Saturday, March 04, 2023

The 1939 Wolds Fair had 17 acres of train exhibits. One train, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s new S1 locomotive, was placed on rollers and run continuously at 60 mph all day long.






The S1 was displayed at the New York World's Fair of 1939–40 where 27 eastern railroads had one combined 17-acre exhibit, which also included the Baltimore and Ohio Class N-1.

The S1 was  the only one of it's kind made, it was built when they still experimented, before steam locomotives were made obsolete, and it was intended to demonstrate duplex drive advantages 

It was the longest and heaviest rigid frame reciprocating steam loco ever built, the Streamlined Art Deco fairing designed by Raymond Loewy. It had the largest single-piece casting ever made for any locomotive, and the largest boiler ever built by PRR.

The Pennsylvania Railroad was at one time, the largest publicly traded corporation in world, and had a budget larger than the U.S. government and workforce of 250,000.

At the Fair, the drive wheels operated under the locomotive's steam power ran continuously on the roller platform at 60 mph all day long. Film footage shows that all the wheels on S1, besides the drive wheels, were also placed on rollers powered by electricity; every time S1 started its performance by moving the drive wheels, all the wheels were rolling, including the wheels on the tender's truck.




At the Fair, there were two other streamliners that performed at another exhibit, and came in front of the crown across the exhibit facing each other on the same track:



in the following video, which has lots of other interesting stuff, these trains are at 1:51


this was in the “Railroads on Parade,” a pageant of the streamlined engines and more common steam locomotive designs.
 In 16 scenes and actual settings and costumes of the early days, actors, horses, covered wagons, stage coaches, oxen, mules and locomotives, demonstrated the importance of transportation in the opening of this continent. 
Starting over 194 years ago, at the New York water-front, in the covered wagon era, the parade of actors, chorus and ballet told the story of America's evolution in transportation



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