Wow, that is beautiful... and notice the "white wall" wheels
Found on https://www.facebook.com/ifinglovethis?fref=nf
David emailed me the following:
In the 1930s, the railroads introduced Streamlined Passenger trains to bring excitement and to lure passengers to back the rails, as the recent lowering of the prices of cars (Model T etc) had discouraged spending money on riding trains when a used car was quite affordable.
Other railroad companies (like the Burlington Route did with its Zephyrs,
the Union Pacific did with its "City" streamliner trains,
the Illinios Central's did with its Green Diamond trains,
and the Baltimore and Ohio did with its Royal Blue/Abraham Lincoln trains )
spent "big money" purchasing a new diesel locomotive and streamlined train sets during the depression, the frugal New York Central turned to Henry Dreyfuss, an industrial designer, for its “clean lined” design.
( His contemporaries were John Fredrick Harbeson of GM's Electro-Motive Diesel division, Otto Kuhler, Raymond Loewy and Brooks Stevens - the last two designed for Studebaker)
Loewy train design: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/raymond-loewys-120th-birthday-is-google.html
Stevens designed the Olympain Hiawatha observation cars: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/olympian-hiawatha-railroad-observation.html
the GM Electro motive Aerotrain: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/gm-aerotrain.html
The locomotive shops in Albany, NY upgraded the spoke-type driving wheels with disc-type driving wheels (for better balance for higher rotational speed), roller bearings, and were given "White walls" and centers to contrast with the I-beam connecting rods.
The wheels and rods were illuminated at night to "add visual excitement" for the introduction of the new 1936 trains. Passenger cars were rebuilt from 1920s commuter coaches and upgraded to beautiful matched Streamlined passenger cars by the railroad's Indianapolis Car shops.
Running between (appropriately) Detroit, MI and Cleveland, OH, via Toledo, OH, the train was scheduled at 165 miles in 165 minutes westbound for Detroit and 170 minutes Eastbound, (including stops).
More details are available in the book The Art of the Streamliner, http://www.amazon.com/Art-Streamliner-Bob-Johnston/dp/1586631462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422157548&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Art+of+the+Streamliner by Bob Johnson and Joe Welsh, with Mike Schafer
