The Train of Tomorrow was an American demonstrator train built as a collaboration between General Motors (GM) and Pullman-Standard between 1945 and 1947. It was the first new train to consist entirely of dome cars, which were the brainchild of GM vice president and Electro-Motive Division (EMD) general manager Cyrus Osborn, who conceived the idea while riding in either an F-unit or a caboose in the Rocky Mountains in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. After GM built a 45-foot (14 m) scale model of the train for $101,772 ($ in dollars) and displayed it to 350 officials from 55 different Class I railroads in 1945, the Train of Tomorrow was built by Pullman-Standard between October 1946 and May 1947.
The train consisted of four cars: a chair car (Star Dust), a dining car (Sky View), a sleeping car (Dream Cloud), and a lounge-observation car (Moon Glow), all featuring "Astra-Domes". It was pulled by a largely stock EMD E7A. Its dining car, Sky View, was the first dome diner to be built and the first diner of any kind with an all-electric kitchen. The train was constructed with low-alloy, high-tensile steel and Thermopane glass for its domes and windows. Although GM never publicly stated the total price of the Train of Tomorrow, contemporary sources estimated it at between $1 million and $1.5 million.
After being christened at a dedication ceremony in Chicago on May 28, 1947, the Train of Tomorrow embarked on a barnstorming tour of the United States and Canada that lasted for 28 months, covered , and visited 181 cities and towns. During its tour, the train was ridden or toured by over 5.7 million people, and was seen by an estimated 20 million people. After its tour was completed on October 30, 1949, the train was sold to the Union Pacific for $500,000, and its four cars were put into service between Portland and Seattle on June 18, 1950. The cars were retired from service between 1961 and 1965, and all but one were eventually scrapped. Moon Glow sat in a scrap yard for almost two decades before being discovered by the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS), who purchased and transported it to the Ogden Union Station Museum, where it is undergoing restoration.
Background
The Train of Tomorrows direct antecedents were the original American lightweight passenger trains, most notably the Burlington's original Pioneer Zephyr (1934), the Santa Fe's lightweight Super Chief (1937), and the Illinois Central's Panama Limited (1942).
The Burlington's construction of the first modern dome car in 1945 also preceded the construction of the Train of Tomorrow. Ralph Budd was one of the first people to see the sketches of the Train of Tomorrows Astra-Dome cars, and was inspired by them to create the first modern dome car for the Burlington in 1945, two years before the Train of Tomorrow was unveiled. Prior to the Burlington dome, there were a number of precursors: T. J. McBride of Winnipeg received a patent for a dome sleeper in 1891, Coeur d'Alene Railway & Navigation Company chief engineer R. C. Riblet designed an electric dome car at roughly the same time, the Canadian Pacific Railway built four observation dome cars based on McBride's design between 1902 and 1906 (which were in service only until 1909), and the Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad build a "combination parlor-coach-baggage-observatory-dome car" in the 1930s.
The Train of Tomorrow was also a response to over seven years of a relative lack of development and construction of railroad equipment caused by World War II. Even during the first half of 1947, all American railroads combined ordered fewer than 100 new passenger cars, according to Robert R. Young. In contrast, by the end of 1948, after the beginning of the Train of Tomorrows promotional tour, there were over 1,800 passenger cars on order, although some of them had been ordered as early as 1944, but had not yet been delivered.
Genesis and design
According to multiple sources, the Train of Tomorrows dome cars were the brainchild of GM vice president and EMD general manager Cyrus Osborn, who conceived the idea while riding in an F-unit in the Rocky Mountains in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. According to Osborn himself, however, it was actually a similar ride in the "cupola of the caboose that gave me the idea." After Osborn was reassured by EMD engineers that a dome car that would not be more limited in height clearance than a caboose could be built, he turned his idea over to Harley Earl and the General Motors (GM) Styling Section in Detroit. The Styling Section then collected feedback on contemporary passenger car design from its designers and railroad passengers before committing to a design process anticipated by Earl to take 90 days and cost US$25,000, which resulted in 1,500 sketches and 100 final design ideas.
After the final design ideas were derived from the sketches, GM's Styling Section began building a scale model of a four-car train (each car was long), built of metal, plastic, and wood and featuring 175 painted clay figures of people and even tiny details such as dinner knives and cigarette packs. The dining car alone featured 1,100 objects. After being completed, the model was unveiled in a former Cadillac showroom in Oak Park, Illinois, where it was displayed with a custom-built Western mountain scene backdrop illuminated with stage lighting. From February 21 to June 23, 1945, the model was shown to 350 officials from 55 different Class I railroads, most notably Ralph Budd of the Burlington, who was so moved by the display that he almost immediately ordered the passenger car Silver Alchemy (No. 4714) be converted into a dome and renamed Silver Dome.
By November 1945, the model had cost $101,772, more than four times its budget, but before the Train of Tomorrow made its debut, 49 dome cars were on loan with the Budd Company alone. GM allowed any carbuilder to freely use its designs without licenses or royalties, as it "saw the program not only as a research project to stimulate interest in new car design and construction but also as a way to encourage railroads to order new cars with GM railroad-related products on-board." After being revised, the model was repeatedly displayed at auto shows and other GM exhibitions through 1955, including at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and at Motorama, before last being seen in Cincinnati in 1955 at a ceremony honoring Osborn.
Development and construction
Design of the Train of Tomorrow began in 1944, as a collaboration between General Motors (GM) and Pullman-Standard. According to author Brian Solomon, the train "was strictly intended as an innovation showcase, and...the automotive manufacturer had no interest in building its own passenger trains." According to a contemporary Life magazine article, its development cost approximately $1.5 million. GM had no less than five of its divisions involved with the train: the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) built its E7A locomotive, the Detroit Diesel Division and the Delco Products Division collaborated on the train's generating equipment, the Frigidaire Division built its air conditioning system, the Hyatt Bearings Division built its anti-friction, journal-box bearings, and GM's Styling Division concentrated on its interior design. GM did not, however, foray into the field of building passenger railroad cars, until its introduction of the Aerotrain a decade later.
According to authors Gary Dolzall and Stephen Dolzall, the train was intended to be the "ultimate train for the postwar era" and an "embodiment of the latest passenger train design". Author Frank Richter termed it the "latest state-of-the-art in passenger trains", while fellow author William L. Bird described it as "GM's traveling exhibit of Diesel-powered passenger comfort". According to GM president Harlow Curtice, the Train of Tomorrow was an experiment in both design and mechanics, similar to its automotive concept cars such as the Le Sabre, XP-300, and Y-Job.
GM's executive committee formally committed to building the Train of Tomorrow in fall 1945. After soliciting proposals from multiple car manufacturers, GM signed a contract with Pullman-Standard on November 6, 1945. The cars were all to be built to Association of American Railroads (AAR) standards, but GM did not supply Pullman-Standard with blueprints or specifications for building the cars, instead concentrating on their interior design. EMD did supply inspectors to Pullman-Standard who had the power to approve or reject changes to the design and workmanship in the construction of the cars, however. After creating a final set of drawings, specifications, and full-scale wooden mockups, Pullman-Standard made arrangements with the War Production Board to obtain steel for the train, but settled for flat glass instead of curved glass, because the latter was still required for the American war effort. GM also decided not to charge royalties on the use of the dome car concept by any car builders. Construction of the Train of Tomorrow began in October 1946, and took until May 17, 1947.
The Train of Tomorrow consisted of four cars: a chair car (Star Dust), a dining car (Sky View), a sleeping car (Dream Cloud), and a lounge-observation car (Moon Glow), all featuring "Astra-Domes". The domes on the Train of Tomorrow each measured in length, in width, and in height, and sat 24 people apiece. The domes were made with Thermopane glass, developed by Libbey-Owens-Ford, and consisted of a plate-glass exterior layer and a shatterproof interior layer with a pocket of air between to provide thermal and sound insulation. The Thermopane glass was also resistant to heat and glare-free. The low profile of the domes allowed them to operate on most mainlines, including those with low clearances, such as on the Boston & Albany. Like the dome windows, the rest of the windows in the train were made of Thermopane and "designed for maximum viewing of the passing scenery". They ranged in size from for sleeping car Dream Clouds roomettes to in Dream Clouds two drawing rooms and the chair car Star Dust.
Including the domes, the total height of the cars "from rail to roof" was . Each car measured in length, and weighed when unloaded. Each of the cars was built using low-alloy, high-tensile steel, and constructed using the welded-girder technique. The trucks on the train's passenger cars were developed from locomotive trucks, with outside-mounted swing hangers spaced apart (instead of the typical practice of mounting them apart on the inside of the trucks) and rolling bearing journal boxes, which helped to improve truck alignment, smooth the train's ride, and reduce body roll on curves from to .
The Train of Tomorrow had a blue-green and silver livery described by author Keith Lovegrove as having an "astral theme", consisting of a "wide belt of stainless steel wrapping the midriff of the predominantly dark-blue train". The blue-green exterior paint was a high-gloss enamel Dulux paint produced by DuPont, and the train's underframe was painted black.