Streamliners Timeline
1830 - 1919 | 1920 - 1980
1920 |
 Passenger rail travel reaches its all-time high, with 1.2 million passengers boarding 9,000 inter-city trains and racking up 47 million passenger miles every day.
March 1: The Esch-Cummins Act, or the Transportation Act, of 1920 returns railroads to private management. |
1925 |
The Central Railroad of New Jersey uses the first diesel-electric locomotive in regular switching service for its operations to New York City. |
1926 |
Commercial airlines carry 5,800 passengers over the course of the year. |
1927 |
Train designers produce prototypes of air-conditioned passenger cars.
With the goal of using environmental resources wisely, Buckminster Fuller designs the Dymaxion House, a mass-produced, easily transportable, environmentally efficient house. According to his plans, the dwelling can be shipped anywhere in the world in a tube.
 May 20: Charles Lindbergh becomes an international celebrity when he makes a successful transatlantic flight aboard his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, traveling nonstop from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours.
May 22: The Iron Lung, the first artificial respirator designed to help polio victims breathe, is developed by Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw. Eight years later, the Iron Lung will figure prominently in Silver Streak, a film starring the Burlington Zephyr train. |
1928 |
Britain's premier train, the Royal Scot, sets the nonstop distance record for rail travel on a route from Glasgow to London. The English train will hold the record for six years, until the record-breaking run of the Zephyr.
 June 17-18: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
December 24: In Washington, the Great Northern Railway's Cascade Tunnel, begun in 1925, is completed. At close to eight miles, it is the longest railroad tunnel in the Western Hemisphere. |
1929 |
 Greyhound Bus Lines begins service.
October: The U.S. stock market crashes. The crash occurs over a period of several weeks. |
1930 |
The country slides into a severe economic crisis, the Great Depression. |
1931 |
 Ralph Budd, a protégé of John Stevens from railroad-expansion and Panama Canal days, takes control of the Burlington Railroad, which has been losing business to cars, buses, and airplanes since the late 1920s. The railroad has also been crumbling under the weight of the Depression. Between 1926 and 1929 the 11,000-mile railroad had lost a fifth of its passengers, and then between 1929 and 1931 lost half of what remained.
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1932 |
 President Herbert Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, created to spur economic activity during the Depression, lends money to the railroads and other financial, agricultural, and industrial institutions. The government agency's scope will be expanded under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and will merge with other agencies to form the Federal Loan Agency in 1939. It will be disbanded in 1957 amid charges of political favoritism.
September 29: Ralph Budd meets with manufacturer Edward G. Budd (no relation) and soon commissions the Philadelphia metal maker to build a streamlined train, the Burlington Zephyr. He hopes that its speed and innovative design will revive interest in passenger rail travel.
November 8: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to the first of his four presidential terms. Vowing to lead the nation out of the Depression, Roosevelt campaigns on a platform of new social programs and public works expenditures, including promises to revive the rail industry. |
1933 |
May 27: Chicago's World's Fair, known as "A Century of Progress," opens and runs for two years. During the second year of the Fair, the Burlington Zephyr and the Union Pacific M-10,000 will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and will help to usher in the era of professional industrial design, a field deeply influenced by the streamliner trains' integration of form and function.
June: Congress passes the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, freezing railroad employment for three years. In his implementation of the new law, President Roosevelt names Joseph Eastman the Federal Coordinator of Transportation. He is given the task of eliminating duplicated services and facilities, and reducing costs wherever possible. Eastman will be instrumental in arranging funding for the railroads to build the next generation of streamliners. |
1934 |
 Railroads introduce diesel locomotives for passenger service. Within seven years they will be used in freight service as well, and boxy, steam-powered locomotives, with their billowing clouds of white steam exhaust, will inexorably give way to sleek, internal combustion-powered trains.
February 12: The Union Pacific M-10,000 (or The City of Salina, as it was later named) embarks on a 12,000-mile coast-to-coast tour. Enormous crowds turn out across the nation to admire its streamlined look.
April 18: Having noticed that personal washing machines are a luxury many of his neighbors can not afford, J.F. Cantrell opens the first laundromat, in Fort Worth, Texas. Soon thereafter, household appliances will get a facelift as the popularity of streamline design grips America.
May 26: Completed in April, the Burlington Zephyr makes its triumphant nonstop "Dawn to Dusk" run from Denver to Chicago. Achieving an average -- and unprecedented -- 77.6 miles per hour, and hitting a top speed of 104 miles per hour, it amasses world speed records, as well as legions of fans.
November 11: The Zephyr is put into regular service between Lincoln, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri. Despite double-digit unemployment in the farm belt, the train attracts so many riders that passengers must be turned away. The following year it will add a fourth car to meet the demand. |
1935 |
 The film Silver Streak opens in the United States, capitalizing on the nation's infatuation with new train technology. The Burlington Zephyr plays a starring role in the film, charged with getting an Iron Lung to an ailing patient before it's too late.
April: The first Public Works Administration-funded streamliner, The Comet, makes its debut. Made for the New Haven Railroad, it runs between Boston and Providence and can reach speeds of up to 109 miles per hour. Despite the streamliner craze, The Comet is only one of a handful of new diesel trains, and diesels are still only used for passenger traffic; most railroads streamline their existing steam locomotives because updating old equipment costs less than purchasing new trains. |
1936 |
 November 11: A year after it is put into service, the Burlington Zephyr is renamed the Pioneer Zephyr, to distinguish it from the other Zephyr trains that Burlington is adding to its roster.
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1939 |
 With the ever-increasing popularity of Florida as a tourist destination, the Seaboard Railway inaugurates the Silver Meteor, which trims eight hours off the 33-hour run from New York to Florida. Despite the public's evident delight with streamliners, the railroads' spectacular promotional efforts, and steady technological improvements, the railroad industry still struggles.
September: With the threat of war in Europe, Burlington's Ralph Budd meets with President Roosevelt and Joe Eastman in the White House. Budd argues successfully against nationalization of the railroads, but agrees that railroads will be important to the wartime effort.
November 18: Britain and France declare war on Germany. President Roosevelt still hopes that the United States can retain its position of neutrality. |
1940 |
 Railroad mileage in the United States drops to 233,000 miles.
The Union Pacific M-10,000 is retired from service.
May 28: In an effort to coordinate wartime transport, President Roosevelt names Ralph Budd Transportation Commissioner of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense. Seven months later, as the war in Europe escalates, Budd is appointed Director of the Transportation Division in the newly formed Office of Emergency Management. |
1941 |
December 7: The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States enters the war the next day.
December 18: President Roosevelt sets up the Office of Defense Transportation and picks Joe Eastman to lead it. The ODT coordinates all transportation facilities for the war effort. To avoid a federal seizure of railroads, as happened during the First World War, the railroads cooperate completely. |
1942 |
February 10: Henry Ford halts production of nonmilitary vehicles as America enters the war. Many railroad companies will soon follow suit.
Heavy reliance on railroads during the war completely reverses the railroads' situation. Despite the wild success of streamliner trains, railroads had been underused during the Depression. Now they are in constant demand, as the only long-distance transport system that can handle heavy machinery and large numbers of people. Trains are run harder and longer, in order to transport soldiers, along with wartime cargo like jeeps and tanks, across the nation. At the same time, with raw manufacturing materials and labor diverted to the war effort, new train cars, equipment, and supplies for necessary repairs are all in short supply. By war's end, the railroads will be left in poor shape physically. |
1943 |
 December 27: Under orders from President Roosevelt, the U.S. Army takes possession of the nation's railroads. Recent labor strikes have crippled wartime industries, and Roosevelt fears that rail workers, in a wage dispute with their owners, might be next. The dispute is settled in a few weeks, and the government returns the railroads to their private managers.
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1946 |
 Railroads handle two-thirds of the nation's commercial passenger traffic. Yet the railroad industry fails to revitalize itself after the war, even though it invests millions in new passenger equipment. Over the next two decades, railroad passenger volume will steadily decline, from 790 million riders to 298 million, as people choose other means of transportation. Cars, which allow people to go directly from point to point, will explode in popularity. Airplanes will start to capture long-haul passenger traffic, also eating into the railroads' business.
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1949 |
The number of commercial airline passengers in the United States reaches 16.7 million. |
1950 |
 U.S. railroad mileage, now at 224,000 miles, continues to drop.
Railroads make an expensive decision to convert their entire locomotive fleets to diesel power. |
1952 |
To service Americans' growing love for car travel, Holiday Inn opens the nation's first motel chain. Americans are increasingly taking car vacations, and the chain is an instant success. |
1956 |
June 29: The Federal Aid Highway Act authorizes the construction of an interstate highway system of more than 40,000 miles. Railroads and public transportation systems remain unsubsidized. This massive public works project will lead to a major shift in population from city to suburb, and to increased American reliance on the automobile. |
1957 |
 For the first time, air travel boasts more passengers than rail travel, and airlines improve their appeal and their bottom lines by introducing jet airplanes. The following year the Federal Aviation Administration will be formed, after a series of midair collisions jeopardizes the burgeoning industry.
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1958 |
The ICC issues a report stating that the passenger train is becoming obsolete, and will "in all probability 'take its place in the transportation museum along with the stagecoach, the sidewheeler, and the steam locomotive.'" |
1960 |
May 26: Three months after it is removed from service, and 26 years to the day after its record-breaking run, the Pioneer Zephyr is presented to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. |
1970 |
 Congress creates Amtrak in an effort to relieve railroads of the burdens of passenger traffic. For the first time, the U.S. government will provide direct financial assistance to the rail passenger service. Having signed contracts with virtually all the privately owned railroads, Amtrak begins operation in 1971. Under Amtrak, passenger rail service continues to lose money, as it has since the 1930s.
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1980 |
The Staggers Act is passed. Though it does not completely deregulate the rail industry (the ICC still retains control over setting rates), the legislation triggers massive reforms by allowing railroads to function competitively, placing increased reliance on the marketplace and not on regulation. |
1830 - 1919 | 1920 - 1980
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