your favorite streamliners

Trains Magazine Passenger
1

what is your favorite streamliners i have five

1.the California zephyr

2.the empire builder

3.the north coast limited

4.the super chief

5.city of Portland

2

I’m not sure whether all these qualify as streamliners, but here goes:

  1. The Corn Belt Rocket/Cornhusker

  2. The Nebraska Zephyr (articulated consist)

  3. The Zephyr Rocket (I rode it when it was a one or two-car nameless successor.)

4.The Quad City Rocket (when Bigi Ben was on it)

5.The Kate Shelley

6.Amtrak’s Southwest Chief

  1. Amtrak’s Capitol Limited

  2. Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited

  3. Amtrak’s Broadway Limited

  4. The United Aircraft TurboTrain (rode it twice in 1969)

3

  1. The Union Pacific/Milwaukee Road “Cities” trains

  2. Illinois Central’s Hawkeye

4

Not quite streamliners, but much more interesting:

  1. Bi-Level Peninsula 400 (C&NW)

  2. Lake Cities (EL)

  3. Thoroughbred (MON)

  4. Campus (IC)

  5. Maple Leaf (GTW)

  6. Fast Mail (ATSF)

5

  1. California Zephyr (CB&Q, DRG&W, WP)

  2. Kate Shelley 400 (CNW)

  3. Land of Corn (IC)

  4. Empire Builder/Afternoon Zephyr (CB&Q, GN)

6

True “Streamliners”, unit trains not locomotive hauled

  1. 1930s - New Haven RR “Comet” — builder “Goodyear Zeppelin Company”

  2. 1970s - United Aircraft “Turbo-Train” — builder “United Technologies Corporation”

  3. 2000 to present - Amtrak “Acela” — builder “Bombardier/Alstom Consortium”

7

From my limited rail travel (thus far), I can definitely name the original Santa Fe Super Chief as the best “streamliner.” But in the present day, with what is left, I’ll have to go with the Amtrak Superliner cars (w/bedroom) on any route, but also the Parlour Car on the Coast Starlight.

8

S.P.'s Daylight, Santa Fe"s Super Chief, U.P.'s City of San Francisco As of today I’ll take the Coast Starlight.

9

Twentieth Century Limited

10

IC’s Panama Limited - blasting through down state Illinois at 100+ MPH

SAL’s Silver Meteor & Silver Star

B&O’s Capitol Limited

11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JNR-485-Hitachi.jpg

Hitachi service operated from Tokyo (Ueno Station) to the north and east from 1963 - 1998. The same design cars were used on the original Kodama, Tokyo-Osaka. (The name was later used for the Shinkansen 8-stop schedule trains on the same route but different rails.) Incidentally, this is a head-end view - the JNR operates by British rules. The other end would show red markers, but was otherwise identical.

Also the Odakyu Dentetsu “Romance Car” train of the 1960’s - think round-end observation with a motorman’s ‘bubble’ (like a Mustang’s bubble canopy) stuck on top just behind the lounge area glass. Sorry I couldn’t find an on-line photo. (The name survives, but the design is very different now.)

The original bullet-nosed Shinkansen trains. (The most recent variants look more like inverted grain scoops.)

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with none of the above)

12

None. I much prefer heavyweight cars.

Mark

13

If non-US streamliners count, then I vote for Italy’s IL SETTEBELLO (ETR 300). Also had observation/lounge at each end, with the engineer’s cab above.

Here is a link to a picture of one of the end cars, after they had been withdrawn:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Settebello_power_car.JPG

14

what is your favorite streamliners i have five

1.the California zephyr

2.the empire builder

3.the north coast limited

4.the super chief

5.city of Portland

I have never seen it, but SP’s Daylight must have been great, in Australia we have the “Indian Pacific”, the “Ghan”, both with Budd designed stainless cars, and from the past, the “Overland” which used cars based on SP’s Daylight.

15

My vote for best looking goes to the 1941 Empire State Express http://www.railroad.net/photos/empiresteam/media/hkvese5.jpg

16

I’ve always lived around NYC, but I have gotten out west and down south.

The Phoebe Snow (observation lounge open to all passengers)

The Crusader (neat little Budd stainless steel Reading/CNJ streamliner)

The Denver Zephyr (with 30 Boy scouts en route to Philmont Scout Ranch)

The Morning Zephyr (Minneapolis to Chicago with both Seattle trains included & an obs/dome/parlor)

The Nelly Bly (funky, NY/Camden/Atlantic City in my Rutgers days, parlor car & diner.)

The Royal Blue (a real attempt at class to make up for PRR time advantage NYC-WAS - the connecting buses to NYC, the Bronx and Brooklyn really added to the convenience)

17

  1. UP City of St. Louis-rode it 3 times

  2. California Zephyr -the original

  3. UP City of Los Angeles-all Pullman train

  4. Amtrak Empire Builder

  5. Amtrak Southwest Chief

I’ve loved every one of these.

18

How could I forget to add:

Frisco’s Sunnyland - the only one from the home railroad that I’ve been on. She may not have been in the same class as these bigger trains, but I used to see her often when Dad and I would visit the yards where he worked. We often saw Frisco’s Meteor and Texas Special too, but I never rode those.

19

My Dad worked for the Frisco for 47 years. I rode both the Meteor and Texas Special from Springfield into Oklahoma and Texas numerous times. They were neat trains for a kid under 10 years of age.

20

Put me down for 8-trains …

Evanston Express (CTA 4000s, “Cincinatti Heavyweights” only.)

Super Chief (1970-1971), “Thank you Mr. Reed!”

California Zephyr (pre-1970)

Afternoon Hiawatha (Skytop Lounge Parlor Car equipped) “Thank you Mr. Crippen!”

The Twentieth Century Limited

PRR Philadelphia-New York “Clockers” (the older the coaches the better!)

Anything Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee

Espee’s Coast Daylight