The Chicago Railroad Fair is presented by The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway System Gulf, l\Iobile and Ohio Railroad-The Alton Route The Baitimore and Ohio Railroad Company Illinois Central Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad Company Burlington Lines Maine Central Railroad Company The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad The Monongahela Railway Company Chicago Great Western Railway New York Central System Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway Company Nickel Plate Road- The New York, Chicago And St. Louis Railroad Company Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Company- Monon Norfolk So uthern Railway Company Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company Northern Pacific Railway Company Chicago And North Western Railway System Pennsylvania Railroad The Colorado & Wyoming Railway Company The Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway Company Denver and Rio Grande Wes tern Railroad The Pullman Company Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Company Rock Island Lines Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company Soo Line Erie Railroad Spokane, Portland And Seattle Railway Company Grand Trunk Railway System The Texas Mexican Railway Company Great Northern Railway Company Union Pacific Railroad Green Bay & Western Lines Wabash Railroad Company OFFICERS President LENOX R. LOHR President, Museum of Science and Industry Vice-President Treasurer Secretary R. L. WILLIAMS WAYNE A. JOHNSTON G. M. CAMPBELL President, Chicago And President, Illinois Central Vice-Pres. and Exec. Representative, North Western Railway System Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company DIRECTORS G. F. ASHBY, President J. W. DAVIN, President W. McCARTHY, President Union Pacific Railroad Nickel Plate Road- The New York, Denver and Rio Grande Wes tern Chicago And St. Louis ARTHUR K. ATKINSON, President Railroad Railroad Company Wabash Railroad Company H. E. McGEE, President S. A. DOBBS, Vice-President Green Bay & Western Lines JOHN W. BARRIGER, President Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad J. L. McKEE, Vice-President Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisvill e - The Allon Route Railway Company-Monon. New York Central System J. D. FARRINGTON, President F. L. SCHRADER, President T. D. BEVEN, President Rock Island Lines Elgin, Joliet and Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway Eastern Railway Company P. E. FEUCHT, Vice-President Company Pennsylvania Railroad R. J. BOWMAN, President C. A. SKOG, Vice-Pres. and Gen. Mgr. E. S. FRENCH, President Grand Trunk Railway System The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Boston and Maine Railroad Company A. SYVERSON, CHARLES J. GRAHAM, President Vice-President and General Manager JOHN M. BUDD, President The Pittsburgh & West Virginia Lake Superior & Ishpeming Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Railway Company Railroad Company RALPH BUDD, President F. G. GURLEY, President P.H. VAN HOVEN, President Burlington Lines The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range C. H. BUFORD, President Railway System Railway Company Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and C. R. HARDING, President R. L. WILLIAMS, President Pacific Railroad Company The Pullman Company Chicago And North Western Railway H. W. BURTNESS, President WAYNE A. JOHNSTON, President System Chicago Great Western Railway Illinois Central Railroad WARD WIRE, Vice-President G. M. CAMPBELL, Vice-Pres. D. L. KEISER, President The Colorado & Wyoming Railway and Exec. Representative The Texas Mexican Railway Company Company The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad LENOX R. LOHR, President R. E. WOODRUFF, President Company Museum of Science and Industry Erie Railroad STAFF DANIEL M. MacMASTER, Executive Officer CLYDE W. EDMONDSON, Sup't of Operations PAUL M. MASSMANN, Director of Exhibits M. P. BLACK, Field Engineer MILTON P. KERR, Financial Officer C. B. WATROUS, Ass't to Director of Exhibits JAMES A. DOUGHERTY, Ass't Coordinator of Publicity DOYLE S. MORRIS, Legal Counsel ROY LUNDY, Ass't to Coordinator of Publicity FREDERICK J. ASHLEY, Coordinator of Publicity BREWSTER STICKNEY, Ass't to Coordinator of Publicity JOHN A. REILLY, Director of Special Events CARL DUDE, Ass't to Financial Officer EW epics of America are as stirring as the story for years to come. Just a century ago this year, when of its railroads. In the unfolding at Chicago this little Chicago was but a muddy frontier outpost, a F vear of the centennial Railroad Fair the history handful of its citizens dared risk their reputations of the nation itself is to great degree reenacted in all and fortunes on a faith in the promising iron horse of its colorful glamor. the rails. The settling and development of the world's most At that time Chicago had little reason for opti­ prosperous continent, the growth of agriculture, in­ mism. Surrounding swamps limited its horizon. Plank dustry and the sciences beyond man's widest imagina­ roads built out to the plains offered little hope of tion, the conquest of one new peak after another in greatly expanding commerce. Many of the townsfolk, human opportunity, practically all the basic factors as a consequence, were genuinely pessimistic over the in the country's meteoric economy, are brought to­ chances for the new railroad's success. But when on gether in one convincing presentation. No industry October 25, 1848, Chicago's first steam railroad loco­ has ever gone to such extremes in demonstration of motiv ~ the tiny Pioneer of the new Galena and Chi­ their vital part in the daily life of America as the cago Union Railroad-successfully puffed its way five railroads in this mile-long exposition on the shores of miles west and back, a new ray of hope was en. Lake Michigan. kindled. In its acres of exhibits the Railroad Fair ·offers There was quick justification for the new-found hours of fascinating enjoyment, intriguing pageantry, buoyancy. Ever westward the new railroad pressed. invaluable education. Taken back to that early day Then shortly, new roads and new locomotives, pene­ when an unbelieving America looked askance at the trating ever deeper into the untracked wilderness. first wood-burning locomotive, you will move rapidly On the · heels of railroading success came steady forward to the mammoth streamliners that beckon the development of vast mid-continent farming territory, way into our own tomorrow. You will witness what or bountiful logging regions in the northwest, rich oil rail transportation has meant in the commercial prog­ fi elds in the southwest, and sprawling industrial areas ress of the East, the agrarian growth of the South and in the great Far West. Midwest, the more recent fulfillment of our destiny Chicago. starting point of this tremendous western beyond thr. Rockies. movement, kept pace in its growth. From the little Each exhibit will prove an exciting and entirely lakeside city in time branched a growing network of different chapter in a stirring melodrama. While one rails. Jn its role as an important rail hub the muddy railroad in truly duplicated surroundings will take frontier outpost of 1848 soon was definitely on its you into the primitive Indian country it serves, anoth­ way to become the massive metropolitan area we er will carry you away to the playgrounds of Florida know today as the greatest transportation center in all or the romantic old French Quarter of New Orleans. creation. Chicago in 1948 is the appropriate place and occa­ This year's Railroad Fair, celebrating the inspiring sion for such a spectacle. Historically it is the most story of the American miracle on rails, commemor­ commem9rative setting that railroading will know ates one of the nation's most important centennials. TRAVOIS EARLY CART HORSEBACK RIDER Prologue THE VOYAGEURS-1673 Chicago Today America is a nation on wheels ... wheels that have rolled through wilderness and wasteland, leaving Bai:Ircad Fair in their tracks cities by the thousands, towns by the tens of thousands. Not too many years ago, the story was so vastly different. The Indian's travel over rough trails ~ and waterways was slow and laborious. The canoe, the piroque, the horse and crude travois were all he knew. Such were the circumstances in which Father Marquette 'Wheels a-Bolling' and Joliet found the Indians when the French voyageurs reached the shore of Lake Michigan in 1673. With the R. Produced by LENOX LORR coming of the white man, a new era was dawning. The Assisted by 0. M. Mar.Master contest across the continent was on. A Pageau I Play - With Music by EDWARD HUNGERFORD Scene Direr.led by Technical Direr.lion by I HELEN TIEllEN GERAGHTY ARTHUR MAYBERRY THE NATIONAL ROAD-1815 The frontier was falling back! No longer was the white Musical Dirnctur - ISAAC: VAN GROVE man content with paths that wound thru wilderness and Assistant Ter.hnir.al Direr.tor- Earl J. Brisgal streams that boiled angrily around a frail canoe. Here, now, was the great National Road-traversed by young Washington, the surveyor, and completed during Presi­ dent Jefferson's term in office. Here was a new artery for the growing nation, pumping the power of the pioneer spirit westward, westward from the Potomac to the Mississippi! Scene 2 THE IRON HORSE-1829-36 To conquer greater distances, man reinforces his of­ fensive with steel and propels his transport with steam. In England George Stephenson creates his gallant Rocket, first practical steam railroad locomotive. Then comes The Stourbridge Lion, operating in this country. And quickly following-the Best Friend of Charleston, the Tom Thumb, the DeWitt Clinton, the John Bull, the Atlantic, the Lafayette. True, an old gray mare outruns Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb. But Dobbin soon loses pace as America's first railways begin building dynamic new ROCKET cities. STOURBRIDGE LION JOHN BULL BEST FRIEND OF CHARLESTON STANHOPE 18TH CENTURY COACH THE NATIONAL ROAD THE ATLANTIC ENGINE WITH COACHES DE WITT CLINTON TOM THUMB LAFAYETTE CONESTOGA WAGON WELLS FARGO STAGE COACH Scene 3 CHICAG0-1848 Hub-deep in swamp mud, trade and transport churns into the infant town of Chicago.