CN LINES V12N3 - Canadian National Railways Historical Association

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The Streamlined 6400’s by Kevin J. Holland © 2004 Streamlined steam locomotives proved to be both products and victims of their time—harbingers of the future and, at the same time, a pruned branch on steam’s evolutionary tree. Although not the first streamlined steam locomotives in North American service, the CNR’s U-4 Northerns nonetheless laid much groundwork for the breed. The emergence of industrial streamlining during the early 1930s coincided, in large measure, with an awakening desire of North American railroads to replace steam locomotives with more efficient, more economical, and—particularly where passenger trains were involved— more attractive forms of motive power. Streamlining became the next logical step in the evolution of passenger train Far from the limelight of the 1939 Royal Train and New York World’s Fair, CNR U-4-a No. 6400 passes Bayview Junction, Ontario, with westbound Train 101 on June 10, 1956. —Dave Shaw (Railway Memories) Collection motive power—nascent diesel-electric technology decreed that many of these locomotives happened to be steam. The history of North American railroading records that the steam locomotive, as a dominant force deemed worthy of continued development, was in decline in the early 1930s as America’s railroads embraced lightweight, streamlined passenger trains and the sleek, colorful dieselelectric locomotives built to pull them. Times were changing, mechanically as well as esthetically, with the streamlined steam locomotive perhaps best regarded not as a faddish aberration, but as an inevitable step in the “natural” evolution of the locomotive form, whether it be electric, steam, or diesel. Some of the earliest American streamlined steam locomotives—including the first in service, New York Central’s Commodore Vanderbilt— were noted for their broad, sloping “shovel” noses, an aerodynamic styling trait shared with such internal-combustion contemporaries as the Budd-built Burlington Route Zephyrs and Boston & Maine-Maine Central Flying Yankee, and the Gulf, Mobile & Northern’s Rebel. The pioneering EA-model passenger locomotive built by Electro-Motive for the Baltimore & Ohio—along with the smaller TA’s built for the Rock Island—took the shovel nose to the next evolutionary step, creating the “covered wagon” cab and nose architecture that would rule American railroading for close to two decades. Different packages, indeed, the Commodore and the cab-unit, but clearly sharing a common wrapping. Styled by some of the leading industrial designers of the day—and their emulators—the “steamliners” were caught in an unfortunate limbo, often derided by steam stalwarts as an affront to traditional tastes, yet just as readily dismissed by proponents of the dawning diesel age as tawdry dowagers out for one last self-conscious fling. 10 CN LINES
Winds of Change Canada’s two largest railways were bitten early by the streamlining bug. The proximity of their Montreal headquarters to the populous U.S. Northeast gave both CNR and CPR what amounted to ringside seats for the streamlined parade put on by New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore & Ohio, among other pioneers, in the mid-1930s. More than a mere observer, however, Canadian National had already put in motion the substantial research, engineering, and design resources at its disposal to assess the merits of streamlining steam power as early as 1931. (The CPR’s Henry Bowen, meanwhile, drew inspiration from the U.K.’s Royal Scot and the Milwaukee Road’s Hiawatha of 1935 to create his streamlined 4-4-4 Jubilees and matching lightweight passenger cars of 1936.) During June and July 1936, the CNR took delivery of five class U-4-a 4-8-4s from the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW). Described by the railway as “partially streamlined,” the quintet was intended for heavy passenger service on the CNR’s busy trunk route between Montreal, Toronto, and the international border at Windsor and Sarnia. The CNR owned 203 Northerns in all— North America’s largest fleet—along with 83 Mountains (4-8-2). This affinity for eightcoupled locomotives As futuristic as the 6400’s were when they were new, they still relied on an antiquated infrastructure for sustenance. Here, No. 6402 is serviced at Windsor circa 1940. —Dave Shaw (Railway Memories) Collection; 1941 CNR brochure, Kevin J. Holland Collection No. 6404 leads Train 94, the Maple Leaf (a joint PRR/LV/CNR New York–Toronto schedule), through Oakville, Ontario, on March 22, 1958.—Al Paterson Collection Volume 12, Number 3 11
Page 1 and 2: CN LINES Volume 12, Number 3 www.cn
Page 3 and 4: WHAT’S HAPPENING The next CN Line
Page 5 and 6: A Bridge on the Bodo Subdivision by
Page 7 and 8: elow: By the early 1960s the Bodo S
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Page 15 and 16: The Royal Treatment History was mad
Page 17 and 18: By Charles H. Geletzke, Jr. The GTW
Page 19 and 20: Lounge/Solarium leased back to Pull
Page 21 and 22: While CNR fans and modelers can be
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CN LINES V12N3 - Canadian National Railways Historical Association

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