Introduced by the Milwaukee Road in 1935, the Twin Cities Hiawatha quickly gained national attention for its exceptional speed. The train could run 420 miles from Chicago to Minneapolis in just 6.5 hours. The engine — fueled by oil instead of coal to save time on refueling — could reach a sustained speed of 100 miles per hour.
What made the Hiawatha even more distinctive was its imaginative styling. The engine had a sleek, aerodynamic body designed to reflect the Hiawatha’s speed. The passenger cars had a lightweight construction that meant less work for the engine. Both the engine and cars had a bright orange and maroon coloring. And there was its one-of-a-kind rear observation car, shown here. Called the Skytop Lounge, it was aerodynamically designed to produce minimal turbulence at the rear of the train. Constructed with 90 percent glass, it gave passengers a bigger view of the countryside. The Milwaukee Road called it “the finishing touch to a perfect train.”
This article is featured in the May/June 2023 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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Comments
Wonderful ad for a genuine breakthrough in train travel. Very state-of-the-art all around, with the artwork giving it an Art Deco fantasy a comparable photo could not. The people are very important here too. I noticed right away how well dressed they are, and carried themselves. Something we’d never see today, of course.