More Rochester Tour Menus

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

Here are two more dining menus from the 1930 E.R. Rochester tour that went through the Canadian Rockies. The tour traveled from Vancouver to St. Paul and Chicago, stopping at Lake Louise and Banff on the way, so these menus were probably used between Banff and St. Paul.

Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu.

First is an August 14 menu with the same cover image as the one presented the day before yesterday, except this menu is larger than the normal CP menu. Where the other menus are about 6-3/4″x9-1/2″, this one is 8″x11″. Yet that extra space isn’t used for more a la carte menu items; instead, it presents a six-course meal with a choice of four entrées. Moreover, there are no prices, so at least some meals were included in the price of the tour. Continue reading →

1930 Canadian Pacific Dinner Menus

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

These two dining car menus were also used on the Rochester tour through the Canadian Rockies. The first is a dinner menu dated August 13, the same day as yesterday’s lunch menu. Like yesterday’s menu, it shows two people gazing out a hotel window, only this is the Banff Springs Hotel rather than the Chateau Lake Louise.

Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.

We’ve seen this cover before on a 1934 menu that was used on the Empress of Asia. Canadian Pacific steamships often used menu covers that had been used on dining cars a few years before. Continue reading →

Lake Louise Lunch Menu

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

This fabulous cover was used on a menu for a tour guided by someone named E.R. Rochester. This was a lunch menu for August 13, 1930 and, even though the cover shows a scene from the Chateau Lake Louise, it was used in a dining car.

Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.

The cover image says high-class luxury in a gorgeous natural setting all at the same time. Unlike national park hotels in the United States, Chateau Lake Louise was not rustic in any sense. Instead, it was designed to cater to the wealthy, who might go hiking in the mountains during the day but dress up for dinner in the evenings. Continue reading →

Pulp & Paper Menu

Posted on March 4, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

We’ve previously seen a 1930 menu with this cover from the Chung collection. I’ve now added this one to my own collection.

Click image to download a 2.8-MB PDF of this menu. Click here to download a 2.1-MB PDF of the full front and back cover.

The Chung collection menu is for dinner and is dated 1930. This one is for lunch and is undated. The a la carte items on the menus are not identical but the prices for those items that are included on both are the same. Prices didn’t change much between 1928 and 1931, but all of the other menus I’ve seen in this series are dated 1930, so I presume this one is from that year as well. Continue reading →

The New Duchesses of the Atlantic

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

In 1926, Canadian Pacific ordered four “cabin class” ships in which the best class was more affordable than first class but still high in quality. To distinguish these ships from the company’s Empress fleet, it called them Duchesses — i.e., not as good as royalty but still better than most.

Click image to download a 2.0-MB PDF of this menu. Click here to download a 1.4-MB PDF of the front and back cover spread.

The first two of these ships, the Duchess of Atholl and Duchess of Bedford went into service in 1928 while the remaining two, the Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of York entered service in 1929. This menu mentions only the first two so must have been issued in 1928. Continue reading →

Drunken Chief and Duck Chief Dinner Menu

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

We’ve seen a copy of this photo before on a 1926 breakfast menu from the Chung Collection. That menu was used on the Mountaineer; today’s menu, which I recently acquired for my own collection, is a dinner menu from the Imperial.

Click image to download a 1.6-MB PDF of this menu.

As I noted when I posted the breakfast menu, the cover picture is from a colorized lantern slide based on a black-and-white photo taken by Harry Pollard, a Calgary photographer who was hired by Canadian Pacific in 1924 to photograph its world cruises. He went on 14 such cruises, and later was an early member of the Canadian Trail Riders Club. Continue reading →

The Loyalist City

Posted on March 1, 2025 by Train LoverMarch 1, 2025

We’ve seen this menu before from the Chung collection; now I’ve acquired one of my own. Chung’s was a 1926 breakfast menu; this one is a lunch menu also dated 1926.

Click image to download a 770-KB PDF of this menu.

Both menus are a la carte. Unlike CP’s lunch and dinner a la carte menus, which were the same for both meals, the breakfast ones are quite different. All have steaks, chops, and eggs, but the breakfast menus included fruits, cereals, and griddle cakes while the lunch and dinner menus included soups, stews, roasts, and desserts. Continue reading →

Canadian National April 1976 Timetable

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

The cover shown below (which is the back cover) indicates that CN thinks it finally got all of the bugs out of its Turbo trains, just in time for the company to go out of the passenger business. As the train’s logo and color scheme indicates, VIA is about to take over CN’s and, later, CP’s passenger business.

Click image to download a 18.9-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

Initially, VIA was just a rebranding of CN’s services and was called VIA CN. In January 1977, the state-owned railway spun off VIA into a separate corporation that relied on government subsidies to run former CN passenger trains. VIA didn’t take charge of Canadian Pacific trains until October 1978. Continue reading →

Canadian National April 1975 Timetable

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

The cover illustration shows happy people of all ages walking through a train station in anticipation of comfortable rides aboard a CN train. Note that dress was more casual than the business suits that characterized photos from the 1960s. There’s even a backpack-toting hippie in the background, though no one of First Nations, Asian, or African heritage.

Click image to download a 19.3-MB PDF of this 24-page timetable.

The same artist apparently illustrated a Dayniter coach, a bedroom, and a lounge car shown on the inside front cover. “Designed for travel comfort: CN’s economical Dayniter, sleeping car, and friendly lounge.” The brightly colored illustrations show these cars in deceptively better light than the photographs in previous editions. Continue reading →

Canadian National April 1974 Timetable

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Train LoverJanuary 18, 2025

I’ve mentioned before that CN coaches were not as comfortable as on Canadian Pacific’s Canadian, which had Sleepy Hollow seats with full leg rests. As shown on the cover of this timetable, CN attempted to belatedly remedy this by adding a new class of coach it called Dayniters.

Click image to download a 16.5-MB PDF of this 24-page timetable.

As the picture shows, Daynighters had full leg rests. However, these were not Sleepy Hollow seats. As noted here, Sleepy Hollow seats were the result of extensive research funded by the Heywood-Wakefield furniture company and were comfortable for all-day or overnight use. In comparison, the Dayniter seats resemble airline seats (and the seats used on Amtrak Superliners). While more comfortable than CN’s regular coach seats, they definitely were not as comfortable as Sleepy Hollow seats. Continue reading →