Streamliner Cars (rail)
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Streamliner Cars (rail)
The streamliners are a class of streamlined railway cars built in the 1940s through the 1950s for long distance passenger railservices in North America. Predecessors The first ''streamliner'' in the United States was the M-10000 in service with the Union Pacific Railroad in February 1934. The second was the Pioneer Zephyr in service with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Both were built as ''Diesel Multiple-Units''; the ''M-10000'' was made of aluminum and the ''Pioneer Zephyr'' of stainless steel. Modernization In 1944 American Car and Foundry (ACF) was visited by the Spanish inventor Goicoechea looking for a manufacturer for his invention, the lightweight articulated streamlined Talgo. ACF and Goicoechea signed the contract on December 8, 1945 and ACF began fabricating three trainsets, two for Spain and one for demonstration and experimental purposes in the USA. ACF built the Talgo using a lightmetal body like Budd's ''Pioneer Zephyr'' including the non-European o ...
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Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating wikt:streamline, streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "High-speed rail, bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully Bicycle fairing, faired upright and recumbent bicycles. As part of the Streamline Moderne trend, the term was applied to passenger cars, trucks, and other types of light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles, but now vehicle streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic. In Land speed record, land speed racing, it is a term applied to the long, slender, custom built, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels. Trains Before World War II Europe The first high-speed streamliner in Germany was the "Schienenzeppelin", an experimental propeller driven single car, built in 1930. On 21 June 1931, the car set a speed record of on a run between Berlin and Hamburg. In ...
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Pullman Company
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century development of mass production and takeover of rivals, the company developed a virtual monopoly on production and ownership of sleeper cars. During a severe economic downturn, the 1894 Pullman Strike by company workers proved a transforming moment in American labor history. At the company's peak in the early 20th century, its cars accommodated 26 million people a year, and it in effect operated "the largest hotel in the world". Its production workers initially lived in a planned worker community (or "company town") named Pullman, Chicago. Pullman developed the sleeping car, which carried his name into the 1980s. Pullman did not just manufacture the cars, it also operated them on most of the railroads in the United States, paying rail ...
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Canadian (train)
The ''Canadian'' (french: Le Canadien) is a transcontinental passenger train operated by Via Rail with service between Union Station in Toronto, Ontario and Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Before 1955, the ''Canadian'' was a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) train between Toronto and Chicago. On April 24, 1955, CPR renamed its best transcontinental train between Montreal/Toronto and Vancouver the ''Canadian'', with new lightweight stainless-steel equipment. Via Rail Canada took over in 1978, and, on January 15, 1990, designated the ''Canadian'' as its sole transcontinental service, between Toronto and Vancouver-only. (Montreal-Sudbury-Vancouver through service, originally the main section of the train, was discontinued on this date). The new service replaced the former "Super Continental" CNR flagship passenger service, and continues to run as of 2022 primarily over Canadian National tracks. History In the years following World War II, passen ...
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Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, the railway owns approximately of track in seven provinces of Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves Minneapolis–St. Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and Albany, New York, in the United States. The railway was first built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a commitment extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871; the CPR was Canada's first transcontinental railway. ...
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Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across approximately of track. In the late 20th century, CN gained extensive capacity in the United States by taking over such railroads as the Illinois Central. CN is a public company with 22,600 employees, and it has a market cap of approximately CA$90 billion. CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding in 1919 until being privatized in 1995. , Bill Gates is the largest single shareholder of CN stock, owning a 14.2% interest through Cascade Investment and his own Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Fr ...
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Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route directly competed with SP's portion of the Overland Route for rail traffic between Salt Lake City/Ogden, Utah, and Oakland, California, for nearly 80 years. The Western Pacific was one of the original operators of the ''California Zephyr'' passenger line. In 1982, the Western Pacific was acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation and it was soon merged into their Union Pacific Railroad. History The original Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870) was established in 1862 to build the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, between Sacramento and San Jose, California (later Oakland, California). After completing the last link from Sacramento to Oakland, this company was absorbed into the Central Pacific Railroad in 1870. T ...
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Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado, in 1870. It served mainly as a transcontinental bridge line between Denver, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Rio Grande was also a major origin of coal and mineral traffic. The Rio Grande was the epitome of mountain railroading, with a motto of ''Through the Rockies, not around them'' and later ''Main line through the Rockies'', both referring to the Rocky Mountains. The D&RGW operated the highest mainline rail line in the United States, over the Tennessee Pass in Colorado, and the famed routes through the Moffat Tunnel and the Royal Gorge. At its height, in 1889, the D&RGW had the largest narrow-gauge railroad network in North America with of track interconnecting the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Known for ...
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California Zephyr
The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overall after the ''Texas Eagle's'' triweekly continuation from San Antonio to Los Angeles, with travel time between the termini taking approximately 51 hours. Amtrak claims the route as one of its most scenic, with views of the upper Colorado River valley in the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. The modern train is the second iteration of a train named ''California Zephyr''; the original train was privately operated and ran on a different route through Nevada and California. During fiscal year 2019, the ''California Zephyr'' carried 410,844 passengers, a decrease of 1.8% over FY2018. The train had a total revenue of $51,950,998 in FY2016, an increase of 6.5% over FY2015. History Previous service Prior to the 1971 creation of Amtrak, ...
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Slumbercoach
The Slumbercoach is an 85-foot-long, 24 single room, eight double room streamlined sleeping car. Built in 1956 by the Budd Company for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad for service on the ''Denver Zephyr'', subsequent orders were placed in 1958 and 1959 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Missouri Pacific Railroad for the ''Texas Eagle''/''National Limited'', then in 1959 by the Northern Pacific Railway for its ''North Coast Limited'' and also the New York Central Railroad for use on the '' 20th Century Limited''. History The Slumbercoach, in economic terms, was part of the American railways’ attempt, in the 1950s, to recapture market share lost to airlines, buses and the automobile by providing upgraded accommodations for non-first class passengers. Demand for private accommodation (bedrooms and roomettes) remained high, while demand for the traditional Pullman open section was declining. Other types of economy sleeping car did not have the capacity of the Slumb ...
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Sleeping Car
The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American and English railways in the 1830s; they could be configured for Coach (rail), coach seating during the day. History Possibly the earliest example of a sleeping car (or ''bed carriage'', as it was then called) was on the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways between London and Lancashire, England. The bed carriage was first made available to first-class passengers in 1838. In the spring of 1839, the Cumberland Valley Railroad pioneered sleeping car service in America with a car named "Chambersburg", between Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Chambersburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A couple of years later a second car, the "Carlisle", was introduced into service.
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Observation Car
An observation car/carriage/coach (in US English, often abbreviated to simply observation or obs) is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the rearmost carriage, with windows or a platform on the rear of the car for passengers' viewing pleasure. The cars were nearly universally removed from service on American railroads beginning in the 1950s as a cost-cutting measure in order to eliminate the need to "turn" the trains when operating out of stub-end terminals. The push-pull mode of operation removes this limitation. In Europe, various trains are now fitted with observation cars at either or both ends. Configuration The main spotting feature of observation cars is at the "B" end (tail) of the car; the walls of lightweight and streamlined cars usually round together to form a tapered U shape, smoothly or with a door, and larger panoramic windows were installed all around the end of the car. On older heavyweight cars, the rear end of the car ...
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Dome Car
A dome car is a type of railway passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a coach, lounge car, dining car, sleeping car or observation. Beginning in 1945, dome cars were primarily used in the United States and Canada, though a small number were constructed in Europe for Trans Europ Express service, and similar panorama cars are in service on Alpine tourist railways like the Bernina Express. In North America, dome cars were manufactured by the Budd Company, Pullman Standard and American Car & Foundry. Southern Pacific Railroad built its own dome cars in its Sacramento, California, shops. In the 1990s Colorado Railcar began producing dome cars. Generally, seats in the dome were considered "non-revenue" like lounge car seats. Configuration A portion of the car, usually in the center of the car but offset towards one end, is split between two levels. The offset resu ...
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