Here’s another in a series of Southern Pacific advertisements for the fact that it offered multiple routes into California. Some 24 of the 36 pages in this booklet are identical to those in a similar booklet that dated from before the war.
Click image to download a 28.4-MB PDF of this booklet.
The differences are mainly in the first and last few pages. The inside front covers present a glorious display of trains in Daylight, Armour yellow, and two-tone grey colors. One interior page that is different is page 24, which shows an aerial view of completed Shasta Dam, which was only under construction at the time the pre-war booklet was published.
The inside back cover advertises the future Shasta Daylight and Golden State “super-streamliners.” The latter were supposed to be eleven cars each offering “the last word in comfort and beauty.” We know that the Shasta Daylight entered service in 1949, three years after this was published. The Golden State super-streamliners, however, never really happened: only one train was built and the service was otherwise provided by generic cars from the Southern Pacific’s fleet on a slower-than-planned schedule.
Dang! A “southern Mammy” and all those negro (small “n”) children happy as clams to wave at you from their tiny shacks as you speed by, leaving them to their happiness. Everything was gay too, from the tavern car to San Francisco, only not “gay” like we know it today. Almost 70 years ago, and how times have changed over those years. All those SP super streamliners speeding hither and yon while you stuffed yourself with a lamb ragout casserole. At least there’s no tongue or brains in it. Now there’s no super streamliners, no all you can cram down you lamb ragout, and no SP. It just so happens I was also born in 1946, and will turn 70 in February. I’ve actually lived through all these changes. Some strange times I’ve lived through. 🙂
Jim