Wheels A-Rolling - 100 Years of Railroad Progress
Wheels A-Rolling - 100 Years of Railroad Progress is a short film from 1948 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
Documentation of pageant at Chicago Railroad Fair (1948).
| Wheels A-Rolling - 100 Years of Railroad Progress | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Ott (John) Pictures |
Production company | Ott (John) Pictures |
| Distributed by | Ott (John) Pictures |
Release date | 1948 |
Running time | 00:33:53 |
| Language | English |
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More Details
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Railroad_Fair
The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is often referred to as "the last great railroad fair" with 39 railroad companies participating. The board of directors for the show was a veritable "Who's Who" of railroad company executives.
History of the fair
The fair was rapidly planned during the winter and spring of 1948, and originally scheduled to run between July and August of that summer. Erected on 50 acres (200,000 m2) of Burnham Park in Chicago between 21st and 31st Streets,[1] the fair opened after only six months of planning. A grand opening for the fair commenced on July 20 with a parade that featured such spectacles as a military marching band and a replica of a troop train, a contingent of cowboys and Native Americans, a replica of the Tom Thumb, the first American locomotive, and the spry, octogenarian widow of Casey Jones, who served as honorary Grand Master of the parade. One dollar was the price of admission, and, except food, all the attractions, displays, exhibits and shows were free. Besides the thirty-nine railroads who participated in the fair, there were more than twenty equipment manufacturers, including General Motors.
The highlight of the Chicago Railroad Fair was the "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant. This was a dramatic and musical presentation intended to showcase the development of transportation and the railroads across the country beginning with trails and waterways. The pageant included a recreation of the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory, Utah, and various historic rolling stock and replicas of equipment in operation.
Railroad equipment used in the pageant included:
Original equipment Empire State Express locomotive 999 on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
* No. 222 and coach * No. 637, Zulu and combine car * No. 10250 * Cumberland Valley Pioneer and coach * DeWitt Clinton and three coaches * Empire State Express No. 999 * The General (1948 only)[3] * John Hancock and coach * Illinois Central 201 and coach * Little Butter Cup and two coaches * Minnetonka and two logging trucks * Pioneer and coach * Pioneer Zephyr * Reuben Wells and coach * William Crooks and two coaches * William Mason and baggage car number 10
Replicas
* Atlantic and two replica coaches * Best Friend of Charleston * Chicago horse car * John Bull and coach * Jupiter and combine car * Lafayette and two barrel cars * Pioneer horse car * Pullman coach number 9 * State Street cable car * Tom Thumb locomotive and director's car * Union Pacific 119