Here are two menus whose covers we’ve seen before but whose menu sides we haven’t. The first, featuring the Great White Throne, is dated December 1958 for lunch service in the City of Portland cafe-lounge car. We’ve seen this cover before on menus from 1950.
Click image to download a 1.8-MB PDF of this menu.
The menu offers meals of spaghetti, deluxe hamburger, ragout of beef, and tuna salad. The spaghetti comes with bread and a beverage for $1.15 (about $9.50 today); the other meals come with some form of potato, dessert, and beverage for $1.45 to $1.60 (about $12 to $14 today).
Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.
We’ve seen this cover, featuring southern Wyoming’s Lake Marie, on a cafe-lounge dinner menu from August, 1958. This example was used in the dining car, not the cafe-lounge, and is the only one we’ve seen in the last few days that doesn’t have a train name or date on it. Instead, where the date code is normally located, it says “SPL 2,” which doesn’t immediately ring a bell.
The menu offers meals of shrimp Louis, barbecued lamp, sausages & apple rings, bacon & tomato sandwich, a cold salmon plate, and a chef’s salad. Although there is no date, the a la carte menu is identical to one from 1959 but with slightly lower prices, so I’ll date it to 1958.