I never actually saw a Santa Fe Train, but…early FT’s, CF7’s. warbonnets, Super Chiefs, Harvey Girls,Glitz.Glamour, and on and on. Plus probably the first electric toy train that most of us had![:)]
SANTA FE all the way the most beautiful paint scheme in the world the warbonnnet!!!
LONG LIVE THE FE!!!
Southern Pacific. A predicessor road built the western section of the original transcontinental railroad.The only major railroad to have cab forwards.They ran the Daylights,which were called The Most Beautiful Train in the World.They had almost 800 F units,and the most PAs (66 including Cotton Belt), experimented with German(and ALCo), diesel hydraulics.They had the most SD 45s(604 including tunnel motors which were developed for SP) and they ran high hood GP9s and SD9s,and SD7s in yard service, into the 90s.They had the only commute service west of Chicago,and ran Train Masters in this service into 1975.
Why does it have to be in the West? Why does it have to have an exciting paint scheme?
Why not something like the Virginian, or the Wabash, or the Southern, or the Clinchfield, or the Seaboard Air Line, or . . .
Old Timer
I have a video that inludes old footage of Virginian electric boxcabs. They had some nickname like jackrods or something. With 2 or 3 MU’ed together and all the big drivewheels and siderods moving they looked really exciting![:)]
So many choices! Many roads had their exciting facets - who could not be impressed by the four track mains of NYC and PRR? Nickle Plate Fast Freight - Berks flying by with tonnage hanging on for dear life. Any of dozens of grades with double- and triple-headed steamers slugging it out with the hill. I do have to put one of my votes in for the Santa Fe - sheer glitz and a lot of class. Never mind SP’s Daylights - how about battling over Donner through the snow? The Midwest had plenty of flash, too - IC’s Green Diamond, MoPac, Rock Island, to name a few.
I don’t know that I can name a “most exciting” fallen flag. Maybe it’s the romance of what’s lost, but they almost all were exciting in one way or another.
So many choices…
The New York Central with its Art Decco 20th Century Limited or the Wabash with “Follow the Flag”.
The Chicago Great Western for its’ innovative ways to make ends meet, the Rio Grande for going where other railroads feared to tread, Santa Fe for being a class act, to name just a few.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC
Cadillacs to tunnel motors, Donner to the desert, Beet drags to the Memphis Blue Streek Fast Forwarder, Remote branchlines to high speed mainlines, 200’ below sea level to 7000+’ (10,000’ if you count DRGW) the good old SP was a railroad of extreams and an extream railroad.
Have to go with the Santa Fe First with double deck long haul passenger cars. First to use diesel-electrics in frieght service. The Super C a 79 mph FREIGHT TRAIN in regular daily service. First to revive a heritage paint the Red and Sliver Warbonnet. Devolped the first articulated frieght car aka the 10 pack. Harvey Houses first place on the Railroads you could get a decent meal before dining cars. LOngest schedulad steam engine districts LA to Kansas City. I could go on but I think I have gone on long enough.
Well, now that we’ve got all the big guys out of the way, how about something like the Colorado and Southern? The railroad that brought the Geese to the tracks, ran in some incredibly scenic areas, and struggled to survive longer than most would have thought possible.
How about the GREAT NORTHERN!
They had everything from neat steamers to boxcab electrics to early E units and F units, all the way to the AWESOME SD45s! Heck, they even had the first SD45- Hustle Muscle.
LONG LIVE SD45s!
I’ll vote for six to eight Western Maryland Consolidations pulling/pushing a long coal drag up the Black River grade from Elkins WVa to Cumberland MD in the 1940’s. Big steam at its zenith on the Wild Mary.
Was the C&S owned by CB&Q? Or was that some similar sounding road?
Yes C&S was owned by CB&Q but run as a separate subsidiary.
And the geese reference is to the-what were they called?-Gray Goose? type of truck/train on the narrow guage? Was CS both narrow guage and standard?
The Rock Island. For falling all over itself (and having arrows slung in its direction) and surviving as long as it did. Don’t forget the MO-PAC.
For me, I’d have to say that it is the Northern Pacific and CB&Q. [:D]
Also have to cast a vote for the Illinois Central / Illinois Central Gulf - loved their I-beam logo and orange & white scheme on their diesels [^].
I’ve always liked the Great Northern Freight Scheme with the Light blue, grey and white. I’ve got an SD45 model of that, nice.
Also, the B and M. Guess I like the light blue thing.
SP for the Daylight’s, certainly worth the Most Beautiful Train in the World title
SF for the Warbonnet paint schemes
or actual operations…
D&RG for Mountain railroading at its best!