100 miles per hour.
The E5s were delivered in 1940 and 1941, making them the Burlington’s most-modern passenger power when this menu was issued in 1942. The a la carte menu featured halibut steak and eight other entrées ranging in price from 40¢ to 90¢ (about $8 to $18 today), plus soups, eggs, fish, sandwiches, salads, bread, desserts, and beverages.
The table d’hôte side has five entrées, including halibut, veal, chicken pot pie, roast sirloin, and chilled pickled lambs tongue, served with soup, juice, or salad, potatoes and vegetables, bread, dessert, and beverage. Prices ranged from 90¢ (for the lambs tongue) to $1.25 (for the chicken pot pie), or 30¢ to 35¢ more than the a la carte entrées. Multiply by 20 to approximate today’s dollars.
There was also a “special sandwich plate luncheon” that offered a choice of hot beef sandwich with whipped potatoes or ham sandwich with potato salad, both of which came with soup, dessert, and beverage.
Although this menu was issued in July 1942, eight months after Pearl Harbor, the only mention of the war was a note to “Conserve Sugar as part of your contribution to the National war effort.” Ultimately, most Americans would have to do far more than just conserve sugar over the following three years.