Showing posts with label streamliner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label streamliner. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
this is about the biggest advertising vehicle I've ever seen
The Rexall Train, a promotional 12-car streamlined and air-conditioned train, 1936
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27862259@N02/7875235800/
"The Depression is over!", declared Louis Liggett. And with that, he put the most fantastic promotional train ever conceived on the rails to the four corners of the nation because he wished to host a national convention for druggists (pharmacists) across the country. Realizing, however, that financial struggles would likely see low turnout at a central location Liggett came up with the radical idea of hosting a rolling convention by rail.
From March to November 1936, the 12-car streamlined, air-conditioned billboard-on-wheels toured the length and breadth of the United States.
The tour made its way from Boston through the Midwest, Southwest, and north up the Pacific coast. Zigzagging across Canada and the US Northwest, the train descended into Chicago for a 3-week refurbishment half way through its tour. Back to the east coast it went before heading south, west, southeast, and north again -- finishing up on November 24, 1936 in Atlanta, GA. In the end, the train visited every state except Nevada.
Final tally: 29,000 miles, 47 states and Canada, 10,000 druggists and 20,000 Rexall salespersons, 2.3 million visitors for the Million Dollar Rexall Streamlined Train.
The NYC railroad was also the first to streamlined a steam locomotive in 1934, the Commodore Vanderbilt. This was the inspiration for #2873, which received an almost identical shrouding.
The consist included twelve heavyweight Pullman cars, completely overhauled and given a streamlined look to make the train really standout. Each car received a new roof and diaphragms that made the train the longest 'streamlined' train yet fielded.
What was dubbed "The Million Dollar Rexall Streamlined Convention Train" featured a livery of blue and white, Rexall's corporate colors. The entire consist was very well planned and coordinated: all twelve cars were named for the latest Rexall products with some open to the public as exhibitions; the other seven were either private or available only to druggists and store owners. To further enhance its appeal the train was entirely air-conditioned.
The front half of the train was planned for public exhibition. To that end, four Pullman cars were outfitted with displays of virtually every product Rexall offered. The hottest products lent their names to the cars of the train. Kantleek, Firstaid, Ad-Vantages, Research, Bisma-Rex, Cara Nome, and six other star-product names adorned on the sides of the cars.
In 109 cities the train was scheduled to host druggists' conventions. This is where the next four Pullmans came in handy. The Klenzo, Symphony, Adrienne, and Mi-31 were all converted to the standards of a topnotch convention hotel. Klenzo and Adrienne were lecture cars connected by a PA system. Between them was the dining car Symphony -- suited for serving hundreds of conventioneers a mouthwatering buffet lunch or dinner anytime, anywhere. (Pullman had provided three master chefs.) After a day of seminars, the Mi-31 offered two bars and a lounge area for relaxation.
Found on https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRailway?fref=nf
and http://www.themetrains.com/rexall-train-main.htm
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Illinois Central Green Diamond streamliner,
The Illinois Central's first streamlined passenger train proved popular with the traveling public between Chicago, and St. Louis on the Illinois Central Railroad. It operated from 1936 until 1968.
The name honored the "green diamond" in the Illinois Central's logo as well as the Diamond Special, the Illinois Central's oldest train on the Chicago-St. Louis run.
Like the second-generation City trains which it resembles, the Green Diamond was built by Pullman, but was made of Corten steel rather than aluminum. Pullman constructed the Green Diamond's original fixed consist, which included a power car, baggage/mail car, coach, coach-dinette, and kitchen-dinette-parlor-observation car. The coach seated 56, while the coach-dinette seated 44 in the coach section and the dinette area had seating for 16. The parlor car had seating for 22.
It was the last fixed-consist train built in the 1930s for a railroad in the United States. The train's interior was art deco, as was popular in the period.
Found on https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRailway?fref=photo
Found on http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=2351
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Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Evans streamliner dual purpose rail road and street car, 1935, found on Shorpy.com
The "auto railer" consists of front and rear steel pilot railroad wheels attached to a conventional type of bus or truck. The pilot wheels are raised for operation over highways but can be let down when the vehicle reaches the tracks. The vehicle runs on its own tires over the rails with the pilot wheels guiding it along the track.
Found on http://www.shorpy.com/node/17521
Evans Products started out building wood products; first, a wooden block that allowed easy loading of autos on railcars, then cedar separators for the plates in a car battery. John S. Evans set a record in 1928 by flying around the world in 28 days.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
the City of San Francisco streamliner train up close
Found on Shorpy.com which as you can see does a better job of posting up close detail photos of trains than any train website I've ever seen
Friday, January 30, 2015
The most beautiful streamline designs of locomotives
Streamlining the old steam locomotives was done for several reasons, as backups for the diesels that weren't trusted as much as the steam engines, and because it was cheaper to facelift old engines than by new diesels, and they felt the streamlined engines would be good for 2-10 % more weight load.
The fact that they are beautiful helps too.
In 1934 the New York Central went with the expertise of industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, who had only worked in design since 1929.
You might also be a fan of his designs that became the Princess™ phone, the Perisphere at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair and the Strategy Rooms at the Pentagon. However, Dreyfuss is best known among 2-cylinder enthusiasts for his design of the 1939 Model A and B John Deere tractors.
above, the streamlined Art Deco styled shell of the locomotive was designed by Raymond Loewy. In 1937, Pennsylvania Railroad officials decided to build a new passenger locomotive to replace its aging K4s locomotive.
The S1 was the only locomotive ever built to use a 6-4-4-6 wheel arrangement. Also, the S1 class was a duplex locomotive, meaning that it had two pairs of cylinders, each driving two pairs of driving wheels. Unlike similar-looking articulated locomotive designs, the driven wheelbase of the S1 was rigid.
6100 was taken out of service in 1944 (after only four years of service) and scrapped in 1949.
The final construction cost for the S1 was $669,780.00
The S1 was completed January 31, 1939 and was assigned locomotive number 6100. It was the largest express passenger locomotive ever constructed, the cast steel locomotive bed plate made by General Steel Castings was the largest single-piece casting ever made for a locomotive application and was so heavy the six-wheel leading and trailing trucks were added. It so large that it could not negotiate the track clearances on most of the lines of the PRR system. In its brief service life it was restricted to the main line between Chicago, Illinois and Crestline, Ohio
To really appreciate how long this locomotive was, you must first have a frame of reference. Consider the Big Boy. The Big Boy was generally considered to be the "largest" steam locomotive ever. It was over 132 feet long. Unlike the Big Boy, the S-1 was not an articulated locomotive, yet, it was a whopping 140 feet long!
The S1 was displayed at the New York World's Fair of 1939, to reach the World's Fair, the S1 took a circuitous route over the Long Island Rail Road. Many obstacles had to be temporarily removed and other obstacles were passed at a slow crawl to reach the fairgrounds.
Here is is at the 1939 Worlds Fair with the Boy Scouts giving it a look
At the World's Fair the S1 was a dynamic display; the drive wheels operated under the locomotive's own steam power. This was done by placing the S1 on a platform that had rollers under the drive wheels. By using this type of display, visitors could see the duplex drive in use.
http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/sunday-streamline-14-the-big
I just posted about the Mercury, above: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-new-york-central-mercury.html
all the above found on http://www.pinterest.com/JohnLasschuit/old-steam-trains/?z=1
In 1941, Otto Kuhler streamlined a 1923 Alco Pacific locomotive for the Southern Railway for use on its Tennessean train, which (in conjunction with the Pennsylvania and Norfolk & Western) connected New York with Memphis. One of the Southern Railway’s bright green Pacific locomotives is displayed in the Smithsonian Museum, and the Tennessean locomotive combines this color scheme with the bullet-style of the B&O Royal Blue.
very faintly on the stripe down the side you can make out the words Frisco Lines
above, an example of the Union Pacific city streamliners.. full write up at http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/sunday-streamline-16-union
huge
all about the West Burlington Aeolus http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/sunday-streamline-19-west
The Crusader covered the ninety miles between Jersey City and Philadelphia in a flat 90 minutes for an average speed of 60-mph. Because the Crusader was double ended it did not require turning at terminals. The Reading simply turned the power and reversed the seats in the cars for the return trip to Philadelphia.
below: The Empire State Express info about it at http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/sunday-streamline-29-dreyfuss
A design by Dreyfuss
Following the success of streamline Mercury trains*, the New York Central decided to launch all-new trainsets on its Chicago line. In 1938, industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss was commissioned by the New York Central to design streamlined train sets in Art Deco style
His design was probably the most famous American passenger train of all time. The 20th Century Limited was built for style and stardom (the train conveyed the New York lifestyle) and it tailored perfectly to young executives and “new money.” So popular was the train that the Central often had to run two trains, one in each direction.
Found on http://www.lov2xlr8.no/
Friday, January 23, 2015
The New York Central "Mercury"
Wow, that is beautiful... and notice the "white wall" wheels
Found on https://www.facebook.com/ifinglovethis?fref=nf
David emailed me the following:
In the 1930s, the railroads introduced Streamlined Passenger trains to bring excitement and to lure passengers to back the rails, as the recent lowering of the prices of cars (Model T etc) had discouraged spending money on riding trains when a used car was quite affordable.
Other railroad companies (like the Burlington Route did with its Zephyrs,
the Union Pacific did with its "City" streamliner trains,
the Illinios Central's did with its Green Diamond trains,
and the Baltimore and Ohio did with its Royal Blue/Abraham Lincoln trains )
spent "big money" purchasing a new diesel locomotive and streamlined train sets during the depression, the frugal New York Central turned to Henry Dreyfuss, an industrial designer, for its “clean lined” design.
( His contemporaries were John Fredrick Harbeson of GM's Electro-Motive Diesel division, Otto Kuhler, Raymond Loewy and Brooks Stevens - the last two designed for Studebaker)
Loewy train design: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/raymond-loewys-120th-birthday-is-google.html
Stevens designed the Olympain Hiawatha observation cars: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/olympian-hiawatha-railroad-observation.html
the GM Electro motive Aerotrain: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/gm-aerotrain.html
The locomotive shops in Albany, NY upgraded the spoke-type driving wheels with disc-type driving wheels (for better balance for higher rotational speed), roller bearings, and were given "White walls" and centers to contrast with the I-beam connecting rods.
The wheels and rods were illuminated at night to "add visual excitement" for the introduction of the new 1936 trains. Passenger cars were rebuilt from 1920s commuter coaches and upgraded to beautiful matched Streamlined passenger cars by the railroad's Indianapolis Car shops.
Running between (appropriately) Detroit, MI and Cleveland, OH, via Toledo, OH, the train was scheduled at 165 miles in 165 minutes westbound for Detroit and 170 minutes Eastbound, (including stops).
More details are available in the book The Art of the Streamliner, http://www.amazon.com/Art-Streamliner-Bob-Johnston/dp/1586631462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422157548&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Art+of+the+Streamliner by Bob Johnson and Joe Welsh, with Mike Schafer
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