I'll opine that the Rock Island Rockets were as good as they got.
If you mean the best, not the most unique anymore, and only pre-WWII, then the Super Chief by far.
Post WWII, California Zephyr. Lots of other contenders, admittadly.
daveklepperIf you mean the best, not the most unique anymore, and only pre-WWII, then the Super Chief by far.
Oh people, good people, HOW could you have all overlooked Union Pacific's legendary "Forty-Niner?"
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/types/streamlined/up2906-uprr.jpg
Yes, the beloved and never-to-be forgotten "Slug!"
Certainly not forgotten by model makers!
https://mthtrains.com/railking/spotlight/04_2017/a
I haven't found one yet, but one day I will!
The 49er? Never heard of it before now, interesting to say the least. But as a long time fan of the NYC, the 1938 20th Century with the Dreyfus hudson is as classic as a Duesenberg Model SJ. Connecting in Chicago with the Super Chief, naturally. And then, maybe a Boeing 314 to Hawaii.
mudchicken Erik_Mag I would add the Brill Bullets and the early UP streamliners. McKeen Motor Cars
Erik_Mag I would add the Brill Bullets and the early UP streamliners.
I would add the Brill Bullets and the early UP streamliners.
McKeen Motor Cars
A note of interest on this Thread, in regards to the McKeen Motor Cars...
THe McKeen Motor Cars could well have been 'children' f the Union Pacific Railroad. McKeen was a Chief Mechanical OLfficer of the UPRR. The orignal 'plant/ was located in the area of OMAHA, Ne. (on UPRR property?). They were manufactured there, from about 1905 until 1915; The last two units turned out were shipped in about, 1915. They were supposedly, assembled from the last of the factory's remaiing parts inventory(?)
There were two cars built and delivered in, about 1903 (?) to the AT&SF RR. #100 g. They were delived to the (then) Eastern Div. of the AT&SF. To be assigned to operate on the branches that radiated out of the Div. point at Chanute,Ks.
The first car operated from Pittsburg,Ks (on The KCP&G RR (nee:KCS RR) to Frontenac,Ks and then west to Erie,Ks.Shaw<Ks and Chanute.Ks.) The route was run daily, and was known to not only carry the passengers, but to occasinally, perated with a freight car, as a mixed train(?)
The Eastern Branch of the AT&SF was inteesting, as there were a couple of petroleum refineries on the route: a Kerosene[refinery] producer at Shaw, and at Erie; The Great Western Refinery, a fairly large operation with a small yard, and a fleet of over 100 railcars for moving its production.
The area around Frontenac,Ks. was an origin, for a low-grade ,locomotive coal; for several railroads crossing the Weir-Pittsburg Coal Deposits.
P.S. Seems that The 'Streamliner' that seems to have 'escaped' mention in this Thread is the Pullman-Standard -built (1940(?): Illinois Central (namesake?) The Green Diamond, a daily, (Round Trip) Chicago-St.Louis Streamliner on the ;order of the UPRR's M-10000 of about the same vinage and make.
The McKeens picked-up the name "wind-splitter" somewhere in all of this for their knife-edged front end and a few of them had trailers of a similar design. Their gasoline/distillate engines were their weak point.
Denver Public Library Collection.
MC, a McKeen operated on the Ark Valley Dist. ( also known as 2nd Dist.) of the Colorado Division. There are photos in the Bent County Hist. Society archives.
A McKeen somehow found its way onto the roster of the mighty Carthage and Copenhagen in northern NY. The line was all of eight miles...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Lightweight Budd equipment, including the very first Budd non-articulated sleeping cars. soon including the very first roomette cars. replaced the Super Chief heavyweight equipment about the same time as the AT&SF's first E-units arrived. Then, Super became a streamliner, retaining the fast schedule and superb service.
And I agree the Century with Dryfuss J3a is comparable. But streamlining the Super actually came earlier.
That McKeen definitely has a steam punk look. Very cool! I assume some are still around?
There's a completely restored McKeen railcar at the Nevada State Railroad Museum. With the exception of a new CAT diesel engine it's as close as you can come to total originality, and "Steampunk" indeed! It's like something out of a Jules Verne novel!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HYECpTcLyU
I think there's one, maybe two more out there undergoing restoration but I'm not sure on that, or where they are.
daveklepperAnd I agree the Century with Dreyfuss J3a is comparable.
Of course were NYC to run a stainless train as a counterpart to the Super Chiefs, with comparable decor and amenities...
Overmod daveklepper And I agree the Century with Dreyfuss J3a is comparable. Wouldn't the Empire State Express be much more comparable, on styling grounds? Of course were NYC to run a stainless train as a counterpart to the Super Chiefs, with comparable decor and amenities...
daveklepper And I agree the Century with Dreyfuss J3a is comparable.
Wouldn't the Empire State Express be much more comparable, on styling grounds?
Being launched Dec. 7, 1941 the Empire State Express had its 'thunder' stolen by another incident that happened that day.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
54light15 That McKeen definitely has a steam punk look. Very cool! I assume some are still around?
A young fellow in Ramona, CA is working on restoring a McKeen car that worked the San Diego to Santee line of the SD&AE, originally the San Diego Cuyamaca & Eastern which was planned to pss through the southern end of Ramona.
The McKeen car at the Nevada RR Museum was bought by the V&T and retired around the end of WW2 and converte into a diner. Lucius Beebe was pleased to note that the original diner went bankrupt, followed by several other diner using that car subsequently going bankrupt as well. It eventually became part of Al's Plumbing Shop, where the McKeen body was on the south side and another railcar body on the north side.
Learned something new. More familiar with the two on the ill fated Denver Laramie & Northwestern.After the railroad failed, the "Denver" & "Greeley" McKeens went off to UP.
Sounds like most did not have much of a service life. Now DC has created a vision in my head of a wind splitter out in the Southern Colorado beet sugar fields limping to the Swink bridge over the Arkansas trying to get into the shops in La Junta before conking-out...(at least one of the four ATSF had)
Just to add because of their parabolic ends, the two windsplitters from the Oneida Railway, the electrified West Shore Utica-Syracuse with underruning third rail. Retired in 1930.
They were unique in that instead of 85 foot cars, they were only 80 foot ones when they were built in 1936 and 1937.
Post-WWII all-Budd New England States came close to the 20th Century and Super Chief in service.
But while the pre-1948 heavyweight was all-Pullman, the 1948 Budds includrd coaches.
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