When transcontinental rails were joined at Promontory, Utah, in 1869, travelers could voyage across the land ocean of America with the same freedom and comfort they had sailed the Atlantic. Union Pacific's flagship was the Overland Limited, dependable led through storm and darkness by high-drivered Mountain racers known to railroaders as the 7000's.

Powered by America's first streamlined-from-the-ground-up steam engine. Milwaukee Road's smash-success speedster of 1935 - the Hiawatha - sails through Rondout, Ill., at 100 mph. High-wheeling Atlantic No. 1 has just pounded the EJ&E diamond and now shoots north from beneath the NorthShore Line's overpass while en route from Chicago to Milwaukee and the Twin Cities. Steam in full stride!

Engines synonymous with style and speed were the celebrated Class D Atlantic-type passenger locomotives of the Chicago & North Western, built in the Schenectady Works of the American Locomotive Company. Class D No. 394 whips through a country depot as the Railway Mail clerk tosses out a sack and papers.

Was there ever a more exotic American passenger train name than Orange Blossom Special? This winter-season all-Pullman flyer of the Seaboard Air Line wined and dined away the winter burdens of her New York clientele, rolling them south to the palms and sun of Florida behind anonymous engineers with gloved hands on steam throttles.

In the railroad age there was the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Standard Railroad of the World. And the Pennsy's standard steam passenger engine was the K4 Pacific type. Over 400 strong, these immensely fast and powerful engines put magic in such train names as Broadway, American, Admiral, and General.

The daylight train down the California coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles was an orange-and-red streamliner called the Daylight. But at night its colorful steam engines coupled onto a gray luxury liner known as the Lark - all Pullman, and plush. Come dawn in Santa Susana Pass and the Lark created wondrous railroad sight and sound.

The year is 1938. Within weeks New York Central will debut a streamlined edition of its world-famous New York-Chicago 20th Century Limited. But tonight the extra-fare, all Pullman flyers pass in the night in traditional heavy weight attire, hurried on their way by handsome Hudson-type locomotives that flaunt rather than hide their stacks, domes, rivets, and piping. And the Gods of High Iron approve.

War preoccupies the land, and the considerable talents of the Nickel Plate Road, honed in the development of a second-to-none reputation for moving freight fast, now are devoted to hauling troops and tanks, At midnight brand-new (Lima Class of '44) S-2 Berkshire 765 is checked over by her crew in preparation for manufacturing gross ton-miles per freight train-hour along the rim of Lake Erie en route to Buffalo.

The oversize road number and wheels of the New York Central & Hudson River 4-4-0 on the Empire State Express overtaking the side-wheeler Mary Powell at Bear Mountain, N.Y., on May 9, 1893, promise the spectacular ... and tomorrow Engineer Charlie Hogan will achieve immortality with 999's 86-inch drives by covering a mile in just 32 stop-watched seconds.

Once upon a time down in Texas a railroad known as the Texas & Pacific tried to change the diet of a big freight engine from oil to lignite coal. The converted machine ran at night on a local train nicknamed the Yellow Dog. And that was just as well, for the engine was ugly and her crews ended the run looking like coal miners. Snuff Dipper they called her.