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Twenty Five Greatest American Luxury Streamliners and Domeliners 1945-1970
Before Amtrak -- Twenty-five Greatest American Luxury Streamliners and Domeliners 1945-1970
Back when Victory over Germany and Japan, DiMaggio and Williams, United Nations, Frank Sinatra, Greatest Generation, Iron Curtain, Jackie Robinson, GI Bill of Rights, Life, Stalin, suburbs, Berlin Airlift, Frank Costello, "Give'em Hell Harry", NATO, baby boomers, Mao, television, Korea, Howdy Doody, supermarkets, Sid Caesar, "I like Ike", Cold War, New York Herald Tribune, Milton Berle, wide prosperity, Casey Stengel, TV dinners, Khrushchev, I Love Lucy, Mel Allen and Red Barber, McCarthy, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education school desegragation decision, Arthur Godfrey, "Willie, Mickey and the Duke", Edward R. Murrow, Elvis, China Lobby, Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson, Twenty-one, Suez, Berra and Campanella, tail fins, Hungarian freedom fighters, Huntley and Brinkley, Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas, the Honeymooners, malls, Sputnik,BaseballNational! Just ask the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels!, civil rights, Camelot, 77 Sunset Strip, National League Rules! Musial, Mays, Aaron and Clemente, Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson and Marichal -- the best in the game today!, Cuban Missile Crisis, Engel v. Vitale, Abington School District v. Schempp school prayer and Bible reading decisions, Bonanza, nuclear fallout shelters, homeless shelters, freedom rides, JFK Assassinated, Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, the Beatles, Watts, the Great Society, Bart Starr and Paul Hornug, Vietnam, Walter Cronkite, Voting Rights Act, Vince Lombardi, Newark and Detroit, Russia invades Czechoslovakia, RFK and Martin Luther King, Jr Assassinated, Apollo, SS United States and SS America were fresh in our minds, there were famous luxury passenger trains with Diesels and domes gracing America's rails. These were the finest of all -- the best in the game, and -- the twenty-five best.
Diesels and Domes -- The Last Gasp for Free Enterprise Luxury Passenger Trains
From the years immediately following World War II, through the mid 1950s, American railroads embarked on one of the most ambitious, all encompassing and expensive re-equipment programs in the history of any industry, totally financed by their stockholders, for their major passenger trains most likely to have the ability to compete with airplanes and cars. The railroads purchased thousands of the most comfortable, luxurious and modern rail passenger cars ever designed from American Car and Foundry, the Edward G. Budd Company and Pullman Standard. The immediate result was the most magnificent and opulent fleet of streamliners and domeliners ever to grace this planet. Those most preeminent competitions -- Broadway vs. Century, City of LA vs. Super Chief -- were renewed in spectacular splendor. The latter duo even boasted dueling private dining quarters, the Gold Room vs. the Turquoise Room. Time-honored traditions from the Northeast were kept in style to Florida on the venerable Florida Special and the gleaming Silver Meteor and to Atlanta and New Orleans by the luxurious Crescent. The Southern Pacific enhanced its reputation for Western superlatives with the Pullman built Lark and Shasta Daylight and the Budd built Sunset Limited. 1952 brought, not only Ike, but also, a brand new edition of the Congressional Limited, to Washington.  Domes, and the cruiseliner concept, added a new dimension to overland travel, transforming "getting there" into, a destination in itself. Domes showed they were more than  novelties with the December 17, 1947 introduction of Burlington's quintuple domed Twin Zephyrs, providing riders with spectacular views of the Mississippi River -- and arch-rival Milwaukee Road's  parallel decisions to equip its competing Hiawathas with Brooks Stevens designed Skytop observation parlor cars and, eventually, with Pullman built full dome, the Super Domes, lounges. Following, on March 20, 1949, was the inaugural of America's ultimate cruiseliner, the august California Zephyr, on the spectacularly scenic Burlington-Denver and Rio Grande Western-Western Pacific route between Chicago and the Bay Area. Scheduled to traverse the most breathtaking views of the Colorado Rockies and the Feather River Canyon in daylight hours and opulently equipped by Budd, including both mid train and observation dome lounges, the CZ quickly became the train between the Midwest and San Francisco. On June 6, 1954, Santa Fe added the prestigious Chief name, and unparalleled Harvey service, to the Chicago-San Francisco market, unveiling the San Francisco Chief, complete with full dome, the Big Domes, and lounges. Whether viewing Mount Hood or Mount Shasta from the Shasta Daylight, Feather River Canyon and the Rockies from the California Zephyr or Tehachapi from the San Francisco Chief, all compared favorably with any attractions in their fabled, and shared, San Francisco destination. Spotlight illuminated vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Shenandoah Valley from a dome seat, or from the square end observation lounge on the Capitol Limited, matched the magnetism of our nation's capital. The Ozarks, and the Lone Star State, from the Texas Eagle's domes, rivaled the legendary allure of "Big D," itself. Big G took full advantage of America's northernmost transcontinental route with both long and short domes and a round end solarium on its flagship Empire Builder. Not to be outdone, Union Pacific's plush City of Portland included dome observation with full lounge, dome diner and dome coach. The domes with the most enthralling story to tell had to be those Northern Pacific sleepers which spent springs and summers traversing the prime Pacific Northwest route of the North Coast Limited and winters sunbound in the comely consists of the Panama Limited and the City of Miami. On Sunday, October 28, 1956,  less than one month before General Dwight David Eisenhower's reelection as President, the Burlington gave the whole nation a magnificent present,  by completely reequiping the grand Denver Zephyr, complete with square end observation, and, triple domed excellence. Coach travel, also, reached a crescendo of luxury, to and from the cities of the Angels and by the Bay, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in Hi-Level coaches on Santa Fe's El Capitan and San Francisco Chief.

Unfortunately, in the longer term, this massive investment proved no match for indirectly taxpayer subsidized competition, first from Super Constellations and DC-7s, then, from their successors, 707s and DC-8s, and, finally, from the Interstate Highway System. With the railroads facing financial ruin, most of the trains listed below, the glorious cream of the final crop, began losing their luster by the mid 1960s. As late as 1964, the Santa Fe provided new and rebuilt equipment for El Capitan and the Super and San Francisco Chiefs and the New York Central  comprehensively refurbished both consists of the Twentieth Century Limited, including the two primary and the two spare round end observations. The Broadway, Capitol, Century, Denver Zephyr, General andGeorge Washington kept up the time-honored custom of the overnighter, i. e., a full workday before boarding and arriving fresh, well rested and on time for your morning meeting, regardless of the weather, and the last four, were even known to, very occasionally, run in sections. But, despite these deceptive and rare occurrences, within a few years, twenty-five years after V-E and V-J Days, a grand era was gone forever, to be recaptured, if at all, in history texts. Just as we must preserve the legacies of the bravery, sacrifice and struggles for freedom from the Battles of Britain, Stalingrad, Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, D-day, Okinawa and the Battle of the Bulge and from the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf and the Balkans, we owe it to our children and grandchildren and beyond to capture, while we still can, the glories of these magnificent rail cruiseliners, which were every bit as luxurious as, and companions in history to, those other great cruiseliners, the S.S. United States and America, the R.M.S. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, the S.S. Ile de France and France, also of a bygone era. I have gone as far as my health will permit me. My dream of writing the authoritative publication on postwar American streamliners is not to be completed. It is my wish that there will be others who can add floor plans, pictures and text. So, here they are, the magnificent twenty-five, the best, and last trains of our free enterprise system and, in this student's opinion, the most splendid beauties ever to ride our precious rails.
Before Amtrak
The Second Streamliner Era -- Post World War II -- The Greatest Trains of the Greatest Generation

*Broadway Limited New York-Chicago PRR
*California Zephyr Chicago-San Francisco CB&Q-D&RGW-WP
*Capitol Limited  New York(until 4/26/58)-Baltimore-Chicago CNJ-RDG(until 4/26/58)-B&O
*City of Los Angeles Chicago-Los Angeles C&NW(until 10/29/55)-CMStP&P(from 10/29/55)-UP
*City of Portland Chicago-Portland C&NW(until 10/29/55)-CMStP&P(from 10/29/55)-UP
*Coast Daylight Los Angeles-San Francisco SP
*Congressional Limited New York-Washington PRR
*Crescent New York-New Orleans PRR-SR-A&WP-WofA-L&N
*Denver Zephyr Chicago-Denver CB&Q
*El Capitan Chicago-Los Angeles AT&SF
*Empire Builder Chicago-Seattle-Portland CB&Q-GN-SP&S
*Florida Special New York-Miami PRR-RF&P-ACL-FEC(until 1/23/63)-SAL(from 1/23/63)
*Hiawatha Chicago-Minneapolis-St. Paul-(until 5/22/61)Seattle CMStP&P
*Lark Los Angeles-San Francisco SP
*Merchants Limited New York-Boston NY,NH & H
*North Coast Limited Chicago-Seattle-Portland CB&Q-NP-SP&S
*Panama Limited Chicago-New Orleans IC
*San Francisco Chief Chicago-San Francisco AT&SF-P&SF
*Shasta Daylight San Francisco-Portland SP
*Silver Meteor New York-Miami-Tampa PRR-RF&P-SAL
*Sunset Limited New Orleans-Los Angeles SP-T&NO
*Super Chief Chicago-Los Angeles AT&SF
*Texas Eagle St. Louis-Dallas-Ft. Worth-Houston-San Antonio MP-T&P-IGN
*Twentieth Century Limited New York-Chicago NYC
*Twin Zephyrs Chicago-Minneapolis-St. Paul CB&Q

*Canadian Montreal-Toronto-Vancouver CPR
Honorable mention to this elegant domeliner from our Canadian friends, the equal of any train on this list and also privately financed, before VIA.
*City of Miami Chicago-Miami-Tampa IC-CofG-ACL-FEC(until 1/23/63)-SAL(from 1/23/63)
Honorable mention # 26 American postwar luxury streamliner, in case you wondered.
*General New York-Washington-Chicago PRR
Honorable mention # 27 American postwar luxury streamliner, in case you're still wondering.
*George Washington Washington-Newport News-Richmond-Cincinnati C&O
Honorable mention # 28 American postwar luxury streamliner, in case you're still wondering-we suggest you can stop now.

Based on quality of equipment specifically assigned to this train, not anything acquired as a result of being combined with any other train, level of service, operating as well as public timetable, rail competition and management commitment to this train; arrived at by objective, numerical criteria.

More like this: RailroadData.com

We have been overwhelmed by the reception we have received from our fellow railfans on RailroadData.com. We have received an exciting and most generous offer from a close friend which we hope can be accomplished in the near future. He is searching for quality pictures in the public domain of all these beauties and his son plans to make each of the streamliner names links to them.

For use of this study, or to add floor plans or pictures, any author, scholar, railfan or anyone please contact:
The author is forever in their debt.

The author of this study, beststreamliner@aol.com and wartwren@msn.com, suffers from an incurable, progressive, debilitating illness of the central nervous system which precludes his writing the definitive book on the twenty-five greatest post World War II streamliners. He has therefore put together what he could of his work and sent it to the Smithsonian, who graciously agreed to keep the study for other scholars. He hopes an author, railfan or scholar will take on this labor of love. The twenty-five streamliners listed were arrived at by objective, numerical criteria. It was decided to list them alphabetically rather than by ranking because of the closeness of the totals and the differences between daylight, overnight and transcontinental streamliners, which would have arguably necessitated a cumbersome three lists. At this level, they're all royalty. He does feel that these remarkable streamliners, which were the best of the second streamlined era after World War II, with its special place in history as the last try for private enterprise funded public rail passenger transportation on a large scale, should be recaptured while those who remember them are still around.

Our favorite places:
Wart and Wren love Seth, Joe and Preferred Pet Care, Inc.

Source for other passenger train and railroad information: RailroadData.Com RailRoad Links Directory
URL: http://RailroadData.com/rrlinks/
This is an excellent Railroad Links Directory and Search Engine containing over five thousand Websights, Search Engine, List of Popular Sights, User Ratings, Etc.

We also highly recommend RailroadInfo.com, a superb source for railroad and model railroad links, photographs, news and information and Microsoft simulator!
URL:http://RailroadInfo.com

 

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