Streamliner Memories Enthusiast Color Series By Mike Schafer Soft Cover 1999

$14.00

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There was a time when streamliners could be found in all four corners of America, from Van Buren, Maine, to San Diego, California, and from Seattle, Washington, to Miami, Florida. Their names were evocative, perfunctory, and sometimes even whimsical: the Aroostook Flyer, the San Diegan, the Western Star, and the City of Miami. They provided the public with ground transport at its finest and most comfortable.

The classic American streamliner can be compared to a nova, a star that suddenly becomes many times brighter and then fades. The streamliner era in the United States officially began in 1934 with the roll-out of Union Pacific's M-10000 and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's Zephyr 9900. The two little lightweight, new-from-the-ground-up speedsters were beacons of hope in the Great Depression, proving to railroads across the land that new, comfortable, innovative, high-speed streamlined trains could lure passengers back to the rails.

An explosion of new streamliners soon followed the M-10000 and 9900, tempered only by the World War II years (1941-1945). Shortly after the war the streamliner movement reached unparalleled intensity, only to peak by about the mid-1950s. Although new streamliners continued to be added until the late 1950s, a disturbing decline in passenger revenues had set in. That, and escalating costs, applied the brakes to a short but colorful epoch for the American passenger train.

America's shift in transportation policies and commitments after the war ended the relative monopoly that railroads had held on freight and passenger transportation up to that time. Central to this change was the automobile, the passenger train's principal nemesis since the 1920s. It was joined by a new competitor in the late 1950s, the commercial jetliner.

All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.

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