Postwar Problems - Locomotives and Cars - Karl Fritjof Nystrom in 1946.

This seemed like an interesting article to post ... from an old BLF&E magazine of 1946.

Predicting the future is something humans seem compelled to do. As we consider present day forecasts, it can be helpful (sometimes even comforting) to look to the past to see which unforeseen events, social trends, inventions and general phenomena have impaired humans' clairvoyance in the past.

For specialists in the railway arts and sciences, these 'future of railroading' articles are interesting to consider ...

• Some predictions come to pass, some do not. 
• What in the author's background caused them to see the future this way?
• In the years that followed, what unexpected events or conditions changed this vision of the future?

The locomotive photos below are located in the same place they appear in the article - I have tried to draw out a little more detail in the photos so they appear as separate images.

If you tipped your head to the left to read the mailing label ...
I think the recipient probably worked out of Lambton Yard on the CPR.
As Rolly Martin transferred there for a short while, early in his career,
he might have crossed paths with Mr Fox.

*  *  *

Here is the obituary from the Milwaukee Sentinel June 6, 1961 for Karl F Nystrom.

from: Milwaukee Sentinel June 6, 1961, Google Newspapers.

One of Nystrom's many patents ...

The Nystrom Truck
(from patents.google.com)

For (1) above ...  modern samples of AAR Letter Ballots.

The article concludes ... and some advertisements (How did the advertisers see 'the future'?)

*  *  *

Hiawatha Equipment

from: The Golden Age of the Passenger Train; CJ Riley; 1997; MetroBooks.

A streamlined Hudson leading a Hiawatha consist - all styled by Otto Kuhler (1894-1976),
using design specifications of the American Locomotive Company
and Milwaukee Road's chief mechanical officer Karl Nystrom.

This train provided speed topping 100mph between Chicago and Milwaukee.
The Hudsons entered service in 1939.

from: The Golden Age of the Passenger Train; CJ Riley; 1997; MetroBooks.

The Beaver Tail observation car.

*  *  *

The Olympian Hiawatha

Chicago to Seattle-Tacoma.
Equipment from 1947.

from: Trains; June 1949; Kalmbach.

Train No 16 east of Black River, Washington.
Starting from the left: 2 tracks Northern Pacific, 2 tracks Milwaukee, distant track is Union Pacific.

from: Trains; June 1949; Kalmbach.

Sky-top lounge-sleeper on the tail end of the Olympian Hiawatha.