Several months ago I brought you a collection of advertisements from the Pullman Company during World War II. Collecting old “railroad paper” has become a hobby of mine, from timetables and broadsides to postcards and advertisements such as these. When scanning, I attempt to digitally restore the image, so it looks more like it did when it was published, and without the tears, folds, dirt, and stains it picked up over the years. Today’s collection of ads shows some of the faraway locations that soldiers were sent in the war, as well as how they returned. Many soldiers utilized the...

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January 14, 2021

Sleep Going to Keep Going: Pullman War Ads, Part 1

When I started researching for the story I posted a few weeks back about how the Nazis didn’t actually plan on attacking a substation at Grand Central during World War II, I amassed quite a lot of information about the railroads during the war. There are many facets to the story – from the gigantic posters that were installed in Grand Central to raise money with war bonds, to the movement of troops and materiel during the war—with railroads carrying 90% of the military’s freight, and 98% of its personnel, trains were an integral operation on the home front. As...

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December 24, 2020

Santa Claus is coming…

If you believe the Pennsylvania Railroad, Santa Claus visits all the good boys and girls while they are asleep tonight, even if they happen to be in a railroad sleeping car. Does that make conductors and trainmen Santa’s helpers? And if you don’t believe the Pennsy, it looks like the Central seems to think that Santa will take a visit to all the overnight trains tonight. So who are we to disagree? Wishing all readers of I Ride The Harlem Line, whoever you are, if you’re still out there despite my lack of posting for the past few years, a...

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July 16, 2017

Smartcat Sundays: The Puppy Timetable

For almost as long as humans have been walking on this Earth, we have used hats. Whether they be for protection from the elements (with or without cat ears), for symbolic purposes, or simply for fashion, hats still remain an important part of our wardrobe to this day. Some historical figures are even well remembered for their hats, like Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hats, or Abe Lincoln’s stovepipe hat. Today’s little bit of railroad history is an unofficial railroad timetable distributed by a hat salesman in Oneida, New York. The subject has come up on this blog before, where I have...

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March 27, 2015

George Henry Daniels, The Advertising “Prophet” of the New York Central

These days, it seems like social media “experts” are a dime a dozen. Tasked with promoting a service or a brand in the “social” world where sites like Facebook and Twitter reign, the social media guru uses a varied bag of tricks to get people to look their way. Though the medium has certainly changed, and the communication is now instantaneous, creative promoters are hardly a new invention. And although the term “going viral” was only recently coined, one could argue that promoters of yesterday experienced a similar phenomenon. Today’s post is about a talented man who was employed by...

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March 21, 2014

Around the Country in Railroad Art

As the weather starts to warm up, perhaps you’ve been thinking about vacation. There are plenty of cool spots that one can visit, all by train. As we’ve certainly covered on the blog before, America’s railroads had in their employ both painters and illustrators to create works to entice travelers. Leslie Ragan is certainly one of my favorites – he worked for the New York Central as well as the Budd Company – and about this time last year we were posting some of his spring-like imagery. This time I thought it would be fun to take a tour of...