Don't miss our previous article Super High Speed Trains in Japan and France. Here is another collection of cool and technologically splendid trains that caught our attention recently.
You know how they say: "1000 destinations to travel, before you die", "1000 awesome things to try, before you die", "1000 ways to prepare pasta, before you die" (really, they should sell a book "One simple way to prepare a poisonous mushroom, before you die"). But we agree, there are multiple worthy activities to undertake in your lifetime. Learning about awesome trains and railroads is one of them.
(images via LIFE MAgazine 1, National Geographic, November 1939, 2)
The gorgeous streamlined steam and diesel locomotives from the 1920s-1930s scream "steampunk" and "dieselpunk" to anyone who can appreciate it, and also provide an ample field for research for train historians and collectors. This was the era of The Mighty Streamlined Machine, and it plainly shows even in black-and-white photographs that remained. Here is the glamorous "Broadway Limited" Express:
Milwaukee Road Hiawatha F6 Engine competes with the Packard LeBaron V-12 Coupe:
(art by Jack Juratovic, "Road and Track", November 1935 - via)
F7 competes with Duesenberg:
(art by Jack Juratovic, "Road and Track", November 1935 - via)
Many streamlined mighty engines prowled the nation at the time, including ones on C&NW (Chicago & North Western), the Hiawathas on the Milwaukee Road, the Aeoles steam engines on the Burlington Route (as backup to the famous Zephyrs):
To see more great examples of streamlined locomotives, go to this great site.
Back in England, the A4 4468 Mallard, one of the A4 series from LNER's Express Pacific, reached the world speed record for a steam locomotive (202.58 km/h) in 1938.
The idea is not new - here is a Victorian postcard, featuring even weirder Combined Ship & Railway Locomotive (from Hildebrand's, a turn-of-the-20th-century German chocolate company):
How about Tama the Cat as a train conductor in Japan? More info can be found here, but it seems that this cat boosted local economy by at least $10 million in tourist visits. Here is the obligatory cat image "I'm in ur stashion, chekin ur tikits":
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Please cover the nuclear/electric sourced, electric bullet train networks of China and their infrastructure, the rice and veggies society they support - Americans need to see this!
The pictures from the Czech Republic are taken in Brno - the second lagrest city. There are exhibiton grounds near the city center that are conected to the railway system - mainly for the delivery of large exhibits or other special ocasions (like historical train exhibitions etc...) - it is not a regular street tram line. But you can encounter a train on the street occasionaly (under special traffic police surveilance), that is going to or from the exhibition grounds.
Love this post, man. Your English is getting better, too. I just wonder if it is right to leave out the horrors of the human race for which trains have become a symbol (ie, cattle cars).
To go on from what therealche said re: Mallard 4468 Mallard, the fastest steam loco of all time.... You can still travel behind the 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, the sister loco to the Mallard. It is often on working loan from the UK National Railway Museum to the North Yorks Moors Railway, and also performs regularly on regular train routes. Detials can be found here http://www.sirnigelgresley.co.uk/ Believe me, it is a real pleasure to travel on a train hauled by such a beautiful, and impressive loco
HELP!!! I saw a cartoon as a kid about trains. It was in a very art deco style. From what i remember of the plot a little boy is in a train yard and he gets knocked unconscious and he has this crazy dream about conducting all the trains. I forgot the name, Does anyone know the name of the film I'm talking about?
It looks like in was made sometime from the 40's to the late 60's.
Glad you added Mallard; perhaps it would have been good if you could see not only the "Locomotive" but the "Train" as well - it had some very interesting coaches which shared bogies, much like the modern "Eurostar."
And in terms of style, perhaps the rival to the LNER's Mallard is even more beautiful, the recently restored LMS Princess Royal class "Duchess of Hamilton" http://www.aditnow.co.uk/cache/Personal-Album-856/Personal-Album-856-35343.jpg
While you have included some pretty impressive locomotives, I am surprised at some of your omissions. Between the world wars DRG (Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft) produced some pretty amazing locomotives (and one that, with modifications, is the fasted steam locomotive (BR 18 201 at 180km/h) in use today. DRG created such giants as the BR 01.10 (150km/h), BR 03.10 (140km/h) and the mighty BR 05 (175km/h). The latter, in my opinion, outperformed Mallard as its highest performance was checked on level track against Mallard's downhill run (which, incidentally, nearly wrote off the loco. Also very interesting was the BR 61 ABS fitted tank engine (175 km/h) You can see photos of these locos on Wikipedia. Also see http://www.germansteam.co.uk/FastestLoco/fastestloco.html#05trace (not my site).
And no mention of the Titfield Thunderbolt either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Titfield_Thunderbolt Doesn't matter what you post there's going to be hundreds that don't get a mention. Pity, there's so many beautiful locos out there.
Awesome post mate! Trains were definitely far more glamourous back in the day than today's utilitarian - although sometimes impressively fast - contraptions. Saw the Mallard last year at York Railway Museum. Didn't they have to bring it to the States to test how fast it could go because British track wasn't straight for long enough? Also check out the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester - free museum and pretty understated, but loads of great stuff including trains and planes.
thanks for sharing great stuff like these... For further train series keep an eye on italian trains, you know Italy is famous for its Design, and Italian Designers really did their best in creating pretty unusual locos and trains. See a complete overview here: http://www.trenomania.org/fotogallery/index.php scroll down for category like "FS Elletrotreni", or spend some time on: http://www.photorail.com/index2.htm See especially: ETR.220, ETR.300 Settebello, ALe.790, E.424, RALn.60, ALn.56 and much more...
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18 Comments:
Please cover the nuclear/electric sourced, electric bullet train networks of China and their infrastructure, the rice and veggies society they support - Americans need to see this!
How can you cover streamlined steam trains without a piture of the A4 class locos such as 4468 Mallard, the fastest steam loco of all time
The pictures from the Czech Republic are taken in Brno - the second lagrest city. There are exhibiton grounds near the city center that are conected to the railway system - mainly for the delivery of large exhibits or other special ocasions (like historical train exhibitions etc...) - it is not a regular street tram line. But you can encounter a train on the street occasionaly (under special traffic police surveilance), that is going to or from the exhibition grounds.
Love this post, man. Your English is getting better, too. I just wonder if it is right to leave out the horrors of the human race for which trains have become a symbol (ie, cattle cars).
To go on from what therealche said re: Mallard 4468 Mallard, the fastest steam loco of all time....
You can still travel behind the 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, the sister loco to the Mallard.
It is often on working loan from the UK National Railway Museum to the North Yorks Moors Railway, and also performs regularly on regular train routes. Detials can be found here http://www.sirnigelgresley.co.uk/
Believe me, it is a real pleasure to travel on a train hauled by such a beautiful, and impressive loco
Here is a nice one you missed from Baltimore.
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/bomuseum/co490.jpg
HELP!!!
I saw a cartoon as a kid about trains. It was in a very art deco style. From what i remember of the plot a little boy is in a train yard and he gets knocked unconscious and he has this crazy dream about conducting all the trains. I forgot the name, Does anyone know the name of the film I'm talking about?
It looks like in was made sometime from the 40's to the late 60's.
Added the Mallard, absolutely. Baltimore's one is nice, too.
We had a stream train in Victoria, Australia that was introduced in 1937 with the wonderful name of the Spirit of Progress.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Progress
Glad you added Mallard; perhaps it would have been good if you could see not only the "Locomotive" but the "Train" as well - it had some very interesting coaches which shared bogies, much like the modern "Eurostar."
And in terms of style, perhaps the rival to the LNER's Mallard is even more beautiful, the recently restored LMS Princess Royal class "Duchess of Hamilton"
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/cache/Personal-Album-856/Personal-Album-856-35343.jpg
While you have included some pretty impressive locomotives, I am surprised at some of your omissions. Between the world wars DRG (Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft) produced some pretty amazing locomotives (and one that, with modifications, is the fasted steam locomotive (BR 18 201 at 180km/h) in use today. DRG created such giants as the BR 01.10 (150km/h), BR 03.10 (140km/h) and the mighty BR 05 (175km/h). The latter, in my opinion, outperformed Mallard as its highest performance was checked on level track against Mallard's downhill run (which, incidentally, nearly wrote off the loco. Also very interesting was the BR 61 ABS fitted tank engine (175 km/h)
You can see photos of these locos on Wikipedia. Also see http://www.germansteam.co.uk/FastestLoco/fastestloco.html#05trace (not my site).
And no mention of the Titfield Thunderbolt either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Titfield_Thunderbolt
Doesn't matter what you post there's going to be hundreds that don't get a mention. Pity, there's so many beautiful locos out there.
Awesome post mate! Trains were definitely far more glamourous back in the day than today's utilitarian - although sometimes impressively fast - contraptions. Saw the Mallard last year at York Railway Museum. Didn't they have to bring it to the States to test how fast it could go because British track wasn't straight for long enough? Also check out the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester - free museum and pretty understated, but loads of great stuff including trains and planes.
thanks for sharing great stuff like these...
For further train series keep an eye on italian trains, you know Italy is famous for its Design, and Italian Designers really did their best in creating pretty unusual locos and trains.
See a complete overview here:
http://www.trenomania.org/fotogallery/index.php
scroll down for category like "FS Elletrotreni",
or spend some time on:
http://www.photorail.com/index2.htm
See especially: ETR.220, ETR.300 Settebello, ALe.790, E.424, RALn.60, ALn.56 and much more...
@1379
I think the show you're looking for is "play safe".
http://www.archive.org/details/Play_Safe_1936
Amazing animation for a show from 1936. I grew up on this too.
As always, excellent article DRB. Keep up the good work.
@1379
it was called play safe it was made in 1936 here is a link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgyWhKlH78
If this is "Streamlined Trains of the Art Deco Era", you HAVE to include the 1937 and 1939 Coronation Scot.
HAVE to. It's compulsory! :)
There was a blue one with silver speed-stripes, and a red one with gold striping. The red one did a tour of the US in 1939
www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/wiki/Coronation_Scot
Thank you Brighton Toy - you got fantastic site, and will certainly include this material in next parts!
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