This one is off topic, but I loved the history and the visuals... The Flying Yankee was built as an answer to the Great Depression. When Americans fall on hard times, they fight back with techn... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
we have a old steamliner that runs in and out of our town... kind of off topic, but still on the same
The 20's through the 30's was an awesome are for style and design- some other great trains are the Hiawatha, the M10000, the Commodore Vanderbilt and Raymond (as in '53 Studebaker) Loewy's GG1, T1 and Stramlined Pacific for the Pennsylvania RR!
thanks! ive been staring at ALOT of trains trying to pick up cues for my track roadster I want that going fast sitting still look!
Mrs Bluto's Dad is the one that collects locomotives At the risk of pissing off I don't collect Railroad (much) stuff
As a kid from Framingham, MA my family used to go to the Edaville Museum every summer. Somewhere here I have a bunch of old B&W photos of this train and others from there. Just love the style & grace of these beauties.
That thing was right in my backyard a few years ago and I never even knew it. Good job bringing this to our attention Ryan. It's not completely off topic. That's a hotrod of a different sort and it's definately beind done in a traditional style. I couldn't imagne going from Boston to Portland in 51 minutes! That's a hotrod!
My dad is a toy train collector- which had absolutely NO affect on me I will try to post some pics of the streamliners that Lionel and American Flyer copied- as well as some of the less-known manufacturers when I get home from work- if that's okay Ryan?
Cool, I too like those old streamline trains. This is one that my grandfather worked on, not quite as streamlined, but still cool. I think the date was 1945 on the back of the pic.
I was always really impressed by the Burlington Zephyr, which looks very similar if not identical to the Yankee. Were they sister trains, or just coincidentally similar?
IIRC the Burlington Zephryr was the very first D-E "streamliner"....all these Art Deco designs are fascinating. The detailing is exceptional, true functional "eye candy"! DFO
All of the Zephyrs (including the Flying Yankee) were built as a collaboration between GM Electromotive in LaGrange Illinois and Budd in Pennsylvania. The Pioneer Zephyr was the first and made it's debut on [FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]April 18, 1934. On May 26, 1934 it set a speed record by traveling the 1000+ route from Denver to Chicago in 13 hours at an average of 77.6 MPH and at times topping 115 MPH. Then it was exhibited at the 1934 Century of Progress Worlds Fair in Chicago. I think they made somewhere around 12 of them. 9 were bought by The Burlington Line (Zephyrs) and the others were in the east (Flying Yankee among others). Growing up, my friends grandfather worked for GM Electromotive back in the day and he was full of stories and photos of these revolutionary trains. [/FONT]
If I'm not mistaken, the Museum of Science & Industry in downtown Chicago has the original Zephyr. Man I need to get back down there to see it.
RFD TV on Dish has several train programs weekly - the '40s & '50 footage is loaded with cars, once in a while a modified car is seen.
You are correct Appleseed, the original Zephyr is at Science and Industry. You can even get inside, sit down and it feels and looks like it is rolling along the country side. My dad remembers the E9, E8's and the F7's (mass produced Streamliners from EMD) going through North Forreston on the Milwaukee Road at over 100+ MPH in the 50's. If I remember correctly, I this the old Boston Maine strapped a couple rockets on top of one of their streamliners in the early 60's and set a track speed record of a 130 miles an hour. I remember seeing a pic of it flying passed a station and kicking up ballast at the on lookers. If you can't tell, I'm into trains as much as hotrods!!!
There is something special with old industrial constructions prior to ca 1950. The old production methods and available technics brought us some wonderfull structures and designs. Just look at the roof structure inside the rail wagoons in the pics. I find amusement in this subject in many places. Here in our town we have an old steel railroad bridge assembled with rivets. Have been fasinated by it since I was a kid. In my work I have been inside lots of old hydro power plants. Here you can also see wonderfull old constructions and designs. Old Norwegian plants, especially the ones buildt before the WW2 where not only a source of electricity. They where monuments of a growing society and engineers and designers where given some free room to "play". Thanks Ryan Paul