Photos and Artwork: Colorful Passenger Trains--updated 2/27

Bob, I should have given Mr. Nowak credit for the Alco NYC photo in the original post in this thread.  I've had his book, Ed Nowak's New York Central, for years.

Pingman thank you for starting this thread....and to all of you for contributing to it. I loved these trains. 

luvtrains, you're welcome.  These types of threads cause me to scan a modest number of images; I'm glad to have them on the computer.  A thread like this is an added bonus.

 

Looking forward to others posting their favorites.

Took this picture at Washington's Union Station's 100th anniversary in 2008. From left to right; PRR E8, ACL E3, PRR GG1, SR Crescent E8,  and C&O F3.

Thanks CNJ3676 (Bob) for the Blue Comet photos.

 

And, thanks to CAPPilot (Ron) for that beautiful color shot.  I'll be better versed in E units once I get Jeff Wilson's E unit book and have some time with it.

Finally found the folder with all my Union Station's 100th anniversary pictures, although because of the lighting none are very good.  They do show the colors of these great engines.

 

 

Here is a B&O GP9 that was used in commuter service.

 

 

And now for a slightly more modern engine.

 

CAPPilot, glad you found the photos; I like them a lot.

 

I like to repaint PW F units in liveries LIONEL never did; still want to do the ACL purple/silver scheme.

 

Thanks for taking the time to locate these pictures and sharing them here with us.

These are great!

 

Being from Florida I may be biased, but I love the colors of the old Seaboard Orange Blossom Special and Silver Metor locomotives.

 

Joe, those are great artwork.  Are they postcards?  Seaboard ads/marketing?

 

I was in G'ville from '65 to '69 and never saw them; were they operating then?

The postcards I found online.  From what I have gathered, the Orange Blossom stopped running in the late 50s.  The Silver Meteor kept running, but Seaboard merged with Atlantic Coast Line in the late 60s.  Perhaps they discontinued that color scheme after the merger?

Pingman and Joe,

 

By the time I moved to FL in 1953, the SAL had switched the Sea Foam (VERY light green) and Red paint scheme.  I must admit, I never saw any green on a loco, they all looked like white or cream.

 

ChipR

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 byDaniel Willard to special position in charge of such work for passenger service.^[4] Four P-7 "president" class Pacific locomotives (5301-5304) were rebuilt and shrouded as class P-7d, with roller bearings on all axles and larger six-axle tenders. Older heavyweight passenger cars were completely stripped and rebuilt asstreamliners. 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 From Wikipedia

Steam into History runs this train on the historic Northern Central Railway between New Freedom and Hanover Junction south of York, PA, about 6 miles west of Exit 4 on I-83. No 17 rolled out of [David] Kloke Locomotive Works, Elgin, IL, in May, 2013. The Reader Railroad in Arkansas built these wooden passenger cars that summer.

 

President Abraham Lincoln changed trains here at Hanover Junction from the main line to Sunbury to deliver his Gettysburg Address. The curve in the foreground is the remnant of the branch to Hanover and Gettysburg. No. 17 is facing New Freedom.

 

 

 

 

Agreed and thanks for sharing Joe. 

Outstanding !   What is it about a really classy passenger train?  My earliest recollection is the Pittsburgher in the mid '50s.  Cleanest Pennsy passenger train I ever saw...and I saw an awful lot !   Anyone have the Phoebe Snow, especially with NKP through sleepers??

The thread's title has been edited to include artwork which was often used by the railroads to market and advertise these colorful trains; keep 'em coming.

THANK YOU, ERIK!

       
       


Sure thing Carl

Anyone have any good pictures of the IC City of New Orleans?  Was there more than one paint scheme?  I believe the CNO was a night train out of Chicago to NO?  It must have returned to Chicago in the daytime?  My all-time favorite train song is "The City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie.

 

Art

Art,

 

CNO was coach, daytime train, both directions.  in 1954: 7:50am - 12:15am southbound, 7:15am - 11:40pm northbound.

 

ChipR

Thanks CNJ 3676 for that awesome Phoebe assemblage!  When Ms. snow first appeared in the late 19th century, she was turned about with long straight black hair.

I also thank you for the Miss Phoebe tribute. 

D&RGW Alco in the lead with an EMD B unit with a two car consist:

 

 

A Central of Georgia E unit with a two car consist:

 

 

Some interiors...

 

 

C&O Tavern Lounge, circa 1940. Note the aquarium.

I will begin throwing in some of my collection of original literature.

Not sure if it means anything I must give respect to copyrights of the commercial artists and railroads the owners of the following. These may and likely contain (c) copyrights

 

American Freedom Train art for Pepsi Cola

Bob - Thanks for the pictures on the CNO.  I see that the paint jobs on the engines are different on the B&W versus the color shots.  The first one has the green diamond logo on the front and the last ones the more modern rail section logo.  I also see that they were running three E units each time.

 

Art

I'm guessing the engines shown on the CNO were E-7's?  I'm a little surprised that they needed three units as that is primarily a water level route following the Mississippi River.  And I read on Wikipedia that the CNO was a daylight train before Amtrak and is now an overnight.  They have had some nasty accidents on that route before and after Amtrak.  In fact it said that the first fatal Amtrak accident was on it.

 

Art

WOW !....the cultural loss we've suffered is truly staggering !

I am really enjoying this thread - great pics and commentary.

 

Maybe we should remember, though, that there were more mundane and serious passenger trains. Don't want to hijack this thread, but here is a youtube video that might be of interest to you guys:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07DGeLvDw8I

Wonderful collection of ephemera, Erik. Love this stuff, and have a modest collection myself. Thanks for posting.

"Wonderful collection of ephemera, Erik. Love this stuff, and have a modest collection myself. Thanks for posting."

 

Echo that!

I believe Erik posted photos of a brochure GM distributed as part of its tour of the Train of Tomorrow.  You can use this link to download a copy of the brochure in its spread-out view by using this link:

 

http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=946

 

 

 

 

A lot of excellent art work on this thread.

Love the artwork; THANKS to all who posted.

 

A couple of photos of a train in my favorite color: 

 

 

 

 

E7A's, stainless steel, red paint--beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing thread one of the best I have seen in a very long time! 

 

Many thanks to all who have contributed thus far, really great stuff!

A few more photos and artwork for The Texas Special:

 

 

More of the Great Northern's Empire Builder:

 

 

Found some interesting images of Northern Pacific's marketing/advertising the introduction of dome cars and marketing the North Coast Limited and, some prototype photos, as well:

 

 

 

 

While its North Coast Limited was undoubtedly THE name train of Northern Pacific, its "Mainstreeter" was also a prominent name train of the railroad:

 

 

EDIT:  Problem fixed.

Actually there IS!

 

See that little triangle down in the lower right of every post, the triangle with the little exclamation point in it?  Hold you cursor on that for a few seconds and see what it says.

As the thread's starter, I don't see the triangle in my posts on this thread.

 

EDIT:  Problem with page one has been fixed.

Nope. When I desire to emphasize a particular word, I capitalize it for emphasis, and get your attention. I tend to speak to folks face-to-face the same way. 

The Atlantic Coast Line "Champion":

 

 

The Illinois Central's "City of New Orleans" has been immortalized by the song--wonder how many listen to it and DON'T know it's about a train?  It certainly was a colorful train and well-promoted by IC:

 

 

Wonderful photos everyone.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this entire thread.

-Greg

Thanks for the most recent photos. 

 

If you haven't visited the first page of this thread in a couple of days, I've edited the first post to name every member who supplied an image, photo or artwork, in this thread.  To each of you, THANK YOU!  (And if I have overlooked anyone, let me know.)

 

Let's keep it going; there's plenty more photos and artwork to share here.

To "keep it going," let's add to the first post's N&W Powhatan Arrow with more photos and artwork:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carl - Thanks for the City of New Orleans pictures.  I didn't realize they had a dome on that train?  It looks like it was a first class train in it's day.  Now I have to listen to the song again while I'm in the mood.

 

Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mill City (Jon) is that the Bluebird?

It is, Carl. Identifying photo added above. Here's another...

 

 

 

Not from the railroad, but a personal favorite nonetheless . . .

 

 

 

looks like somebodies went back in time and robbed a travel agency!!! All the cool ephemera. Awesome thread!!!!

Art, I saw your post in the thread about what "name" trains should be made, and I recalled my years as a student in NO (and riding the trolley from campus to Lee circle for a summer job), and did a quick and dirty Google search to come up with the images in the above reply.  I lack the savy to put the Arlo Guthrie tune to the reply, but it was playing on a loop (in my head) when I searched the web and posted the reply.  Perhaps one of the forum members has a LIONEL IC set, I know of at least one, who can make a video--run the set with the music!

 

Glad you enoyed the reply. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fantastic images, Mill City--post a link to the website that holds these treasures.

 

The thread just turned 4 pages which is quite a lot.  Thanks to all who have posted images, especially; and, to all who have commented and viewed it--OGR forum is terrific.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly one of the brightest spots in American, or anybody's, history !

The Southern Pacific Coast Daylight images are among the most colorful and abundant.  Here's a link to the website, Cruising the Past, that includes the photos here and a period film/video 3 minutes in duration of the Daylight under steam power:

 

http://cruiselinehistory.com/t...lass-and-not-amtrak/

 

The 3+ minutes period film/video of the Coast Daylight is here.

 

 

 

Note:  The first picture is a painting titled "Chasing the Daylight" by William Phillips. 

 

 

If trains and services were like this today, I would only travel by rail, forego car and planes.

If trains were like this today ,but updated with wifi,  flat screens,  and food. I could get my kids to travel in a relaxing manner!  Shut up and sit Down!, Don'nt  make ME stop this Train!!!...., Or so help me. Could you do this every day every way sans your car ? We drove in the car.... Too the station an took the train!! It was a bullet , TGV, Maglev, or  Hyper diesel an BAM!! We.was There..  Seems Completely Doable...SO WHAT GIVES????

What? And give up this...

 

 

and this...

 

 

adding this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for something like this?

 

 

 

 

 

Howard posted this image of the Wabash/UP City of St. Louis heading westbound out of St. Louis and passing through Forest Park.

 

I thought it cool that the locomotive had the Wabash Flag and the UP Shield on the nose, did any Wabash locomotive ever have that nose?

Dan

 

 

 

 

Dan, really like the picture, but can't answer the question.  Here's the City of St. Louis with UP E8's:

 

The Santa Fe El Capitan was the all-coach counterpart to the Super Chief, and was heavily marketed by Santa Fe, especially with the introduction of the Hi-Level cars in 1956.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doubt it.  The locomotives pictured are also depicted as E3/6's(more or less), which Wabash had exactly none of.

 

Rusty

Rusty or anyone else, I'm just now getting familiar with the family of EMD E units and their visual differences.  How do you id the Wabash units pictured as E3 or E6 units?  I know why they aren't E4 or E5 units.  And also why they aren't E8 or E9 units.  What distinguishes them from E7's?

Yes, it would be a dream come true if train travel was still like this. But with today's costs it would be very expensive to ride a train with all those amenities. By the way I enjoyed those pictures of today's inflight low cost carrier air travel. You get what you pay for. Unfortunately, and sadly that's what today's travelling public want....cheap fares. With that comes a downgrade of service. I do confess I enjoy low fares for a short distance. And yes as a child I did travel coach on the Santa FE / New York Central from Los Angeles, CA to Utica, NY in 1954....not on a name train. But they still served fresh meals and had comfortable lounge cars.  On a previous transcontinental trip the family did travel on the 20th Century and the Super Chief from Grand Central to Los Angeles. Now that was somethin' else. Amazing. That trip was paid by the west coast relatives. Because my parents couldn't afford to travel that way.

luvtrains,

You said "You get what you pay for. Unfortunately, and sadly that's what today's travelling public want....cheap fares."

 

Don't forget speed. Most people don't want to travel 24 hours from NY to Orlando when they can make it in an hour by flying.

"Most people don't want to travel 24 hours from NY to Orlando when they can make it in an hour by flying."

 

actual flight time is a little more than 2 hours.  doesn't count taxi time to and from the actual runway.  also doesn't include security line time or departure delays (i was delayed recently on a flight out of JFK in perfect morning weather because of heavy air traffic).

 

i have made the train trip a couple of times and, aside from the slightly cramped seating in the dining car, was very enjoyable (and arrived ahead of schedule).  of course, we had sleeping accommodations.  

Here's some line drawings that give a quickie identification of the E3/6, E7 and E8 courtesy of Railroad Paint Shop. 

 

Bear in mind these are generic drawings without road-specific details, but they illustrate the differences reasonably well.

E3

The E3 was virtually identical to the E6, off the top of my head I don't know what differentiated them. 

 

Now the E3/E4/E5 were at the end of the customization era.  Note portholes and slotted pilot on this UP E3:

The slotted pilot on the City of St. Louis illustration appear to be part of the inspiration for the image.  Some "artistic license" also appears to be involved.  But the slotted pilot, numberboard location and lack of the vertical grill behind the doorway lead me to call it an E3/6.

 

The E7:

 

The E8:

Rusty

Jon,

 

The images, cartoon, and photos are great!!!  But the post blew up the page view.

 

The moderators will fix it; thanks for the images--they're terrific.