Otto August Kuhler was an American designer, one of the best known industrial designers of the American railroads. His design for the Leigh Valley locomotive is spectacular when it comes to streamlining a locomotive. The 1930s and 1940s were unique when it came to modernizing trains. According to Trains magazine, he stream-styled more locomotives and railroad cars than Cret, Dreyfuss, ... Read More »
The great German liner Bremen, which ran a British blockade, ended her career in a scrap yard. After docking in New York on August 28, 1939, only four days before the outbreak of World War II, Captain Adolf Ahrens of Germany’s North German Lloyd shipping line was faced with a decision. The independent-minded skipper could disobey orders again by allowing ... Read More »
Aerial view of the handsome Dutch passenger cargo liner ORANJE NASSAU, one of two sisters built in 1957 to the order of KNSM and used on North Europe to the Caribbean regular service until about 1972. The largest passenger ships in the KNSM’s fleet, ORANJE NASSAU, and her sister were very popular with round-trip passengers as a cruise-like trip. In ... Read More »
National holidays were celebrated onboard liners and cruise ships with special events and elaborate menus. From Russian Caviar to Filet Mignon to Ice Cup, Independence Gourmandizes. The menus are classics in cuisine prepared onboard and not the fresh frozen cruise meals aboard today’s cruise liners. Here are a number of Steamship Lines celebrating the 4th from the 1900s into the ... Read More »
The strange tale of the banned World War II epic on the most famous ship of all time. The Nazi German film version of the Titanic. Before James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic, the Hollywood Titanic of 1953, the 1958 British film A Night to Remember, and the 1997 Broadway musical Titanic – there was the Nazi German film RMS Titanic. Excellent ... Read More »
Appearance was very important to women during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Ladies always looked their best when they stepped outside their homes. Newsreel clip of fashions 1950 onboard the SS Homeric. It didn’t matter whether they were going to the grocery store, the airport, to run errands or to pick up the kids from school. This was especially true for ... Read More »
Star of Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, Janet Leigh is ready to board the famous SUPER CHIEF and Virginia Leith, star of A KISS BEFORE DYING shows us the all-Pullman train during the 1950s in a promotional film. Even the characters from TV’s MAD MEN may have been aboard the train all through the 1960s. A lot of executives would take the ... Read More »
In the late 1940s, the Milwaukee Road introduced the Olympian Hiawatha, the transcontinental version of the railroad’s very modern fleet of Hiawatha passenger trains. The original version of the train was the Twin Cities Hiawatha, which began operating between Chicago and the Twin Cities on May 29, 1935, one of the first streamlined trains ever to be introduced in the ... Read More »
Raymond Loewy, whose modern concept of everything from fountain pens to airplanes, ships, and railroad trains won him the title of America’s foremost industrial designer. His basic design philosophy was behind the creation of the interiors for Matson’s luxury liner Lurline and modern ticket office in downtown Los Angeles in 1948. These were the ultimate in mid-century design. “We translated ... Read More »
The Southern Pacific’s Streamliner Coast Daylight was the West’s finest train in the 1940s, 50s and early 1960s, linking Los Angeles and San Francisco in a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless mile. Chair car passengers had full access to the Coffee Shop, Diner, and Tavern cars. The two ... Read More »
Horseracing was popular on liners and cruise ships during the 20th Century. The following is from a young man’s diary who sailed with his parents First Class from San Francisco to London via the Suez on board the RMS Oransay in the 1960s. A NIGHT AT THE RACES Tonight, there is the gala event: The “Pacific Winding Race Meeting.” On ... Read More »
During the 1930s – businessmen and tourists sailed to Europe from the USA. There were almost daily sailings from New York. French Line offered Cabin Service on the SS Champlain, SS Lafayette, SS De Grasse, and SS Rochambeau. The above schedule and rates give a great indication of what it cost to travel from New York to Europe at the ... Read More »
In the 1950s pioneer shipping executive Arnold Bernstein wanted to offer superior Economy Class steamship liner services from New York to Europe offering all staterooms with private facilities aboard the SS Atlantic. Bernstein had chartered in the summer of 1948 a passenger ship the CONTINENTAL (ex ANCON of 1902) for four round voyages from New York to Plymouth and Antwerp. ... Read More »
In the late twenties and early thirties, American Airways was created through the acquisition of dozens of smaller airlines throughout the United States. Great video of American Airlines in the 1930s… Like most airlines, at the time the company profited by carrying United States mail. In 1934 American Airways Company was acquired by E.L. Cord, who renamed it “American Air ... Read More »
The Delta Line was cruising to South America from New Orleans in the 1950s. The steamship company introduced three revolutionary passenger-cargo ships to its South American services in the post-war years of the 1940s. In keeping with the trade name of the company, “Delta Line”, the three vessels were given “Del” names DEL NORTE, DEL SUD, and DEL MAR. The ... Read More »
© 2018 Cruising the Past. All Rights Reserved.
Any copying or reproduction of images or media herein is strictly prohibited.
CRUISING THE PAST Travel and Social History
