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"Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939. Transportation hall." Exhibits by General Motors and Union Pacific dominate this view, with TWA, Greyhound and Santa Fe also showing up. 8x10 acetate negative. View full size.
If you look closely you can see a large model railroad display around the base of the pedestal supporting the Santa Fe diesel. This display was built by Minton Cronkhite, one of the early pioneers of the model railroad hobby. Cronkhite built several other large display layouts in the 30s and 40s, including the layout that was in Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry for many years until it was replaced by a more modern one about ten years ago. There is more information about Cronkhite and the Santa Fe's exhibit at the 1939 San Francisco Exhibition here.
The model is an E1, all of which were built for the Santa Fe. Besides the paint, the giveaways are the longer slope on the nose and the way the headlight is faired into the body; all the higher-numbered E units had a steeper slope and a projecting headlight fairing.
A far cry from the spectacular exhibits at the New York World's Fair, or even Chicago's Century of Progress a few years earlier! The "Hall of Transportation" was actually part of the Vacationland Building, and it looks more like a crowded trade show than a World's Fair. At least Ford had a separate exhibition hall nearby; for the 1940 season of the fair General Motors stepped up its game and moved into its own building next to Ford.
The Challengers were a fleet of economy passenger trains operating over the Union Pacific/Chicago Northwestern in the late 1930s. Economy meaning all-coach equipment, though the Challengers could still boast larger seats, fine food, and faster service than a Greyhound bus. Not so fast as TWA, but a hell of a lot cheaper. The UP also owned a fleet of 4-6-6-4 steam locomotives called Challengers, the first ever in that wheel arrangement, which would be used by many roads before the end of steam.
Santa Fe has come to play, putting on display a large model of their latest GM streamlined locomotive, an E-2 or E-3, difficult to say. Passenger trains in America were always themselves a money-losing endeavor. They were clever advertising more than anything else, the hope being that by offering good service to the traveling public, businessmen in particular, these same people would ship freight through them. Thus all the $$ spent on magazine ads and displays such as this.
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