These playing cards, featuring the Northerner overnight express and the Silver Fern daylight railcar, were put out by New Zealand Railways in the 1970s as part of a publicity drive. NZR set up its advertising branch in 1915, adding the railways design studios in 1920. It turned out a variety of advertising material, including posters, booklets and the New Zealand Railways Magazine, which appeared monthly from May 1926 to June 1940.