Back then, it was called "streamlining".  All of these could easily do 100 mph on a level straightaway.  Beautiful machines in a simpler time.

I think they are beautiful even today, better than any modern stuff I've seen.

Nice shots of some nice looking trains.

Let us not forget the Pennsylvania Railroad's T-1 duplex locomotives.

 

Between 1942 and 1946, fifty-two of them were built by Baldwin and the PRR Altoona Shops. They could haul a 16-car passenger train at 100 mph, and were used on the railroad's prestige trains. A retired Pennsy engineer from Fort Wayne claimed to have run them at speeds up to 120 mph pulling the Broadway Limited over the long, flat straightaways in western Ohio and northern Indiana. The mechanical design was by Baldwin and the styling was by Raymond Loewy. They were painted a rich Brewster Green, although in the few color photos that exist, it seldom shows through the soot and grime.

 

I have a faint memory of seeing one when I was seven or eight years old. Dad had suddenly pulled the car over on old US 30 between Fort Wayne and Columbia City, and we got out and stood a little ways from the track as the Broadway Limited passed. I don't remember much detail, just a huge machine, a tremendous roar, and a lot of black smoke. From a distant headlight to a rushing by to a trail of smoke hanging over empty track, seemed only to take an instant.

 

 

They were all retired by 1949, and the last one was scrapped in 1953.

 

A lot of them were based at the Pennsy's big roundhouse and yard at Crestline, Ohio.  They didn't last long in service because of recurring mechanical problems, but they were beautiful machines.

The shovelnose aticulated streamliners are the first diesel streamliners, the Burlington Zephyrs, running usually between Chicago and Denver and Chicago and the Twin Cities.

 

The Milwualkee Road, which is the railroad I grew up with, had its custom-built Hiawatha streamliner, which was the Burlingtons competition on the Chicago-Twin Cities route during the 1930s (in steam).

 

 

 

Also competing for the Twin Citys traffic was "Chicagos Railroad", the Northwestern with its "400" streamliner

 

 

...all these regularly clocked 110 MPH.

 

...the "Twin Cities 400" and the Union Pacific/Northwestern "City of Denver" with an early version of a diesel, from the WWII era, early dieselization.

 

 

 

Also, at the end of the '30s. this electric streamliner started to run between Chicago & Milwaulkee. The design was based on the Burlington Zephyrs.

 

 

It came into Chicago via the Loop.  It is said it was like taking the L to Milwaulkee, except with a parlor and dining car.

 

 

..this train ran as late as 1964 (between Chicago and Milwaulkee).

 

 

 

 

The North Shore Electroliners (Jeff's last two pics) still exist, so far as I know. One operates occasionally at Illinois Railway Museum at Union, and in 1995 I saw the other one, stored in pretty deplorable condition. If I remember correctly, it was at Shade Gap Electric Railroad, which shares property with East Broad Top Railroad at Orbisonia, PA.

 

I just happened to remember another item that never reached production or scheduled service, but that demonstrates that as late as 1966 the New York Central was interested in high-speed rail. To determine how fast passenger trains could travel on conventional tracks, they outfitted an RDC-3 (self-propelled diesel rail car) with two GE jet engines bought surplus from the USAF and made test runs on the long straightaway between Butler, Indiana, and Strker, Ohio. It took a bit of Googling, but I finally found a photo.

 

They were one way runs; the diesel locomotive at the rear end in the photo was being used to tow the car back to its starting point.

 

 

Their best run reached a speed in excess of 180 mph. After the tests, the car was stripped of its jet engines and streamlined cowling and returned to commuter service in the Northeast.

I think they are beautiful even today, better than any modern stuff I've seen.

 

Ohhh Ink....you silly traditionalist  :wink:

I love the picture of the Milwaukee-bound train on the L tracks at Wells Street just north of the Loop. I didn't know any inter-city trains used the elevated tracks. It must have switched to the Skokie Swift tracks at the Howard Station and then continued up the North Western tracks.

 

Speaking of the L, I just got back from a weekend in Chicago and I'm saddened by the decline of service. The Red Line (which I still tend to call the Howard Line) is dismally slow, with frequent unscheduled stops between stations. What used to be service in excess of 50 mph on some stretches, now seems to be barely 20 mph. In the '80s, it was a 20-minute ride to the Loop from my old stop, at Loyola.

Ooops, I think. Now that I look more closely, I'm not sure that picture is northbound above Wells at Lake Street. Anybody know for sure?

I love the picture of the Milwaukee-bound train on the L tracks at Wells Street just north of the Loop. I didn't know any inter-city trains used the elevated tracks. It must have switched to the Skokie Swift tracks at the Howard Station and then continued up the North Western tracks.

 

Yes, you are correct, the Skokie Swift was part of this line.

 

The North Shore had two lines, the "shore line" through all those North Shore suburbs (which included some street running), and finally some very well engineered right-of-way up to Milwaulkee beyond Waukegan (straight as an arrow, bypassing Racine and Kenosha). 

 

In the 1920s the Skokie Valley Route was built to bypass the congested North Shore, and it branched off at the Howard Street station, then ran through what is now Skokie and a few other suburbs like Deerfield and Northbrook (using high tension line ROW..the high tension wire gantrys where incorporated into the power trestles) before connecting back with the main at Waukegan.  The Skokie Swift is all thats left of that route, and the Evanston service north of Howard is all thats left of the Shore Line route.

 

The pix of the Electroliner in the loop is looking north, and the train is southbound, I think.

 

The Aurora/Elgin also came into Chicago on the L, the old Garfield Park L (replaced by the line running down the middle of the Eisenhower Expy), but it didn't loop the Loop like the North Shore did..the A/E terminated at a station at Wells and Jackson, I think.

 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

I remember that pix Rob has of that NYC railcar powered by what looks like a B52 engine!  That was published  in "Trains" magazine back in the 1960s, when I was a kid...but in black and white, so I didnt realize that engine "cone" was painted in red.

 

Those RDCs where built by the Budd company, who I think did the very first streamliners that where posted in the thread header.

 

I'm not sure my memory is correct on this, but I think the building where you enter the station at Wilson was built as a North Shore station.

I think they are beautiful even today, better than any modern stuff I've seen.

 

Ohhh Ink....you silly traditionalist  :wink:

 

Thanks for the compliment!

Speaking of rails what is everyone's thought on Cincinnati installing a light rail that would connect downtown to the UC area?  There was an article in the Business Courier about KY taking some initial steps and putting a light rail in their 5 year plan.  At the Discover Cincy event last week at Music Hall some forerunners of the idea of putting one in Cincinnati had a booth set up.  Their presentation was pretty impressive.  This topic might be in another area on the site, so forgive me because I am still getting used to the setup.

^Im sure almost everyone on this forum would be all for it. I know I would! That would be the smartest thing Cincinnati ever did.

Speaking of rails what is everyone's thought on Cincinnati installing a light rail that would connect downtown to the UC area?  There was an article in the Business Courier about KY taking some initial steps and putting a light rail in their 5 year plan.  At the Discover Cincy event last week at Music Hall some forerunners of the idea of putting one in Cincinnati had a booth set up.  Their presentation was pretty impressive.  This topic might be in another area on the site, so forgive me because I am still getting used to the setup.

 

This thread would be the best place for you to get the insight of the other forumers about this topic:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=9.0

Anything that features Art Deco - like some of those beeeeutiful trains is aces with me.  Thx for the shots!

 

I voted for light rail a few years back and curse those 70% who did not as a crawl my way down I-71 every morning. 

I just dont get it because whenever they install a lightrail, real estate in that area skyrockets. Theres no way you can say that it's a bad investment. Also, if density is a problem, you can expect the density to increase when all is said and done.

Getting back to the thread header...heres something akin to the Electroliner...this train ran between Peoria and Decatuer Illinois (I think)

'

 

 

Speaking of rail is Cincinnati getting street cars or is that just a proposal at this point?

Cleaned up, per requests.

I was wondering if there are any pix of streamliner in Ohio?  I think the Norfolk and Western had one, that came in to Cincinnati.

 

that features Art Deco - like some of those beeeeutiful trains is aces with me.  Thx for the shots!]Anything that features Art Deco - like some of those beeeeutiful trains is aces with me.  Thx for the shots!

 

The interiors where pretty good, too.  I couldnt find any pix, but some of the parlor and dining cars where some good examples of deco/moderne design.

 

Someone should start an Ohio Art Deco Society.  I know I'd join!  :-)

 

 

Here's some Ohio photos. In the 1950s, there were two attempts at developing lightweight, high-speed trains for the Midwest-Northeast. One was the Aerotrain, which operated on several different railroads, including the Pennsylvania RR. The other was the Xplorer, which operated over the New York Central, frequently over their Big Four routes such as between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.

 

Here are some pictures of the New York Central low-slung, high-speed Xplorer in 1956, as seen at:

 

Columbus Union Station

 

 

Columbus Union Station, showing how close to the rails the Xplorer was, and thus its center of gravity was much lower so it could take curve faster

 

 

Worthington

 

 

The photo credit for this shot also said "Worthington" but I think this also was Columbus Union Station...

 

 

Then there was the New York Central's Mercury. Its initial service ran between two of the railroad's biggest customer bases -- Detroit and Cleveland. Later expansions of Mercury service came to the Chicago - Detroit corridor and even Cincinnati - Detroit. New York Central saw the Cleveland - Detroit corridor as an untapped market. It was a terrific route for business travelers, among the steel, auto and shipping industries. But the rail service between them was slow -- taking four hours in the 1930s. In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, New York Central rebuilt some commuter coaches into snazzy parlor, coach and dining cars, and added art deco streamlining to standard steam locomotives. The result was NYC's Mercury, The Greek God of Speed, which departed from Cleveland each morning around 7 a.m., arriving in Detroit before 10 a.m. and returning to Cleveland in the afternoon. It regularly cruised at 90 mph, and offered the finest cuisine in its diner and drinks in its rear all-glass observation car. That is, until the Ohio Turnpike opened in 1955 and the eventually Mercury faded away...

 

 

There is a terrific book about the Mercury, by Richard Cook, and can be found at Wings Hobby Shop in Lakewood. It's on Detroit Avenue, near St. James Church.

I never noticed before, but it looks like the Xplorer provided some of the inspiration for the design of Amtrak's 1970s Amfleet rolling stock. The nose of the locomotive looks like a more aerodynamic, low-slung version of Baldwin's Sharks.

 

I don't know what the Aerotrain inspired, unless maybe the Edsel:

 

photo from Wikipedia

A few more "streamliners"....

< :type: photo=0 >I think the earliest application of streamlining, mostly in the steam era, was in the various railroads' "Limiteds."

 

The name had significance then, unlike its current carry-over use on Amtrak. Limited trains were often premium-class trains, with sleepers, diner, and parlor-lounges, and no coaches. They stopped only at division points, typically every 100 - 150 miles, where operating crews and locomotives were exchanged while passengers detrained or boarded and baggage was handled.

 

Engines and crews were exchanged at division points because steam engines required coal, water, lubrication and dumping/cleaning of ash pans at those distances. It was common for an engineer and fireman to work the same engine day in and day out, and divisions were mostly defined by the distance that could be covered in a day, in an earlier time of much slower trains. Rather than delay the train while servicing the locomotive the railroads would position a freshly-prepared engine on a siding at the passenger station, and an accomplished crew could make the change in a remarkably short time, without so much as a bump to disturb sleeping travelers on night trains.

 

Fort Wayne had engine terminals on three mainlines, the Pennsylvania (Chicago - New York/Washington), Nickel Plate (Chicago - Buffalo) and Wabash (Detroit - Kansas City), and all three ran premium passenger services through here. There was even a jointly-operated train by the Pennsylvania and the Wabash, The Detroit Arrow, that allowed both railroads to compete successfully in the lucrative market between Chicago and Detroit. It traveled between Chicago and Fort Wayne on the Pennsylvania, and between Fort Wayne and Detroit on the Wabash. The two railroads crossed downtown with an interchange track between them, and the depots were on opposite sides of the interchange just a couple of blocks apart. I think the train alternated between depots depending on the direction of travel. It was one of the fastest trains, terminal-to-terminal, with an average speed for the entire distance of 70 mph.

 

A former boss who used to use that train told me that they could do an engine change in under two minutes. That's anecdotal, and although I suppose it's possible if perfectly orchestrated and practiced enough, it's incredible that they could do that consistently and not kill a crew member sooner or later.</  :type: >

Sounds like something my grandpa would rant about.

 

 

When I was your age....

 

Some of those trains look extremely modern though.

A former boss who used to use that train told me that they could do an engine change in under two minutes. That's anecdotal, and although I suppose it's possible if perfectly orchestrated and practiced enough, it's incredible that they could do that consistently and not kill a crew member sooner or later.</  :type: >

 

Maybe not... The Broadway Limited was allowed just three minutes for the locomotive change at Harrisburg, from steam to electric eastbound or electric to steam westbound.

Interesting to note that the reason many railroads attempted to "streamline" some of their steam locomotives was because many had not yet begun to buy the already streamlined diesel passenger locomotives, but wanted their old steamers to at least have "the look".

 

Here's a good example from the Milwaukee Road, which served Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul and on to the Pacific Coast.

They give the impression of speed, and it's not a misleading one. They were very fast, but I'll bet the shop crews hated them. A conventional steam locomotive is fairly straightforward to work on, if heavy and cumbersome; all the working parts are pretty much exposed.

 

Those streamlined ones concealed all the functional components under acres of sheet metal that had to be removed to perform maintenance.

A friend of mine in Chicago saw one when he was about 7 years old.  According to him, these engines were capable of speeds in excess of 105 mph and regularly ran at 100-mph-plus speeds in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor.

 

Here's another photo I ran across today... the "Comet", which ran on the New Haven Railroad.  Pretty radical for it's day (the 1930's), though it only ran for a few years before being scrapped.

 

 

Good shots of the Comet.

 

Some of the earliest attempts at streamlining applied shrouding to existing conventional locomotives, with matching styling and paint schemes applied to existing conventional coaches. On the other hand, outfits like the Comet were designed from the ground up as permanently-coupled trainsets using locomotives with the best available new technology.

 

Note that adjacent cars on the Comet share a set of wheels (known as trucks) at the point where they're coupled together. That design eliminates one set of trucks per car, and trucks can weigh three to six tons per set. That's a significant reduction in overall weight, and eliminates nearly half the friction and rotating weight in the train set. Rotating weight is a major factor in acceleration and deceleration performance.

 

I think the North Shore Electroliners were articulated trainsets.

Note that adjacent cars on the Comet share a set of wheels (known as trucks) at the point where they're coupled together.

 

The frenchies like to brag about that development for the TGV, as if they invented it. Where they have room to brag is that they didn't let that invention go to waste -- like we did. And like we did with tilting/pendulum technologies that allow trains to go faster around curves. Europeans like to talk about tilt-train technology like they invented it. Our railroads were just notoriously slow to embrace their own innovation.

Note that adjacent cars on the Comet share a set of wheels (known as trucks) at the point where they're coupled together. That design eliminates one set of trucks per car, and trucks can weigh three to six tons per set. That's a significant reduction in overall weight, and eliminates nearly half the friction and rotating weight in the train set. Rotating weight is a major factor in acceleration and deceleration performance.

 

I think the North Shore Electroliners were articulated trainsets

 

Yes, the Electroliners, like most of those very early streamliners, where articulated.  I know articulation wasnt too popular with the mainline roads as it reduced the flexibility of changing cars the way one could with conventional rolling stock, but it worked for the North Shore due to the tight curves on the Loop.

 

Some roads did some streamlining that didnt require a lot of shrouding.  The Norfolk & Western had custom built locomotives at their Roanoke shops that had a clean look, but still kept most of the mechanicals by the wheels and cylinders exposed.  I think this was the case with the SP Daylights over in California and the CN Royal Hudsons.

 

 

You mean like this?

... The Norfolk & Western had custom built locomotives at their Roanoke shops that had a clean look, but still kept most of the mechanicals by the wheels and cylinders exposed. 

 

Fourteen 4-8-4 J-class locomotives were designed and built entirely by N&W employees in the railroad's Roanoke shops between 1941 and 1950. NW 611, one of three built in 1950, pretty much represents the apex of steam locomotive design in North America.

 

The J-class engines could deliver a tractive effort of 80,000 pounds, making them the most powerful of all standard 4-8-4 locomotives. They were equipped with Timken roller bearings throughout and could run without servicing for longer distances at higher speeds than most other steam locomotives. They were designed to pull 10 heavyweight cars at 110mph.

 

 

 

Even though I've seen lots of steam locomotives in operation, watching this one pass was an especially memorable experience. The sleek styling made it seem to almost glide along the rails, and it didn't have the sharp exhaust bark of many engines, probably because it had such a surplus of power that it didn't have to work hard to accelerate even a long train.