Over its long history, the Canadian National Railways (CNR) have published many advertisements. These appeared in newspapers, magazines and especially in its own public timetables, advertising the CNR’s many services and routes.
Many of these advertisements were tourism-oriented, trying to entice travelers to visit interesting parts of Canada – and take the train to get there and stay in CN hotels!
These advertisements also called out the Canadian National trains and services, such as telegrams or reserving tickets in advance.
Like the CPR, the CNR supported Canada’s wartime efforts in World War 2.
Public timetables were filled with advertisements for Canadian National’s services. The 1940s, 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of ads in the timetables. By the 1970s, just prior to the introduction of VIA Rail, the timetables had shrunk and were mostly informational with little internal advertisements.
