Pacific Northwest Holiday on the Super Dome Olympian Hiawatha (1952)

Promotional film made by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("The Milwaukee Road"). The Olympian Hiawatha was its flagship streamliner service between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, commencing in 1947. It was not successful and was withdrawn in 1961.
This film is public domain in the United States.

[@matistysk79]

Lovely vintage film, feel a little sorry that this times has gone. It seems it was nice to take a trip with such great trains and enjoy the scenery outside.

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

And part of the former electrified rairlorad is gone. I mean no more tracks. It's a cyclist atraction now.

[@FelicianaDelacruz]

Give me a time machine. Wonderful vintage film of a great era gone by, when travel meant something and the railroads pulled out the stops to make you feel right at home. Too bad the train wasn't hugely successful as it went through some very spectacular scenery. Thanks for uploading and sharing this great piece of Americana.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

Hey, "Tom Burton" is played by Fahey Flynn. He was a true, professional broadcaster especially in the Chicago market beginning in 1941 at WBBM Chicago radio, transitioning to television news on WBBM in 1953 and then going to WLS-TV Chicago from 1968 until his untimely passing in 1983. He'd always begin his news broadcasts with his signature, "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Fahey Flynn." Interesting fact is that his father was a railroader in Escanaba, Michigan where Fahey was born.

[@Willysmb44]

Hard to believe an entire transcontinental railroad was abandoned and ripped up by the 1980s...

[@MrBsHiawathalandRails]

Just love these old films. Olympian Hiawatha just love it. Mr. B.

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

The old films and old books had the looks.

[@garyhallgren]

I took this train with my parents and little brother in 1953...we had berths. I remember the Indian entertainers on the platform at Miles City Montana. I also remember the superb service by the waiters and porters. Such professionalism has dropped by the wayside. Of course, it was all racist oppression, but it worked at the time...

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

But how was the food?

[@thornimation5492]

I particularly like the romanticised 1950s version of 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor?! ' !

[@kevinhoward9593]

This is when trains had style. Each long distance trainset was individually designed for that train, unlike Amtrak where all the cars look exactly alike. If you want to see what it was like to ride in style in the 50s you could take the Canadian across Canada in its vintage 1955 trainset. Although it can be pretty expensive. a berth could cost you roughly $800.

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

The lack of style in case of the trains unfortunately started to happen all over the world.

[@thornimation5492]

14:18, love the old wild western themed music at this point! Especially, as they're in a mining ghost town, which hasn't changed much since the days of the Old West, only 6 decades prior to this film.

[@thornimation5492]

Really reminds of all the Cowboys I've ever heard of.

[@billbates4682]

I am very surprised that Europe's railroads, other than Germany, never used the Vista-dome passenger cars on its scenic trains passing through the Alps and Norway's mountains, especially and just as much running under the wires as well. Bill

[@marktaylor9975]

Very cool, visited this few years ago. Loved to on the Milw and this time period.

[@edcrawford6676]

that was my Dad showing how to play cricket in Stanley Park...

[@kc4cvh]

Alas, the Olympian Hiawatha was discontinued less than ten years later, and in 1980 the Pacific Extension became the only transcontinental route to be abandoned and dismantled. It doesn't look like maintenance of way was too good even in 1952, as the swaying of the passengers shows.

[@QuadMochaMatti]

@34:32 - The mighty "Silver Swan"/"Silver Slug" of the Black Ball Ferry Line... All hail the Kalakala! (RIP 😭)

[@mackpines]

Skytop Lounge: Best passenger car ever! Do they still have that Jeep railroad and funicular to the caves?

[@josiahpeterson6100]

Man they don't make promotional material like they used to.

[@steverudder3321]

Great video. However, in Butte Montana, I find it hard to believe that there are 2700 miles of mining tunnels underground as the narrator says 17:45.

[@Collinsfamilylights]

Butte is undercut with a warren of 10,000 miles of underground mine shafts and tunnels. It's also the site of the Berkeley Pit, an open-pit mine that operated from the 1950s through the early 1980s, one of the largest man-made artifacts on the planet, and now the largest contaminated water body on earth

[@davelotz1]

Must be mandatory to wear suit and tie for men and dresses for women back then.

[@QuadMochaMatti]

I wore a dress shirt, tie, and blazer when I was in my 20s and traveling cross country via Amtrak from Seattle/Tacoma to the Midwest and the East Coast to Design conferences in the mid-'90s- early 2000s. I don't mind being an anachronism.

[@jckauffman6004]

Hilarious that the OLYMPIAN Hiawatha ends about 20 miles north of Olympia, Washington, without actually making it there lol

[@QuadMochaMatti]

Olympia is as bat guano insane as Seattle, and seemingly always has been.