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Show L It was 19 years ago that America saw its first streamlined train Union Pacific's little City of Salina, shown at the top in the above picture. pic-ture. Junked for war scrap in 1912, the City of Salina was the forerunner fore-runner of such sleek and lengthy streamliners as the one in the lower part of the picture, which U. F. operates between Chicago and the West Coast. Union Pacific First Streamliner Train Built Nineteen Years Aqo Take 1,000 pounds of grease and 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel oil and whip up a big birthday cake Feb. 12 for the streamliner train. Top the cake with 19 revolving locomotive headlights, for it was that many years ago on Feb. 12, 1934 that the City of Salina, America's Am-erica's first streamliner, was delivered de-livered to Union Pacific Railroad. An eighth wonder in its day, the little City of Salina would be virtually lost were it to pull into ' a busy passenger terminal crowded with the sleek and powerful pow-erful streamliners of 1953. Made of aluminum, it included a combination combin-ation power unit and baggage car and two coaches. The City of Salina's power plant was a 600 horsepower distillate burner occupying approximately half the 72-foot length of the lead car. Many of today's streamliners are pulled by three-unit diesel locomotives loc-omotives generating 6,000 horsepower. horse-power. Upon delivery, Union Pacific hustled the train to Washington. D.C., where it was inspected on Feb. 15, by the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt. More than 1,500.000 persons subsequently passed through the train during a nationwide introductory tour that was concluded in May, 1934. Several millions more saw it from station platforms and along the route. The City of Salina chalked up another "first" when it descended an industrial track to the floor of the Grand Canyon at the site of Hoover Dam, then under construction. construc-tion. The tour ended, the City of Salina Sal-ina went on exhibit at the Century of Progress in Chicago. On January 31. 1935, Union Pacific Pac-ific put the No. 1 streamliner into service between Kansas City, Mo., and Salina, Kan., a one-way run of 187 miles. Outmoded and too small to accommodate ac-commodate traffic, the City of Salina was taken out of service Dec. 16, 1941, after rolling up nearly 900,000 miles on its regular reg-ular run. Dismantling by Union Pacific forces of usable parts began be-gan on Feb. 13, 1912, one day after its eighth birthday. The City of Salina came to a heroic end the following April in a junk yard at Omaha, headquarters headquart-ers of U.P., where its 100,000 pounds of aluminum were salvaged for the war effort. |
