The Sternwheeler S.S. Casca

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Train LoverMarch 1, 2025

This combination brochure, menu, and postcard features the S.S. Casca, which carried passengers and freight on the Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City from 1937 to 1952. The British Yukon Navigation Company (a part of the White Pass route) had the 180-foot-long sternwheeler built in Vancouver in pieces that were shipped to Whitehorse for final assembly. The ship replaced a 161-foot ship of the same name that had been built in 1911, which itself replaced a 140-foot sternwheeler of the same name that had been built in 1898.

Click image to download a 4.3-MB PDF of this brochure/menu/postcard.

The third Casca (which along with the others was probably named for the Kaska tribe) operated until 1952, after which it was stored in Whitehorse, along with another sternwheeler, the Whitehorse, as the government and historians debated whether to sell or try to preserve the ships as floating museums. The debate ended in 1973 when the two burned in a fire of mysterious origins. Continue reading →

The Land of the Midnight Sun

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Train LoverMarch 1, 2025

Today’s booklet is the same size as yesterday’s, but has a different title and a different cover photo. Inside, however, the two booklets are nearly identical. The text is almost identical and four of the eight photos and the back cover map are also included in today’s booklet.

Click image to download a 3.1-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

I can find two differences in the text. First, yesterday’s booklet referred to Yukon River steamboats passing the Wood River, “sixty-two miles above Rampart.” Today’s booklet calls that river the Ray River, which is the name it is called today. (There is a Wood River in Alaska, but it is hundreds of miles away from the Yukon.) Based on this, I suspect today’s booklet was issued more recently than yesterday’s. Continue reading →

North of the Arctic Circle

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

In 1914, the White Pass and Yukon, which had been running steamboats on the upper Yukon River (White Horse to Dawson), bought the Northern Navigation Company, which operated steamboats from Dawson to Tanana (near Fairbanks). This gave it a monopoly on those parts of the river until 1923. When the Alaska Railroad, which had reached the Tanana River in 1922, bought its own steamboats, the White Pass reduced its operations but continued to serve the area.

Click image to download a 3.7-MB PDF of this 20-page booklet.

This booklet promotes the “Yukon River Circle Tour,” but describes only a part of that tour in detail. Apparently, the entire tour consisted of taking an Alaska Railroad train from Seward to Nenana on the Tanana River, then steamboats to Dawson City and White Horse, then the White Pass railroad to Skagway. This booklet describes the route of the river boat from Nenana to Fort Yukon, which is above the Arctic Circle but still well short of Dawson City. Continue reading →

Alaska, Atlin, and the Yukon

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Train LoverMarch 1, 2025

This booklet, like many before it, is titled Alaska, Atlin and the Yukon.” However, a notice on page 7 reports that the White Pass Route had to discontinue Atlin service due to “heavy losses.” “The decision to discontinue tourist service to Lake Atlin was reached after these booklets were printed, hence this notice.” The notice is dated January 1, 1937, the only date in the booklet, so probably the booklet itself was printed in 1936.

Click image to download a 4.3-MB PDF of this 8-page booklet.

Since the notice was glued in, it covers other text but I decided not to damage the item by removing it. Some of the text underneath it reads, “The lovely little town of Atlin lures the visitor with its quaint, flower-bordered streets, its curio shops and the Indian village nearby.” Apparently, it didn’t lure enough visitors. Continue reading →

Alaska and the Scenic Yukon Country in 1915

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Train LoverMarch 30, 2025

This beautiful booklet has heavy-duty covers that are 4.4-inches wide holding 10 pages that are 4-inches wide. But the next 10 pages unfold to be slightly more than 8-inches wide, thus allowing for panoramic photos that wouldn’t fit on a 4-inch-wide page.

Click image to download a 7.6-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet. Click here to download a 1.9-MB PDF of the front-and-back cover spread.

The photos are all black-and-white or, to be precise, black-and-yellow as they all have a greenish-yellow tint. The tinting adds little to the images but fortunately most of the 40 photos in the booklet are still clear and crisp. Continue reading →

Canadian Pacific October 1972 Timetable

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2025

Canadian Pacific timetables shrank from 36 to 28 pages in 1968 and remained that size at least through 1970. But today’s 1972 timetable was reduced to a mere 12 pages.

Click image to download a 7.8-MB PDF of this 12-page timetable, scans for which were provided by Hans Krieger.

Seven of these pages were filled with 13 schedules for about 17 different daily trains. Also included were an Algoma Central schedule, some bus and steamship schedules. Steamship service between Victoria-Port Angeles and Victoria-Seattle was listed as “suspended for winter.” Continue reading →

State Chariot Lunch Menu

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2025

In the 1960s, many Empress menu covers featured historic forms of transportation, including ships, primitive aircraft, a penny-farthing bicycle, and two early steam locomotives. Today’s menu presents an ornate horse-drawn carriage from 1786. The menu calls this a chariot and says “it bore the arms of the Prince of Wales.”

Click image to download a 261-KB PDF of this menu.

The 1967 menu was used aboard the Empress of Canada, Canadian Pacific’s last ocean liner, during one of its winter cruises to the West Indies. Since the Caribbean was presumably warm and humid even in February, the menu offered a cold buffet for lunch. The menu included several appetizers, three salads, roast turkey, several red meats, and several desserts including vanilla and coffee ice cream. Continue reading →

Canadian Pacific October 1961 Timetable

Posted on March 27, 2025 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2025

We’ve previously seen an April 1961 Canadian Pacific timetable that featured a painting of the Canadian stopped at Banff. Today’s timetable shows a Nicholas Morant photo of the same train crossing Stoney Creek Bridge on its way to Banff and, eventually, Toronto and Montreal.

Click image to download a 29.5-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The Banff painting was also used on the cover of the April 1962 and April 1963 timetables while the Stoney Creek Bridge photo was used on the October 1960 and 1962 timetables. In other words, the railway alternated images, using one in the spring and the other in the fall, during the early 1960s. This pattern apparently began in 1959 and lasted until 1964, when CP simplified its timetable covers to basic black. Continue reading →

Ski High in the Canadian Rockies

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2025

We’ve seen this photograph before on a 1954 dinner menu that had “Canadian Pacific dining car service” in the lower right corner. Today’s 1960 menu says “Ski High. . .” on the cover in Bodoni typeface and was used on the Empress of Britain instead of in a dining car. As I’ve noted before, CP’s steamship menus seemed to use such styles as titles in the Bodoni typeface several years after the dining cars stopped using them.

Click image to download a 760-KB PDF of this menu.

The Canadian Pacific menu series page lists 13 menus still missing rom this web site. I’m sure there are more and that doesn’t include minor variations such as this one. A single photo of Mount Eisenhower was used on at least six different menu variations. My goal is to at least identify all of the variations that were used on Canadian Pacific dining cars.

More Empress of Scotland Menus

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2025

Canadian Pacific may have used menus featuring cover images of the Empress of France only on that ship and the Empress of Scotland only on that ship. But otherwise menus found on one would likely be found on the other. That is illustrated by the menus presented today, at least two whose covers were also used on the Empress of France.

Click image to download an 855-KB PDF of this menu.

First is a menu featuring the Hotel Frontenac in Quebec City, where some of the passengers would disembark and perhaps stay at that hotel. This may be why images of that hotel were used on so many Empress menus. This dinner menu was used on May 28, the third evening out. Continue reading →