1960 Intermodal Ads and a 1960 Rail Map of Winnipeg

Many aspects of railroading were changing in 1960. Would passenger trains soon follow steam locomotives into oblivion?

This post looks at 'intermodal' ads placed in two editions of Trains magazine as it was publishing an overview of piggyback (trailer on flatcar - TOFC) services in May and June of that year.

The railroads had been worried about the development of public roads in the 1920s. Even then, some executives foresaw the impact on their passenger business of nascent passenger aviation.

In the late 1950s, with the US interstate highway network ostensibly developed as a 'defense project' to facilitate a four-lane-wide evacuation of cities in the anticipation of Soviet nuclear bomber attacks ... semi-trailer trucks were given a 'free' transportation network to divert more and more rate-regulated railroad carlot freight business. Looking for an 'angle' to get some business back, many of the US railroads were trying to roll out piggyback. Considering today's operations - 60 years later - you may be surprised to see what is being carried in two of the ads (SP and Milwaukee Road) ... and by the small size of some of the road equipment used.

Looking at the ads as cultural 'artifacts', remember, this was the era of the creative workers who were decades later dubbed 'Madmen' - advertising wizards. To some truckers, Rocket Rail Express probably sounded quite attractive.

The advertisement segment ends with other rail rockets - conceived by certifiable madmen. 

A neat map of steam/diesel era Winnipeg from the October 1960 Trains completes this posting.

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You're going to get us all KILLED! ...

... just as some amateur astronomers immediately spot and add new military satellites to their databases ...
... the loaded missile cars would never have escaped amateur trackside spotters.

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Winnipeg from October 1960

1927 Railroad Advertisements from the National Geographic, Part 2

Trigger warning if you're susceptible!: The last ad refers to a 1927 $400 million carbon tax!

Railways and railway-related ads were common in these National Geographic ads - near the end of the Roaring Twenties. 

Additional posts from this series can be found at the bottom of the Short Subjects Index page.

US $1000 in 1927 equals about US $14,000 in 2019

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The Milwaukee Road paid for a two-page spread! ...

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Below: See and get German things! ...

Hitler was just out of jail, but then he earned himself
a public speaking ban in Bavaria until 1927 ...

Both volumes of Mein Kampf were available and selling briskly by 1927.

... In the 1930s these became 'Must Have!' but seldom-read gifts for
newlywed couples in Germany - making the author independently wealthy.

'Quaint Costumes' - some with armbands.

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And a couple more which you might find interesting ...

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Below: Sleeve valves were an interesting technology - with some later aviation connections.
However, just like early poppet valves, they had their own shortcomings.

The same company (Willys) later produced one version of the famous WW2 vehicle
which became known as the 'Jeep'.

After posting, Jim Christie provided this link to a contemporary textbook 

to show exactly how these sleeve valves worked:

Knight sleeve valves

1927 Railroad Advertisements from the National Geographic

People are often attracted to old advertisements and photos showing old cars. Both effectively evoke a bygone era more eloquently than several pages of text - at least when I consider the text found on this blog.

My father acquired a copy of the The National Geographic Magazine of March 1927. At that cover date he was one month old - so he may not have been the actual purchaser. Years later, his tally on the cover exclaims that there are 59 pages of ads in this magazine of about 400 pages. A 1927 subscription to the magazine cost US $51.65 per year in 2019 dollars when corrected for US inflation.

In North America, near the end of the Roaring Twenties, the ad business was experiencing unprecedented growth. Industry was booming and people were more literate than ever. Industrial jobs were beginning to provide structured time 'off' and disposable income.

This disposable income might be used to purchase more efficient appliances for the home - such as central-heating furnaces (both oil and gas), kitchen ventilator fans or cabinet-style powered clothes dryers. Or, the 'new economy' worker of the 1920s might choose to see the wider world beyond their own local geography. The advertisements in the National Geographic of 1927 addressed both of these interests.

Of course, there were also ads for luxury goods such as autos, radios, gravestones, imported 'German field glasses', home movie projectors and beautiful fountain pens - but not alcohol.

The railroad ads often promote the geographical attractions along their routes. 

I have included a couple of non-railroad ads which I hope you find interesting.

Below: I wonder if they still have that circular banquette?

Below: Beware the man in the trench coat!

GM EMD Locomotive Components & David P Morgan's Views from July 1965

Here is the final set of images from a GM EMD booklet I received in the late 1960s. If you arrived at this posting first, you can see links to all three posts on the Railway Technology page (just click the link in the right margin and find the Diesels, Second Generation heading).

In some cases, I have repeated and enlarged photographs so you can see more detail. 

Through the miracle of old books, below, you'll find a 1965 review by David P Morgan on this new generation of GM EMD locomotives.

Finally, I have cobbled together the text of a GM EMD advertisement which appeared a month later in Trains magazine. The ad was a large removable 'folder' of thick glossy paper. It included the small paragraphs of text I have included, offset by large blank expanses of white ... and highly colourized art of the new GM EMD power.

If Kapton (above) sounds familiar, you may recall its being implicated in air crashes. When subject to heat, vibration and/or environments near seawater, Kapton broke down and lost its insulating properties. In the Swissair Flight 111 crash, arcing to wires insulated by Kapton was implicated.

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from: Trains; July 1965; Kalmbach Publishing.

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Text of advertisement from: Trains; August 1965; Kalmbach Publishing

Text of advertisement from: Trains; August 1965; Kalmbach Publishing

Late 1940s American Railroad Advertising

Here is a quick study of ads found in Trains magazine in the late 1940s.

(Lima! ... are you still here?!)