When I'd seen Art Deco posters like the one above I had assumed that these were imaginative flights of fantasy - an idealised version of 1930s streamlined technology. Then, by complete chance, I found this picture on Tumblr:
This is a New York Central Railroad Mercury which operated from 1936 to 1959.
Wow - so they were real! A quick search on the web turned up plenty more photos:
This is a New York Central Railroad 20th Century Limited train operated from 1938 to 1945, also seen in this painting:
Below is The Aeolus from 1937 operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad:
The more I looked, the more I found. Streamliners were operated across the world.
In the United Kingdom the LMS Coronation Class locomotives were operated from 1937 until 1964 although their streamlining was removed by 1949 as it provided little benefit and was unpopular with maintenance teams:
In 1937 the Soviet Union introduced the IS20-16 Iosef Stalin which operated until at least 1962:
Below is the unique Soviet 2-3-2K which operated from 1937 to at least 1957:
Another unique streamliner was the US PRR S1:
Czechoslovakia had the ČSD 386 Series which operated from 1937 until 1948:
This is just a brief introduction to the myriad designs of streamliners which operated across the World from the 1930s to the 1950s and beyond.
For more information I'd recommend the following excellent websites:
Catch You Later!
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