The B&O’s Columbian was originally conceived in the late 30’s as a train that would offer similar class as The Capitol Limited, only aimed at the more economy minded traveler. Something was needed on the New York-Washington-Chicago route that would compete with the Pennsy’s Trailblazer and the Central’s Pacemaker.
The first Columbians were modernized heavyweight trainsets, rebuilt at Mount Clare from cars that had previously served on The Royal Blue. Columbian service was inaugurated in 1940, just in time for WWII. The Columbian ran on a schedule that was almost as fast as The Capitol Limited, leaving Washington 5 minutes behind The Capitol, and arriving 30-45 minutes behind the Cap in Chicago.
This Columbian ran at full capacity, strained to the limit, during WWII. The B&O had to frequently add cars to the train, up to its 14 car maximum, to meet both civilian and military demands. The railroad tried to discourage local travelers from using this train during the war by making conditional stops for “through passengers only” at Martinsburg, Cumberland, Connellsville, and McKeesport. (Remember a few of those names). It was steam powered and always needed a Mikado, I mean MaCarthur, on the front, to help it over Sand Patch.
At the end of WWII there was a serious effort by the railroads to lure coach passengers back to the rails. Both the Central and Pennsy had ordered new streamlined lightweight equipment for The Pacemaker, Mercury, The Trailblazer, and The Jeffersonian, respectively. B&O Assistant Vice President of Traffic, Howard Simpson, was an advocate of the coach passenger and he didn’t want to lose patrons to those two rivals. So the B&O placed the order for new Columbian trainsets with Pullman-Standard in December, 1945. Because of WWII, there was a backlog of orders that caused the new trains to not be delivered until 1949.
There were 2 trainsets, each consisting of 8 cars. Each train had a Baggage-Dormitory-Coffee Shoppe car (Harpers Ferry or Silver Spring), 4 class A40 coaches (Connellsville, Cumberland, Gary, La Paz, Martinsburg, McKeesport, New Castle, and Youngstown), a diner (Akron or Pittsburgh), a strata dome coach (High Dome or Sky Dome), and an observation lounge (Chicago or Washington).
So that brings us to the latest GGD release of the Columbian coaches. These coaches represent the only streamlined coaches that the B&O bought new. They came out extremely well. And the good news is that they are still available, for a change. http://www.goldengatedepot.com...ges/al-bo-coach1.jpg These cars are truly superior to the Lionel Columbian cars of a few years ago and the Weaver cars of 20 years ago. So if you’ve been on the fence about these cars, please give them a hard look. They were run with heavyweight cars in the 50’s and 60’s on the combined Ambassador/Columbian trains, and were also run with C&O equipment after the merger. Great cars from the classic era of railroading...
But, then they decided that they would do an AA set instead of an AB. 
