Just found some “old” 1965-68 National Geographics that smell musty, but looking through them brought back a few memories, Great full page ads for travelling on the Great Northern with maps, photos, details, equipment and photos of people really enjoying themselves(AAHHH- the good old days eh?) also for Canadian Pacific and The California Zephyr, it’s almost worth the effort to dig a few of these old books out and relive (or live) an era we hope will come again.
Those are nice ads to find. I myself have an old Santa Fe ad from a 1946 issue of Collier’s magazine. It advertised Santa Fe’s hospitality on their passenger trains. Right now, it’s framed and hanging on the wall in my train room.
Take care,
Russell
Those old ads are very neat. Its unbelievable how much money was spent back then to try to get people to ride. I have a large stack on old National Geographics too, and they are just chocked full of ads, especially in the 40s and 50s. If Amtrak spent that kind of money now, who knows what would happen to ridership. Mike
We had a stack of old NG’s when I was growing up back home. I would sneak a couple of the magazines (oops, sorry…journals) and look at the pictures. Not what you think…I was checking out the railroad ads. I even cut a few out and have them stored away.
My favorite ad was the New York Central “water level service” which depicted a NYC passenger train (painting) rounding a curve on a moonlite night. The train was adjacent to a river and the ad line stated something to the effect “one by one, the windows go to sleep” and discussed the merits of travel on the NYC “water level route”. The painting showed a number of the passenger cars windows darkened, while others were lighted. You can sleep on the NYC.
ed
A not so old passenger ad was in the late 1960’s by Grand Trunk Western on the inside of CTA buses pushing its Chicago-Detroit service: “We don’t care if you don’t catch our name as long as you do catch one of our two daily trains to Detroit”. The ads were signed: Grand What’s its name Railway/Grand Trunk Western.
I remember those NYC ads, with the train at night. They had some pretty good graphic artists back then. Not many pictures, just very nice art. You can almost feel yourself going to sleep on the Water Level Route. Mike