Gangway For The Union Pacific’s Sovereign of The Rails! Twenty thousand flocked to Union Station to inspect the new ultra-modern City of Denver streamlined train. June 15, 1936. Denver Post File Photo
Twenty thousand people packed Union Station to see the new City of Denver passenger train in 1936. It was one of Union Pacific’s elite fleet of streamliners and the last word in modern travel luxury. In direct competition with the Burlington Zephyr, the City of Denver cut travel time between Denver and Chicago to 16 hours.
City of Denver. June, 1936. Denver Post File Photo
When it arrived at Union Station on June 15, its red and gold engine pulled four sleeping cars, an observation lounge, two day coaches, a dining-cocktail lounge car and the “Frontier Shack” car, which was a “replica” of pioneer taverns in Colorado mining towns.
Dining and cocktail lounge car on City of Denver. Undated. Denver Post File Photo
The “Frontier Shack” car on the City of Denver. June 3, 1941. Denver Post File Photo
The streamliner was formally dedicated three days later, on June 18, 1936. Governor Ed Johnson and Mayor Benjamin Stapleton gave speeches. The governor’s daughter, Grace, proudly broke a bottle of champagne on the engine while intoning, “I christen thee the City of Denver.” KOA radio station picked up the ceremonies and broadcast them over the NBC network from coast to coast.
Following the ceremonies, passengers streamed aboard filling every one of the 182 seats in the sleeping cars and coaches for the maiden trip.
This video shows a couple of streamliners from the 1930s. The first is the City of Denver.
(What a beauty. Maybe Arlo should have sung about it instead of “City of New Orleans.”)
