MOC: The Lindbergh Special "The Train That Raced A Plane"

[Cale]

The Lindbergh Special “The Train That Raced A Plane”

When celebrated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh returned to the United States on June 11, 1927 following his successful solo transatlantic flight from New York City to Paris, he was greeted by President Calvin Coolidge in Washington, DC and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. There was intense competition between several newsreel companies to be the first to get footage of the ceremony back to New York to show in the Broadway theaters. Several companies chartered aircraft, but the International News Reel Corporation instead chartered a special train from the Pennsylvania Railroad.

E6s Atlantic #460 was selected as the locomotive, B60B baggage car #7874 was equipped as a mobile darkroom to process the film on rout, and P70 coach #3301 brought up the train to carry PRR and newsreel company officials. The crew were given permission to run as fast as they considered safe. And run they did.

The train made it to the electric changeover at Manhattan Transfer with an average speed of 74 mph (119 km/h), a record never beaten by steam on that journey, and with a reported maximum speed of 115 mph (185 km/h). The newsreels brought by train reached the cinema screens and beat those flown to New York by over an hour, due to the delay the latter experienced to process the film. The Pennsylvania Railroad used this victory extensively in publicity in the following years.

The full Lindbergh Special Story.

This train has been a work in progress since 2007. The original #460 and the first version of the cars made their public appearance at Brickworld 2007. But I was always changing and improving the design so I’ve never posted the whole train until now. After a complete redesign of the engine this year and some more tweaking to the cars I think I’m finally happy with the results.

The full Lindbergh Special

The Real #460

The LEGO #460

PRR B60b Baggage Car

PRR P70 Coach

Cale

[WesternOutlaw]

Wow! This is so impressive Cale. I must say that I really love your building style. Your MOCs always look so non-LEGO. The design of the boiler is just so smooth and fantastic. Now I've got to check out some of the additional details, like those that you put into the beautiful Pullmans.

[Cale]

Wow! This is so impressive Cale. I must say that I really love your building style. Your MOCs always look so non-LEGO. The design of the boiler is just so smooth and fantastic. Now I've got to check out some of the additional details, like those that you put into the beautiful Pullmans.

Thanks. I never think of myself as having a particular building style. I just go for as much detail and as much realism as I can stuff in. And the boiler was a real tricky build to do with the tiles. But I'm happy with the results and glad you like it.

Cale

[WesternOutlaw]

I never think of myself as having a particular building style.

Oh, you do though, and they always look so great! Your Train Tech staff entry was equally impressive.

Make sure you check out Classic Town in the morning.

[Topsy Cret]

Wow! I love it. Nice snip of history to go along with it, too.

[BMW]

A very solid build... and the story behind it add just the right flavor. Could you play up the historical aspect by adding the dark room in a car with many reels of film? Maybe some cameras and other equipment laying about.

- BMW

[MetroiD]

Cale, that's absolutely brilliant, and thank you for that wonderful informative story too! Your building style, as mentioned by TheBrickster, is absolutely awesome, tons of respect for that.

[Cale]

A very solid build... and the story behind it add just the right flavor. Could you play up the historical aspect by adding the dark room in a car with many reels of film? Maybe some cameras and other equipment laying about.

- BMW

Thanks Brian. I plan to equip the dark room eventually. Need to do a bit more research on it first. I also plan to build the DD1 which pulled the train on it's final leg between Manhattan Transfer and Pennsylvania Station in New York City.

Cale