Families Tour the American Diesel-Electric Train, Railroad Fair, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Families Tour the American Diesel-Electric Train, Railroad Fair, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Families Tour the American Diesel-Electric Train, Railroad Fair, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1953–1958

AA-2026-FBC75C

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A family in good clothes files off the observation steps of a stainless-steel passenger train at what is plainly a railroad exposition — the kind American railroads staged throughout the 1950s to convince the public that trains were the future, right up until the public chose the Interstate and the airline instead. The yellow American Diesel-Electric locomotive parked a few yards away was the exhibit making that argument most loudly. Everyone here dressed for the occasion — sport coat, handbag, a small girl in her best coat — because inspecting a train on a Sunday was an event worth dressing for. The women at the top of the steps are still smiling at something, cheerful ambassadors for an industry that believed, with complete sincerity, that a nicer observation car would settle the matter. Within a decade, federal highway money and cheap airfares would answer the question the railroads thought they were winning.

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