This beautiful railroad image, from the front cover of the menu on the dining car of the Famous 400, manages to express both speed and distance. We think the birds are stylized images of herons.

The Famous 400 was an express train with limited stops between Chicago and the Twin Cities of St Paul and Minnesota. The 400 ran from 1935 to 1963, and we believe this menu is from the 1950s.

The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (C & NW) was a Class 1 railroad in the Midwestern United States.

First chartered in 1859, it became one of the longest railroads in the US as a result of mergers with other railroads and ran through Illinois, Iowa. Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, south Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

In 1995, the Union Pacific Corporation acquired C & NW.

Courtesy Private Collection.