One of the best, if not the best color scheme for PRR’s fleet, the Fleet of Modernism livery, designed by noted industrial designer Raymond Loewy, introduced in *1938, but only lasted merely 10 years.
Elegance, classic and eye-catching, it gave Pennsy’s massive passenger fleet a fresh and welcoming image during its golden era.
In this post, I will try to record all passenger equipment carried the F.O.M color scheme, your input and contribution is very important and always welcomed!
Nov. 28, 1945 PRR Board authorizes purchase of 159 lightweight sleepers from Pullman for east-west service
Dec. 31, 1945 PRR purchases all Pullman heavyweight parlors and lightweight sleepers assigned to it; leases them back to Pullman Co. for operation; PRR buys 142 lightweight sleepers for $7.56 million and 123 parlor cars for $774,000.
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Jan. 9, 1946 PRR Board authorizes the purchase of 142 lightweight Pullman sleeping cars
Jan. 23, 1946 PRR Board authorizes purchase of 214 passenger cars to re-equip Blue Ribbon trains, including the Broadway, Liberty Limited, General, “Spirit of St. Louis”, Cincinnati Limited, Pittsburgher, and Golden Triangle for $20.5 million; 87 from Pullman-Standard, 70 from Budd and 57 from AC&F; cars are to be delivered in first quarter of 1947, but crush of orders from other railroads and reconversion problems cause 12-16 month delay in delivery, and last delivered in Aug. 1949. )
Feb. 27, 1946 PRR Board authorizes the purchase of 3 recreation cars for the Jeffersonian at $375,000; also one Pullman restaurant-parlor car
Mar. 13, 1946 PRR Board authorizes the purchase of one Pullman parlor-observation car; 6 new lightweight sleeping cars
June 26, 1946 PRR Board authorizes the purchase of 10 lightweight sleeping cars and 2 lightweight coaches
Looks like the PRR Board was actling like a drunk sailor on leave with a whole war’s worth of pay to get rid of ASAP. Especially the number of ‘nickle & dime’ orders made during 1946. There does not seem to be any form of strategic plan to the equipment purchases.
Exactly. It was like a money burning competition between PRR, NYC and C&O. If they paid 0.1% from those money they wasted to do some market research 3 times a year, they might have a chance to become another Union Pacific.[swg]
The Fleet of Modernism certainly was a worthy competitor to anything the New York Central put out. Seeing those cars behind T1’s or anything streamlined was certainly quite stunning. It’s just another mind boggling ‘why’ when they abandoned it in 1945. Having everything repainted by 1950 seems like such a waste.
It’s hard not to fault the Railroads for re-equipping their fleets after WWII yet they knew passenger service never really made much for them anyway, if anything. They knew this and knew it well. Mail contracts and Express gave them some incentive and the service itself was the advertising and ‘face’ of the Railroad, that hopefully translates into good will and freight preference. I think they knew full well what they were doing. They could not see the massive drop off coming due to a new highway system yet to be built and airline travel becoming commonplace. It’s arguable that they should have but given the times I don’t think that’s reasonable. Once the crappola hit the fan they certainly railed against the government involvement in the economy with highway construction, airport’s and the St. Lawrence Seaway, leaving them doomed.
Roads in 1945-early 50’s were pretty crummy between cities, not really direct. Winter weather was a big hazardous deal for motorists, roads not cleared in quick time like today. People still took the train if they were going anywhere substantial.
The 1952 Congessional was a departure for Pennsy with it’s look. Some people, notably David Klepper, thought it was the finest look for the Pennsy. My choice would be the Fleet of Modernism, as short lived as it was.
Glad to know that I am not the only one who love the Lowey scheme, Miningman! I believe one of the main reasons for PRR to abandoned it was to cut cost, since it required a lot of working hours to repaint it, even though I think it worth the time. NYC and B&O were very prospective that they were able to successfully create a very distinctive cooperative image through its premier trains. But when you talk about PRR, there weren’t much interesting things the public could remember, they only had a few cards holding like the Broadway Ltd and the Congressional. Public relation and Creativity were never something PRR good at, even though they willing to spend money on advertising campaign and hiring noted industrial designer to make their train looks good.
London Division passenger service between Toronto and Windsor/Detroit provided a vital link in the Montreal - Chicago international service. It was a competitive market shared by Canadian National and over the years various improvements were made by both railways to boost its public image and gain more revenue. A major advance by the CPR was the introduction in three markets of modern lightweight streamlined passenger equipment and new steam locomotives of a new wheel arrangement, 4-4-4 and named Jubilee in honour of the 50th anniversary (June 1936) of CPR passenger train service.
In addition to a single trainset operating between Calgary and Edmonton and two between Montreal and Quebec City, there was a service between Toronto, London and Windsor/Detroit. There were four trainsets consisting of a mail-express car, baggage-buffet-parlor car and two first class ice air-conditioned coaches.
The Bullet, #629 with Jubilee 3000 ready to leave West Toronto Depot on Thursday April 9, 1953.
Wooden S.U.F. working baggage car, lightweight air-conditioned coach, heavyweight coach. J.F.Beveridge, Collection of Dave Shaw.
CPR’s Jubilee was a good example of how to establish a distinctive cooperative image of a railroad company, simple, sharp and elegance. Using of warm color of the livery was a smart move. [C][:D]
Trains July 1999
A tale of two streamliners
By Joe Welsh
While Pennsy’s venerable Broadway Limited ran nearly empty, the upstart Trail Blazer was packing them in
In June 1938, after two years of effort, the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced its “Fleet of Modernism,” four newly streamlined trains between the East and Midwest. Chief among them was the Broadway Limited, a New York-to-Chicago all-Pullman luxury flyer which PRR maintained as a direct competitor to New York Central’s renowned 20th Century Limited. The others were the General, Liberty Limited
For what it is worth, I bought “Pennsy Streamliners” and if anything, it is better than the extract, while giving quite a lot of detail of the equipment involved.
The PRR did bring some Century paassengers to the Broadway by cutting the eastbound running time to 15-1/2 hours, which the Central could not match. This was in the post-WWII era starting around 1947 if my memory is correct, and lasted a few years.
I rode both trains in 1958, and thought the experience terrific. But neither “gleamed” the way the UP and AT&SF Super, El Cap, and Cities trains did. Also the Denver Zephyr. Inside and outside.
The bigger question, post 1938, when both the Broadway and the Century were reequipped with functionally the same accomadations by Pullman, running on virtually the same schedules - Why was the Broadway so berefet of passengers when compared to the Century? Was the Broadway’s on board experience felt to be inferior to the Century? Was Penn Station New York considered a inferior facility compared to Grand Central? Was Union Station Chicago considered inferior to LaSalle Street Station? Were the dining car experiences different? The traveling public had to have percieved some critical difference when making the decision on how to spend their transportation dollars.
The account of the day in August when the Broadway left New York with zero passengers and arrived in Chicago with 2 passengers, both which got on in Philly is unbelievable. This is in 1939!
The Broadway must have racked up significant losses. Some kind of herd mentality going on with folks shunning the Broadway. Repeating some kind of story or rumour between people.
Can you imagine having the Broadway virtually to yourself…feel like a King. Ridership improved over the war but it was never very good. Pennsy kept it going though.
This is one of the most interesting and most discussed topics for railfans and there were so many conclusions from different group of people or scholar, so in my book there was no conclusion at all.
It is my understanding that the “1938 streamlined version” NYC 20th Century was more than a luxury long distance through train for their honorable patrons, it was a social networking platform, a club on wheels for the elites in both cities and it was like a magnet to all celebrities. I don’t know since when the passenger, especially the rich and famous in town, has adopted a habitual travel mode to take the Century instead of the Broadway, but I believe the Century Club cars and twin dining car on the Century played an important role to create such habitual travel habit. Henry Dreyfuss’s creative design and chose of unique color scheme matched the pulse of Big Apple, his design was loved by the New Y
I think that the “F.O.M.” livery was the best that PRR ever had. ( Best lettering on a GG-1 as well)! I can understand the expense of maintaining it, ergo,. the change. I wonder, are there any existing cars from the original "Broadway Limited " still around? I had read that "Barnum&Bailey had a few.
Thanks, Todd. If I run PRR, I would made the F.O.M livery the standard color scheme for all first class trains between NYC, Chicago and St. Louis. I remember there are some 1948 made observation lounge and sleeper still existing, some preserved by private company or individual. 1938 streamlined cars are rare but I remember some are still with us.
Btw I am looking for the total number PRR had during 1945, I assume there were at least 2000 to 3000 passenger cars (1000 P70 series coaches and H/W Pullman sleeper), I would be grateful If someone can provide the accurate number!
(At the Railroader’s Memorial Museum in Altoona, PA.)
Penny’s Truck design for their H/W Dining Cars, you can see them on betterment dining car as well. Extra leaf springs for stability, a simple and neat design from 1924.<
IIRC, when EMC tried to persuade PRR to dieselization the Broadway Limited with E3 in 1936, they guaranteed a 15-hour schedule for the Broadway but PRR gave EMC a cold shoulder even the railroad itself figured the Diesel could do it in 14 hours 49mins. I personally believe that if PRR could improve the track and clearance of their Fort Wayne Division, Broadway could have had a even faster schedule.
Average schedule speed of the Broadway Ltd between Crestline, OH and Chicago was only about 52mph, Duplexes like S1 managed to increase it to (Average speed) 63-66mph with 1250 tons (equal to 23 postwar Budd built lightweight car) behind it in Dec 1940.
If PRR could provide a 12-hour schedule for their Chi-town to NYC through train, they could open a new market for this route by offering morning departure service. (Depart at 8:30am, arrived at 20:30pm etc). But I have read about the Heads of PRR were happy about the 16-hour schedule. [C][(-D]
With the B&O’s Dome cars, the Dome’s were not to be occupied between WUS and Silver Spring account the nearness of the PRR catenary in Union Station trackage and the potential for the high voltage to jump the air gap between the catenary and the top of the Dome. To my knowledge that never happened, but the mind of the times was that it could.
