One-Day Railroaders

BE A RAILROAD MAN FOR A DAY! "Off the Beaten Path" Scenic and Historical Tour 356 miles for $3.50 BRING YOUR BOY--BRING YOUR CAMERA See the Railroad "Behind the Scenes" Posters such as this in Chicago last week testified to a brand new development in U. S. railroad sales technique. It is traditional for small boys to want to be locomotive engineers. U. S. railroads have lately discovered that many an adult male has never outgrown that ambition. Result in the past three months has been an epidemic of "Off the Beaten Path" railway tours whose success has been as immediate and as surprising to railroad men as was the popularity of the first snow train.

First "Off the Beaten Path" tour occurred on the Pennsylvania R. R. last July when 200 railroad addicts left Philadelphia to spend a day junketing over little-used side lines, seeing little-seen countryside. The passenger list jumped to 500 for the second excursion over another route in August. Since then there have been some half dozen trips from New York, Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Ind. Last week's was the first out of Chicago, was in many ways the best of all.

Chosen as sponsor by the Pennsylvania was the Chicago Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society--a group of some 50 businessmen who "love locomotives," trade each other pictures of them. They and their families were joined by some 150 members of the Model Makers Guild, enough others of the general public to crowd the twelve day-coaches with 468 people, 400 of whom carried cameras. Present were railroad enthusiasts from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania. Each was given a mimeographed guide sheet with minute details of the route, the histories of towns, the identity of every grade-crossing and switchback along the way. Route was southeast from Chicago, over trackage unused by passenger trains for years, to Logansport, Ind., then northeast to La Otto, southeast again to Fort Wayne. There the one-day railroaders went through the Pennsyl vania's divisional shops. Meanwhile the engine was changed from a double-header K-2 to a double-header K-4, fastest of steam engines. This power whipped the train back to Chicago over the mainline route of the Detroit Arrow in record time.

Frequently during the first half of the journey, the train stopped to let enthusiasts get pictures of historic spots or routine railroad practice "behind the scenes." Highlights were a refueling station near Hebron, an old covered bridge near Liberty Mills, the engine house at Fort Wayne, where a turntable was turned, engineers posed and various locomotives were arrayed with placards explaining size, name, power, type, use. At each stop there were lectures by guides in overalls and white gauntlets. Other amusements consisted of a World Series broadcast, bridge games, an accordion player. Next trip is scheduled for Oct. 25.

Yet to be offered by an alert railroad is an "Off the Beaten Path" junket with excursionists riding in the locomotive cab or perched on miniature bleachers built into the tender.

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