Pan Am 1950 Pan American World Airways, System Timetable

       The 1950 Aircraft

Probably the Constellation, the DC-3 and the Catalina would have been the best Pan Am aircraft to fly in. 

Between 16 December 1951 and 11 February 1952 a C-46, a Convair (CV-240) and a DC-6 crashed at/near the Newark Airport. None of these were Pan Am aircraft. I'd personally avoid flying on them, just the same.

The B-377 was a larger-fuselage derivative of the great Boeing B-29. It was designed to wring some post-war benefits from the expense and effort put into the B-29's development. I've included a postcard of one at the very end.

The Corporation: 1927 and 1991

In 1927, 'Hap' Arnold and Carl Spaatz wrote up a prospectus for Pan Am to prevent Deutsch-Kolumbianische Luftverkehrsgesellschaft - which was becoming established in Central America - from successfully bidding on US air mail contracts.

Pan Am filed for bankruptcy protection in 1991.

Why? 

... The oil price shocks of the 1970s caused a general decrease in travel. Operating an air carrier whose high-capacity long-haul fleet was geared for international operation became very unprofitable. Later, US air transport deregulation and the lack of a domestic feeder network impeded Pan Am's ability to compete with lower cost companies. The *1988 Lockerbie Bombing and the 1991 First Gulf War's impact on international travel finished off Pan Am.

*Towers Financial Corporation, run by Steven Hoffenberg (with his consultant Jeffrey Epstein) had attempted to purchase Pan Am in 1987. Between 1988 and 1993, Towers ran a Ponzi Scheme which resulted in Hoffenberg serving 18 years in prison. Two other corporate officers were also sent to prison. Epstein had left the company by 1989.

The map below is presented 'early' to give an overview of the system. So that you can read the place names, a larger version appears at Page 12.

Below: The tagline in the upper right corner probably alludes to the extremely well-known 1894 song The Sidewalks of New York.

East Side, West Side was also a 1949 film noir, set in New York, with Barbara Stanwyck and James Mason.

... The Ad Men perhaps thought the gritty film breathed new life into the old song lyrics as a tagline.

The influence of conventional railroad practices was apparent in this timetable ...

There was the familiar 'read down' [eastbound] 'read up' [westbound] set-up of tables for particular routes. Notes on using the timetable appear on Page 17 - along with a B-377 (B-29) illustration. 

Given the wide expanses of globe covered by Pan Am, a 24-hour clock format is used - probably hurting the heads of many North Americans. However, many WW2 veterans would be accustomed to 'military time'. 

On some of the longer routes, flying sleeping car berths are offered. When made up they looked like conventional sections in sleeping cars. You can see this service offered on Page 6, Table 10. See the El Presidente footnote for flights PA201 and PA202. "Bed-sized berth accommodations offered at extra charge."

Sleeperette service with reclining seats and curtained privacy appears in many tables - look for the red 'S'.

On Page 8 you can see 'cargo services'.

The domestic routes operated in Latin American countries often came from Pan Am buying existing local air carriers and integrating them into their network. 

Brasilia was not designated as Brazil's capital (it was Rio de Janeiro) until 1956, so it does not appear in the tables for Brazil on Pages 10-11.

Page 14 shows extensive Cuban services while Fulgencio Batista was still running the island and profiting from its vices. The latter attracted many tourists.

*  *  *

Page 18 begins the fare tables for the different routes. 

... A 1950 US dollar equals about US $13.50 in 2025

So:

• One-way, New York to London US $4725 in 2025 dollars.
• One-way, New York to Honolulu US $4279 in 2025 dollars.
• One-way, New York to Tokyo US $10,800 in 2025 dollars.

*  *  *

On Page 21, they list their city locations and transfer arrangements. 

They will provide a transfer from Newfoundland Airport, Gander, Newfoundland (Canada) to the railway station.

Multiply fares by 13.5 to compensate for USD inflation - to express in 2025 dollars.

 *  *  *

Below is a postcard from my collection which shows one of the B-377 (enlarged B-29) aircraft probably superimposed over a cityscape of San Francisco. 

According to the internet, the first-day issue stamp was conceived 

so people could have the convenience of putting a single stamp on a postcard so it could travel via Air Mail. 

Applying the same dollar inflation calculation ... one could send a postcard via Air Mail for 54 US cents in 2025 US dollars.

CPR 1967 Inspector's Yard Record - Parkdale

In 1967, meat, beer, yeast, lettuce, oranges, grapes, frozen juice, tomatoes etc were travelling by rail. Before semi-trailers were so large, before trucks were so powerful, before highways were so fast and direct, while businesses still had their own spurs and trackside warehouses ... goods such as these had traditionally moved by rail. 

Consequently, railcar temperature control systems were once inspected, refueled and replenished at regular intervals by railway employees to protect against spoilage. Interchange rules and company policy would have spelled out how the monitoring system worked and how these activities were to be billed.

The artifact reproduced below is simply a standard CPR record book which was filled up with records in the space of a couple of weeks during the autumn of 1967. I have only reproduced 9 double-paged spreads with this post. Data was recorded in pencil, perhaps because pencils don't freeze in the Canadian winter. 

Refrigerator cars cooled by ice placed in end bunkers, and alcohol-burning heaters, are a couple of the climate-control systems you'll see mentioned

CPR's Parkdale Yard no longer exists and was small enough that some large model railway layouts might be able to model the whole thing in its entirety. 

My cursory research has turned up nothing from the mid-1960s which would explain the particular 'status' of the cars being checked ...

For example, the cars may have been part of a through freight train consist being serviced. Perhaps the cars had been set-off in the yard for handling through the service areas by a switcher. In some cases the cars must have had a relatively local origin or destination. 

The 1964 roadmap below shows the area just west of Union Station in Toronto. Near the left edge of the map you can see Parkdale Station. The CNR and CPR both had facilities at Parkdale and the station is on the CPR side. The yard was 'timetable east' of the station.

from: Toronto city map; Esso; 1964.

The CPR was well into the multi-mark period, but the cover suggests another era.

The inside front cover and inside rear cover are reproduced together below.

People familiar with the rolling stock of the era will enjoy solving the 'puzzle' of some of these records 

and the abbreviations related to the observation and maintenance of the equipment.

... This rough 60-year-old relic has some tales to tell.

To add a little context, here is a contemporary employee timetable for the CPR terminals of Toronto.

This is a railway 'division' - it is not the same as the Toronto Terminals Railway Company.

You'll see Parkdale listed at Mile 2.3 of the Galt Sub.

The general arrival times of numbered freight extras appear on Page 33.

A small sampling of customer names appears in the Footnotes on Page 35.

I previously posted the contemporary CPR shipper booklet of freight train schedules here.

CPR 1967 Fast Freight Schedules

CNR 1985 Hespeler - Look! There's a really old sta...

" ... Do you want to stop? "

" ... ... No ... it's OK ... keep going. "

This is a representative dialogue from all of our driving vacations of the 1980s and 1990s.

On this day, we kept rolling because we needed to get to Vienna (explained below) ...

*  *  *

Over the years, this has been a neglected mystery photo, 

but this 'new internet thing' quickly answers my questions ...

1) By fire: 2003. 

2) That's a woolen goods factory.

from: Two Divisions to Bluewater; Peter Bowers; 1983; Boston Mills Press.

Check out the baggage cart and train order signal.

And hello, fellow reporting marks squinters! 

... It's:

The Manistee & Northeastern!

(circa 1887-1924)

*  *  *

Grand Trunk Railway, 1916

from: Grand Trunk Railway, Official Guide, June 1916.

* * *

The local interurban railway, 1916

from: Official Guide, June 1916.

from: The Intercity Electric Railway Industry in Canada; John F Due; 1966; University of Toronto Press.

from: The Intercity Electric Railway Industry in Canada; John F Due; 1966; University of Toronto Press.

*  *  *

This 1933 map shows the strategic picture of the railway lines around Kitchener and Galt.

Going against our modern colour convention ... CPR is green, CNR is red.

from: Canada Descriptive Atlas; 1933; Minister of Immigration & Colonization.

*  *  *

Local Canadian National Railways employee timetable, 1957

*  *  *

1916 Topographic Map - Hespeler

from: Historical Topographic Map Digitization Project https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/collection/

*  *  *

1916 Topographic Map - Berlin to Galt, Hespeler

from: Historical Topographic Map Digitization Project https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/collection/

*  *  *

Bonus - A Self-Guided Tour of Vienna

My sister was obtaining her performance diploma in the City of Music, Vienna, Austria. For a couple of years, we had to write letters on light airmail paper, put the little sheets in hand-addressed envelopes, and put the correct postage (based on weight) on the envelope. It was precisely like email ... except it took a couple of weeks to get there, and consumed paper and money.

My sister was always saying that we should come over and visit. 

As we always did ... in the 1980s and 1990s ... we were looking at the paper provincial highway map of Ontario to plan our summer vacation ... and had an idea ...

David Letterman began his Late Night show in 1982, but we had been big fans of his daytime show back in 1980. 

ProTip: If you work in health care, you can often wangle a job where you get lots of weekdays off ... because you have been working lots of nights and weekends! 

Letterman's unique and original talent to aggrandize the mundane for comedic effect permeated our thinking, and influenced the 'storyboard' of our self-guided tour of Vienna ... Ontario ...

There are many more photos in the original photoset showing ALL the local buildings with 'Vienna' on them.

They made quite a bundle for the calculation of airmail postage.

(As I prepared these photos in 2024, I 'toured' around Old Vienna by Google, looking for the landmarks we photographed.

In particular, the Home Hardware is a really nice store today.)

Here we are, ready for fun, adventure and culture in the City of Music. 

Vienna Auto Wreckers and Auto Speed Shop has the finest selection 

of gently-used genuine BMW and Mercedes auto parts 

to keep you rolling down the Danube in style.

Shake hands with the Devil!

Bring in your VW Beetle 

and push it to the limit 

on our new chassis dynamometer.

Four on the floor never felt so good!

Is your old ancestral Schloss showing it's age?

Does your family room look like the Lipizzaners live in it?

Well, come to the Vienna Home and Castle Building Center 

for the best in do-it-yourself ideas, tips, hints, know-how and advice.

This week they're offering some great deals on sheets of plywood with Baroque corners.

Chase those fetid gargoyles from your old Gothic bathroom, 

then part the curtains with pride to show everyone your own Wiener Staatsoper!

You'll want the neighbours to see it, too.

The next time Franz Josef and Sisi 

bring the kids in the camper and stay for a week, 

they'll be mighty pleased to hold court in your new throne room.

That's the Vienna Home and Castle Building Center ...

Where are they?

It's easy to remember, and hard to forget,

because they're right down there on Plank Road.

... You'll be glad you did.

And so we say a fond farewell to Vienna, City of Music.

The new friends we've made.

The adventures we've had.

Sure we're tired.

... But it's a good kind of tired.

Outro:

Vienna City of my Dreams