The full-page ad on the cover of this timetable (contributed by Tim Zukas) promotes the 1933 Century of Progress exposition. However, it never uses that name, simply calling it the 1933 World’s Fair and “the event of the century.” The ad has three photos of Chicago but none are of the fairgrounds, so it must have been prepared well in advance of the fair’s opening on May 27.

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The ad doesn’t mention that the fair had a large area dedicated to transportation featuring the latest that both the railroads and auto manufacturers had to offer. For railroads, the latest in 1933 was air conditioning as displayed by the Baltimore & Ohio. In the fall of 1933, Pullman displayed an experimental “railplane,” at Chicago’s C&NW station. This was a heavily streamlined, self-propelled, 50-seat car that was supposed to be able to go 90 miles per hour.

The Pullman Railplane as built in late 1933. After being put on display in Chicago, a rather ugly cowcatcher was added to the front and the car was leased to the Gulf, Mobile & Northern. It didn’t last long there.

The railplane was the direct inspiration for Union Pacific’s first streamliner, the M-10000. Both were made with aluminum bodies. As shown on the somewhat-imaginative cover of the February 1934 Popular Mechanics, the railplane was painted yellow with a reddish-brown roof, nose, and tail — the same colors as the M-10000. If that’s accurate, then the colors of Union Pacific’s early streamliners were effectively selected by Pullman, not Union Pacific.

Later, UP showed a little creativity by changing the roof color from brown to grey. In 1933, however, no one realized that this fair would directly lead to the introduction of the streamliners at the fair’s continuation in 1934.