Lost America: Big Trains Rolling (1955)

As a youngster, your Head Trucker was fortunate enough to travel many times on some of the fine old streamliners before passenger service was all given over to Amtrak. Here is a classic film, intended for showing in elementary schools, about the complex operations of the railroads before passenger trains were done in by airlines and Interstates.  Notice the colorful paint jobs of the sleek diesels that were rapidly putting steam locomotives out of business.  Note also the beauty and the optimism of an America that is now long gone.

But this happy picture was not to last - for the times are always a-changing in human life. Who could have believed that in the next decade, Carol and Jimmy would grow up to despise the neat, tree-lined neighborhood they grew up in, denounce their parents as capitalist pigs, and demand to overthrow the Establishment and smash the system to pieces?  Where are they now, I wonder?

And the beat goes on . . . 

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The Nickel Plate Story (1953)

One of your Head Trucker's favorite railroad films: a well-produced profile of the Nickel Plate Road, one of the smaller Class I railroads, providing a nice overview of freight operations at the end of the steam era, along with charming glimpses of American life sixty years ago - a time of unbounded optimism and limitless resources, or so it seemed.

Vista-Dome Adventure (ca. 1960)

The CZ gliding through the Colorado Rockies behind a gold-and-silver team of Rio Grande F3's.  Click to enlarge.

An entrancing ride on the orignal California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco - don't you wish you could board this train?

Cover of CZ brochure, showing one of the Zephyrettes on duty.
Click to enlarge.

Fresh for Health (1956)

Santa Fe reefer by Lionel.  Click to enlarge.

The Santa Fe shows off its ultra-modern, high-speed refrigerated freight service in this promotional film:




It really is a marvel to think how many hundreds of millions of people were - and are - fed so well by so few in this country.

Rainbow on the Rails

In 2012 and again last year, the North Carolina Transportation Museum held a colorful gathering of surviving first-generation diesels from all over the country at the historic Spencer Shops in the Tarheel State.  Here's an unnarrated but nicely photographed record of the beautiful streamlined paint schemes:  most are E-units and F-units built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, which your Head Trucker thinks are tops; but some railfans prefer the Alco PA, seen here in Nickel Plate colors.  The prettiest loco may well be the Atlantic Coast Line's slant-nosed E3 in its eye-popping livery of purple, silver, and gold.



Also on view is the famous EMD FT 103 demonstrator from 1939, known as "the diesel that did it"; diesel locomotives had been used on passenger trains as early as 1934, but railroads were not convinced that diesels could be counted on to haul much-heavier freight trains until the FT was sent on tour around the country, successfully demonstrating its power.  The demands of the war effort delayed mass production of diesels until 1945, but soon thereafter thousands of them were to be seen speeding along the nation's railroads.  The efficiency and economy of diesels quickly resulted in steam's demise on major routes, with the last regular steam-hauled trains on major railroads being replaced with diesel by 1960.

And also on display is the magnificent streamlined steam locomotive Norfolk and Western J-class 611. The 611 has spent the last twenty years in a museum, but was taken out last year for restoration and is due to start its revived excursion career later this year.

The Train-Plane-Trail

A little lesson in forgotten history:  85 years ago this summer, the fastest way to get from one side of the country to the other was by way of a startling innovation:  a transcontinental route that wedded trains with planes to deliver you from New York to Los Angeles in only 48 hours!  Which was a whole day and a half quicker than the fastest train connections at that time.

The 27-year-old Charles Lindbergh, still idolized by the public for his solo transatlantic flight just two years previously, was one of the organizers of this venture, the airline part of which was called Transcontinental Air Transport, working in partnership with two of the biggest and best American railroads, the Pennsylvania and the Santa Fe.

As with all the images, click to enlarge.

The first trip westbound from New York to Los Angeles commenced at 6:05 p.m. on July 7, 1929; one-way fare was $351.94, equivalent to $4790 in today's dollars (see measuringworth.com, a handy little site for converting money figures past and present).  Passengers travelled in Pullman sleepers overnight to a new airport near Columbus, Ohio, where they left the train and boarded a Ford Tri-Motor, a highly reliable, state-of-the art aircraft seating ten passengers in comfy wicker chairs with seat belts, each one next to an operable window.  While the pilot and co-pilot kept the plane on course towards stops in Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Wichita, and Waynoka, Oklahoma, a uniformed steward served drinks and meals.  No stewardesses in those days - aviation was considered "a man's job."

Scenes of the trusty Ford Tri-Motor in flight.

In Waynoka, reached after a full day of flying at about 2500 feet and 100 miles per hour, passengers boarded a Santa Fe train and slept again in Pullmans while speeding through the night to Clovis, New Mexico, where again they boarded another "Tin Goose" to fly to Albuquerque, Winslow and Kingman, Arizona, and finally landing in Los Angeles late in the afternoon. There, passengers bound for San Francisco had the choice of taking an overnight train or going by a connecting flight the next morning.

Unfortunately, the airline never turned a profit, and business was not helped by a couple of ugly crashes - due to bad weather or mid-air collisions in those pre-radar, pre-FAA days - that killed all aboard.  Critics and scoffers said TAT meant "Take a Train." Nevertheless, in the first year of operation, 30,000 undaunted passengers made the trip.

In November 1929, TAT merged with a competing western airline, and the result was, several mergers later, the very successful, globe-spanning TWA system. However, by 1932 aviation technology had improved to the point that night flying was possible, making the coasts only 24 hours apart, so the partnership with railroads quickly became unnecessary.

Still, it was the latest, greatest, coolest swellest thing for its time - now merely a quaint memory, but no doubt pretty amazing then for those who could afford the fare.  For further reading, see this 1975 American Heritage article.

3rd Ave. El

A quirky little art film made not long before the eighty-year-old railway was demolished in 1955.  A reminder that the familiar world is always passing away, and the new is always rushing at us.