The Silver Streak

The Pioneer Zephyr aka Burlington Zephyr is a diesel-powered trainset built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, commonly known as the Burlington Route. It set a speed record in 1934 between Denver and Chicago, making a non-stop "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash in 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of almost 78 mph over the 1,015-mile route. This event inspired the 1934 RKO film, The Silver Streak, starring Sally Blane and Charles Starrett. On the same day in 1960, the train's  26th anniversary of the "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash, the original Pioneer Zephyr made its last run along the train's regular revenue route from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Kansas City, Missouri, finishing in Chicago, Illinois where it was donated to Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry.

The Empire Builder

The Great Northern Railway reached the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century, and for this feat, their flagship passenger train was nicknamed "The Empire Builder." They also adopted "Rocky" as their mascot logo. The railway placed new streamlined and diesel-powered trains in service by the Forties that cut the scheduled 2,211 miles between Chicago and Seattle to 45 hours. The schedule allowed riders views of the Cascade Mountains and Glacier National Park, a park established through the lobbying efforts of the Great Northern. The advertisement shows an A-B-B-A set of EMD F7 diesel units in its stunning Omaha orange and Pullman green design. 

Famed Illinois Central Streamliner

The Panama Limited was a passenger train operated from 1911 to 1971 between Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The flagship train of the Illinois Central Railroad, it took its name from the Panama Canal, which in 1911 was three years from completion. The train epitomized Streamliner passenger service beginning in 1942 with the first diesel/electric-powered run on an 18-hour schedule. The train shaved nearly two hours off this schedule by the late Forties. The Panama Limited carried a new orange and brown paint scheme that later became standard on Illinois Central passenger trains. The earlier units included two, upper-level yellow stripes on the lead engine. The Illinois Central Railroad last ran the Panama Limited in 1971, one day before Amtrak took over, dropping the Panama Limited in favor of its former daytime counterpart, the City of New Orleans. 

The Panama LImted is shown above leaving Chicago around 1960.

The Streamliners Efficient Friend

 

The Alcoa Corporation touted it use of aluminum incorporated in the railroad's Streamliner passenger trains of the 1930s. The integrated-body-and-frame construction using aluminum and Cor-Ten steel was used to reduce the required structural weight to a fraction of conventional railcars. Outwardly, stainless steel was the dominant material, however, typically left unpainted except for the car's reporting marks required by law. In general, the above-illustrated advertisement exaggerates the typical length of these trains.

Burlington and Union Pacific railroads sought to increase the efficiency of their passenger service and looked to the lightweight, petroleum-powered technology offered by Budd and Pullman-Standard. Union Pacific's project was named the M-10000 (top, above) and Burlington's was named the Burlington Zephyr (top, bottom). The M-10000 was the star attraction at the 1934 World's Fair "Century of Progress" in Chicago, Illinois. It was officially named The Streamliner during its demonstration period. With nearly a million miles on its engine, the trainset was scrapped in 1942 and its aluminum recycled for use in the wartime aircraft industry.

Note: Founded in 1888 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Alcoa Corporation (a portmanteau of Aluminum Company of America) is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum.