New England Steam
Amazing and eclectic steam from the 1930s handled the unique terrain and transportation issues of New England.
Boston & Maine Steam: Heavy Haulers and Crack Limiteds
Boston & Maine Steam: Heavy Haulers and Crack Limiteds
Travel back to the mid-1930s to see action on the busiest divisions of the Boston & Maine.
Steam locomotives work the Portland, New Hampshire and Fitchburg Divisions and the Connecticut Valley Line in both summer and winter. Huge hulking Berkshires battle the Ashburnham grade. High stepping passenger varnish—“The Flying Yankee,” “The Alouette,” and “The Red Wing”—go screaming by, as do similar name trains with brass-railed observation cars. Witness the unusual stainless steel streamliner, “The Flying Yankee,” leaving Portland (Maine) Union Station. Other highlights include the Union Pacific’s streamlined M-10001 “City of Salina” on tour; the Rexall Special with its streamlined New York Central Hudson; and a whistle stop with Republican Alf Landon campaigning for President in 1936 against Franklin D. Roosevelt!
Photographed by L. Peter Cornwall and Charlie Brown with footage from the John Tolley collection. Sound recorded on location by Preston S. Johnson.
Black and White, 32 minutes