,.REPORT ON STREAMLINE, UGHT-WEIGHT, HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAINS Issued 1950 COVERDALE & COLPITTS CONSUI..TINQ CNOINEEAS 120 WALL STAit&T. NEW YORK REPORT ON STREAMLINE, LIGHT-WEIGHT, HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAINS Issued 1950 COVERDALE & COLPITTS CONSULTING ENGINEERS • 12.0 WALL STREET. N£W Y ORK • • • CO NTENTS FoREWORD s CHAPTER I BRIEF HisTORICAL S KETCH OF STREAMLINE TRAIN DEVELOPMENT 7 CHAPTER II PAsSENOEA TRAFFIC PRIOR TO, D olUNO, AND AFTER THE wAll II CHAPTEA III SouRCES or TRAFFIC ON STREAMLINE TRAINS 13 CHAPTER IV RBvEN11ES AND ExPENSES . 19 CHAPTER v D ESCRIPTIONS OF STREAMLINE TRAINS AND • STATE~lENTS OF THEIR R EVENUES AND E xPENSEs . ?.0 BosTON AND MAINE ?.1 BALTIMORE AND OHIO CENTRAL OF GEOROIA . CRICAOO, MILWA11KEE, ST. PAUL AN"D P ACIFIC CHICAoo, BoRLINOTON & QuiNCY CALIFORNIA ZEPHYRS . Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Denver and Rio Grande Western Western Pacific CmCAoo, R ocK ISLAND AND PACIFIC 39 FLORIDA EAST COAST . 4'1. G uLF, MoBILE AND OHIO • 44 MtsSOURI-IV.NSAS-TEXAS 47 • 3 C 0 N T EN T S ( Contit~uftl) MISSOURI PACIFIC • 49 NASHVILLE, CHATTANOOGA & ST. Lours 54 R EADING s6 SEABOARD AIR L INE sa SOUTHERN PACIFIC 6?. SouTHERN RAILWAY 66 ST. Lours-SAN FRANcrsco. 68 TEXAS AND PACIFIC 70 WABASH 73 CHAPTER VI STREA~ILINE TRAINS OF LL'<£5 FOR WH1CH STATE)I ENTS OF REVENUES A)ll) ExPENSES ARE UNAVAILABLE 75 ATLANTIC CoAST LINE 76 ATcmsoN, ToPEKA AND SANTA Fe 77 CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO 78 CHICAGO & EASTERN lt.LINOIS 78 CHICAGO AND NORTH VVEST£RN 79 CHICAGO, I NDIANAPOLIS AND LomsVlLLE 79 DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA A)/1) WEsTERN So GREAT NORTHERN • 8o I LLINOIS CENTRAL • 8r KANSAS CITY SouTHERN 8J Lou1sv1LLE & NASHVILLE 83 New YoRK CENTRAL • 84 NoRFOLK AND WESTERN 86 NoRTHeRN PAcinc 86 PENNSYLVANI A RAILROAD 87 UNION PACII"IC. 88 Arru-WoRD. 89 4 U.'IIV£RS..."J..£f OREGON lJRliA"" ,...,QU/E, OREGON ~ ~•.1 • R EPORT ON STREAMLINE, LI GHT-WEIGHT, HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAI NS FOREWORD HERE are now in service on Amer­ have not resumed the practice, discon­ Tican railways ~6o streamline trains. tinued during the war, of keeping ac­ In addition, cars in considerable counts and statistics relating to indi­ numbers are in course of construction vidual trains. To compile this informa­ in the plants of the car manufacturing tion now from original sources would companies and, in a few instances, in entail considerable expense which would the shops of railroad companies. The appear to be unwarranted from the Aeet is already an imposing one, pro­ standpoint of the owner line. viding extraordinary travel comforts While the report would be more in­ and conveniences on a considerable formative were we able to present per­ portion of the railroad mileage of the formance statements for all of the country. The rapid expansion of their operations in the relatively short period streamline trains now in operation, those since the inauguration of the first of the for which the figures are available to us, • however, are sufficient in number and new type trains late in 1934, and par­ ticularly the large number placed in importance to represent, we believe, a service in recent years, is convincing fair cross section of the whole service. evidence of their popularity with the In some instances where complete figures traveling public. are unobtninable we are able to present In gathering the data for this report certain unit earnings and expenses and we have found that many large railroads ratios that are somewhat indicative of operating important streamline trains the operating results. s CHAPTER I BRIEF H I ST ORICAL SKETCH OF STR EAMLINE TRAIN DEVELOP M ENT H IS is the seventh report this firm to reduce the expenses attached to the move. hns issued on the results of stream­ ment, and the early experiments in producing T economies were directed toward eliminating line train operations. Our sixth re­ or shortening light traffic trains or substitut­ port dealt only with the record of the ing gasoline-electric motorcars for steam Silver Meteors of the Seaboard Air Line trains. While these motorcars realiJ..ed oper­ ating economies, neither the service they pro­ for the period £rom February 2, 1939 to vided, the speed at which they operated, nor March 31, 1945, and disclosed the re­ their travel nppeal acted to restore nn appre­ markable increase in travel on these ciable volume of traffic to the rails. lt may be trains-and correspondingly in the gross said, however, that it was through knowledge gained in the operation of these motorcars and net enrojngs-during the war period. thot the potentialities of the internttl com­ I n that report we outlined the factors bustion engine for railway use c"me to be which had ~en most responsible for the understood and resulted in the development favorable public response to the stream­ of the Diesel-electric engine that supphes the motive power for many of the streamline line train. Because that outline is equally high-speed trains now running on many roads. pertinent to this more extensive report "A new development that hu been of we repent it. great aid in recent years in popularizing rail­ • road travel is nir conditioning. "Due largely to the automobile and im­ "The date when :tir conditioning was first proved public highways, the travel customs introduced in railway passenger cars is some­ of the people of the United StBtes and Can­ what vague. It would appear that the first ada altered materially during the years inter­ car was so equipped in 1929, followed in 1930 vening between the First and Second World by an installation in two dining cars and Wars. This change wu reflected in a steady toter in a whole train of seven cars- the decline in passenger-miles and revenues on all Columbian of the Baltimore and Ohio. By lines throughout the period. On the other 1931, air conditioning had been installed in hand, business activity wu generally on a over 300 cars of various types. Up to 1942, high level during the 192o's and the freight when the Government prohibited the manu­ traffic of the lines, despite the growing in­ facture of railroad passenger cars, over tJ,ooo roads of trucks, expanded to the largest sleepers, parlor cars, and coaches had been volume in their history. But with the advent air condiuoned, including cars of most of the of the great depression in 1930, railroad earn­ principru lines in the United States and ings, both passenger and freight, suffered a Cnnadn. sharp recession which continued in subse­ uThe innovation was an instantaneous quent years to the point where many of the success in that it surpassed any other single lines, constituting about one third of the agency in promoting travel comfort. More mileage, found it necessary to seek refuge in than any other recent development it served receivership. first co point the way toward arresting the "The first reaction of railroad manage­ passenger traffic decline on the railroads llnd ments to the decline in passenger traffic was then to nssist in regaining a measure of the 7 8 STREA.\ILINE, LIGHT-WEIGHT, HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAINS favor of the traveling public they formerly stainless steel as the strongest and longest­ enjoyed. lived structural material and protective cov­ "The air conditioning of railway cars has ering for cars of standard dimensions to permitted the introduction of many other operate at high speed in long trains on long striking trovel-appenl innovations in respect runs nt high availability. of the use of new mnterials nnd new concep­ "The City of Salina paralleled the Pioneer tions of design in the interior decorative Zephyr in design and appointments, and in treatment, for in sealing the cars air condi­ the first stages of this development con­ tioning banished the obstacles which smoke, t ributed heavily toward publiciting and pop­ dust, and cinders had placed in the way of ularizing the new railroad vehicle. It was a employing attractive color tones, mural 3-car Pullman-built aluminum alloy train, paintings, fine draperies, and pleasing light­ su~tandard in size and powered by a 6oo ing effects. HP oil..:lectric unit. The train's initio) tryout "On November 11, 1934, the first l'q!lllarly wos nn extensive exhibition tour of the coun­ scheduled streamline, light-weight passenger try, after which it was placed on view at the train, the Pioneer Zephyr, was placed in Century of Pr~ress (World's Fnir) in Chi­ operation on the Chrcngo, Burlington & cago. Both on rts tour and at the Fair it Quincy between Kansas City, Missouri, and attrncted wide attention and won extraor­ Omaha-Lincoln, Nebrnsko. It was built by dinary public acclaim. 1t was installed in the Budd Company, of stainless steel, pow­ l'q!lllar service on the Union Pacific between ered by a Diesel..:lectric 6oo HP unit, air Kansas City, Topeka, and Solina on January conditioned, the interior decorated in the 3'• '935· On Dttember r6, 1~1, it was with­ modem style and provided with many new drawn from service and dismantled. tntvel comforts and conveniences. "A pair of streamline trains, the Rebels of "This train and one other, the City of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, were the first of Salina of the Union Pncifie, may be said to the modern type to be built by the American have revealed the form of things to come in Cnr nnd Foundry Company. They are 3-car the way of milwny passenger equipment and corten steel trains of less thnn standard service. While only 3-car trains of sub­ dimensions, powered by 66o H P Diesel­ standard dimensions, with the power unit electric locomotives.