Sunday Streamline #29: Dreyfuss Rockets:

Michael L. Grace wrote: “If leaving from New York, you departed at 6 p.m. and arrived the next morning in Chicago at 8:45 a.m. Settling in for the evening, after boarding the Century in downtown Manhattan, you enjoyed cocktails in the observation car, dinner with views of the Hudson, a good night sleep and then with breakfast in bed or in the dining car. Dress was business formal with no room for baseball caps.

"Standing in line for security, enduring a long cab ride or enduring hours on the tarmac because of bad weather were not included in your first class Pullman fare.

"The glamorous departure aboard New York Central’s 20th Century Limited was equal to a sailing on the Queen Mary, Liberte or United States. This was still the only way to “cross the pond” from New York to Europe into the 1950s and Pullman was the only way to travel overnight by train in America.

Dreyfuss’ interior designs achievements shouldn’t be forgotten, but his main achievement with the Century and probably his best design ever was the rocket-shaped shrouding of the mighty Hudson, with a sharp rib at the front, dubbed "Gladiator’s helmet”:

These ten locos (including the pioneering Commodore Vanderbilt* which received a new shrouding in 1938) look equally impressive on posters, paintings and photographs:

Another impressive feature of the J-3a Hudsons were their whitewall drivers:

Half of these locomotives had boxpok drivers. The other half had Scullin double-disc drivers.

More images:

Shrouding over the main air reservoirs was removed in 1941. All streamlining was removed from these locomotives in 1945. Anyway, the NYCS Hudson will be always remembered as streamlined:

After the Second World War, a whole new train-set was commissioned which was pulled by diesel-electric locomotives. The new set was ceremonially inaugurated by General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1948. It was this set that was featured in postwar films such as North by Northwest and The Band Wagon.

Another famous NYCS train designed by Dreyfuss is the Empire State Express. n 1941, the New York Central contracted with Budd to build a stainless steel fleet of passenger equipment to upgrade its train service. One of these trains was the “Empire State Express,” and had specific equipment dedicated to the service.

Lot 2147 consisted of 16 stainless steel 56-seat coaches built specifically for the new Empire State Express, running from New York to Cleveland via Buffalo (620 mi.) Most of the equipment was named in honor of past governors of New York State. The new stainless steel coaches boasted every modern convenience of the period, including air conditioning.

The re-equipped train was to debut on December 7, 1941, but was upstaged by the events of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, drawing America into World War II.

Anyway, two locomotives soldiered on in their streamline shrouding very similar to Century’s, no rib, grey-blue bicolor paint scheme:

Here they are together on a 1940s poster, the 20th Cenury Limited and Empire State Express, with their diesel successor at left:

Special thanks to: steamlocomotive.com, NY Social Diary, Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum,  paul.malon @ Flickr.

Wiki texts used (1, 2)

Artwork: David Mittner, Ted Rose

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* I’m happy to announce that our past articles, severely damaged by my personal hosting service, are fully restored and look better than ever.