A postcard depicting a General Motor’s Aerotrain. From the back of the card: The New York Central System “The Road to the Future.” A General Motors “Aerotrain” is shown on display here at Buffalo, New York in Feb. of 1956. The train failed in regular operation and was in service on the Central less than a year. It was part of a futile effort to upgrade passenger service. Similar units were used briefly on the Pennsylvania and the Union Pacific Railroads. By 1969 the Road to the Future had proved to be the Road to Ruin. The card was distributed in 1970 by Owen Davies, Bookseller.
Postcard photo of the streamliner City of Los Angeles near Sterling, Illinois and traveling along the Rock River. The train is pulled by a EMC E2 locomotive. The City of Los Angeles was a streamlined passenger train between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California via Omaha, Nebraska, and Ogden, Utah. Between Omaha and Los Angeles it ran on the Union Pacific Railroad; east of Omaha it ran on the Chicago and North Western Railway until October 1955 and on the Milwaukee Road thereafter. This train was the top-of-the-line for the Union Pacific, which marketed it as a competitor to the Super Chief, a streamlined passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the Golden State, a streamlined passenger train jointly operated by the Rock Island and Southern Pacific railroads. As with the City of Los Angeles, many of the train’s cars bore the names of locales in and around its namesake city. Circa late 1940s.
THE FLORIDA SUNBEAM was operated by the New York Central System, the Southern Railway System, and the Seaboard Airline Railroad. On Jan. 1, 1936 the Florida Sunbeam was inaugurated as a winter-only train between Cincinnati and both coasts of Florida with through cars from Great Lakes cities. In 1949 it was replaced with the much faster, streamlined NEW ROYAL PALM on a changed routing. This linen postcard depicts an ALCO DL-109 diesel locomotive pulling the train. It was advertised as being diesel powered between Cincinnati, Ohio and Valdosta, Georgia.
The Cincinnatian was a named passenger train operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). The B&O inaugurated service on January 19, 1947, with service between Baltimore, Maryland and Cincinnati, Ohio, essentially a truncated route of the B&O’s National Limited, which operated between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri. The Cincinnatian is most famed for its original dedicated equipment, rebuilt in the B&O Mount Clare Shops. The design work was done by Olive Dennis, a pioneering civil engineer employed by the railroad and appointed by Daniel Willard to special position in charge of such work for passenger service. The livery used the blue and gray scheme designed by Otto Kuhler, which Dennis laid on the engine and tender in a pattern of horizontal stripes and angled lines. In 1950, its route was changed to travel between Detroit and Cincinnati; the train kept this route until 1971, when Amtrak assumed passenger rail service.
Mercury was the name used by the New York Central Railroad for a family of daytime streamlined passenger trains operating between Mid-western cities. The Mercury train sets were designed in 1936 by the noted industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, and are considered a prime example of Art Deco design. The success of the Mercury led to Dreyfuss getting the commission for the 1938 redesign of the NYC’s flagship, the 20th Century Limited, perhaps the most famous train in America.
The Roger Williams was a streamlined, six car, lightweight, DMU passenger train, built by the Budd Company in 1956 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The train was based on Budd’s successful RDC DMU cars. The end two cars were equipped with streamlined locomotive style cabs and noses, resembling those on the Fairbanks-Morse P-12-42 Diesel locomotives. The four intermediate cars lacked operating controls and cabs. For operation into Grand Central Terminal, the cars were each equipped with third-rail shoes, and small traction motors, allowing them to operate into the terminal under electric power, with their engines shut down. After a short period of time in high speed service, the train was split up, and the cars were used in service with the New Haven’s other RDCs. They worked for the New Haven, Penn Central, and Amtrak, until the last cars were retired in the 1980s. The 2 end cars, and one intermediate car, are preserved in operating condition, by a private owner, at the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln, New Hampshire.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Texas Rocket was a lightweight, streamlined diesel-electric passenger train built by the Budd Company and was one of six train sets built at the time. The six trains were the first streamlined equipment purchased by the Rock Island, as well as being its first diesel-powered passenger trains. Four of these trains consisted of 3 cars each, and the other two each had 4 cars. The stainless steel trains were each powered by an Electro-Motive Corporation 1,200 hp TA locomotive. Unlike many other early streamlined trains, the locomotives were not permanently attached to the trains. The trains were partially articulated, however the observation cars were not articulated with the rest of the train sets. The Texas Rocket ran from Fort Worth, Texas to Houston, Texas, 283 miles, and made one daily round trip. The Texas Rocket was the first long-distance streamliner to serve the state of Texas. Equipment included the following cars: An articulated 2 car set that was the 32 seat Baggage-dinette-coach No. 402 Dream Lake, 76 seat coach No. 302 Mesa Verde, and the 28 seat coach, lounge, observation car No. 452 Centennial. In 1938, the Denver Rocket was reassigned to Kansas City-Dallas service and the Texas Rocket was simultaneously assigned on the Kansas City-Dallas service so that Rocket service could be provided between the two cities. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/railstream and visit our website http://www.classicstreamliners.com.