First Trip of the 1948 20th Century Limited

In September, 1948, New York Central invited General Dwight Eisenhower to inaugurate the postwar 20th Century Limited, which consisted of all-new passenger cars pulled by nearly new Diesel locomotives. The railroad printed up this “First Trip” envelope to be hand cancelled on board the train’s railway post office.


Click image to download a 145-KB PDF of this cover.

Stamp collectors call envelopes like this “covers,” which is just an archaic word for “envelope.” Scans of this cover and several others that I’ll present in the next few days are from the collection of Streamliner Memories reader John D’Aloia.


Click image to download a 315-KB PDF of this postcard.

John also contributed scans of this postcard advertising the 1948 edition of the 20th Century Limited. The caption on the back notes that this train is the “first and finest of New York Central’s great all-private-room ‘Dreamliner’ fleet.”


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