Many Baltimore & Ohio streamlined trains were really just remodeled versions of heavyweight trains. This included the Cincinnatian, which began operating in 1947, when new equipment was hard to obtain because manufacturers were backed up with postwar orders. Click image … Continue reading
Baltimore & Ohio introduced “strata-domes” to the Columbian in 1949. Today we have two menus featuring a strata-dome on their covers. One is dated 1952 while the other is undated but must be from a little later considering some of … Continue reading
This handsome menu is dated 12-50, which means that the train featured on its cover, the streamlined “new” Columbian, had been in service for a year. The original Columbian entered service in 1931 as the first air conditioned train in … Continue reading
This beautiful booklet was used to introduce the 1949 Columbian, an all-coach train between Chicago and Baltimore-Washington that complemented the all-Pullman Capital Limited. I’ve previously described this train twice, but this booklet provides far more information. Click image to download … Continue reading
A B&O brochure calls the Columbian “The Train of the Year.” Although the Pennsylvania Railroad had completely re-equipped the all-Pullman Broadway Limited just 45 days before the B&O introduced the new Columbian, the nation’s oldest railroad could make the case … Continue reading
On May 5, 1949–just 45 days after the California Zephyr‘s inaugural run–the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad introduced the first dome cars in regular service east of Chicago. The cars, which the B&O called “strata-domes,” were part of the Columbian, an … Continue reading
