To passengers along the Baltimore to Cincinnati mainline of the Baltimore & Ohio, it represented a much-needed facelift of daycoach, train service. To the B&O, the train pre-staged competing service being planned by the C&O and N&W. In the end, it was the last regularly scheduled, steam-powered streamliner in the US.

Born in the brief glow of post-war, passenger train optimism – between 1945 and 1946 – B&O’s Cincinnatian bridged the gap between mid-1930s semi-permanently coupled, short, diesel-powered train sets and the popular short, intercity trains of the 1950s in Europe. The primary motivation was to modernize coach travel between those two principal cities – service that had, up until that time, been neglected in the initial efforts to streamline B&O feature trains between 1937 and 1941. A secondary purpose was to offer individuals from West Virginia, that migrated to eastern states in search of employment during the Great Depression, an attractive and convenient way to travel home to see relatives – leaving their cars parked at home.

The train that took to the rails on January 19, 1947 was enhanced by the design skills of Olive Dennis, B&O service engineer – one of the few women that had risen to management level in railroading – but was clearly something old made to look like something new. In contrast to other new trains of the era, the train was powered by a steam locomotive – a class P-7d built in 1927 – and the coaches (two trainsets of five cars each) were likewise, veterans from the 1920s. Four locomotives were required for that service since an engine change was needed mid-way on the journey, at Grafton WV. B&O selected former class P-7 locomotives #5301 – #5304, the former having the distinction of being one of only two streamlined US steam locomotives to carry two different streamlined shells in its career.  The use of older equipment reflected B&O’s continual efforts to employ cost-effective solutions while offering the fast deployment time that was needed to beat elaborate streamliners C&O and N&W to the market.

Passenger revenue was disappointing and on June 25, 1950 the Cincinnatian trainsets were transferred to the Detroit to Cincinnati route. B&O shared that initial disappointment with the C&O and N&W since both discovered the same lack of market; C&O cancelled their train completely and N&W operated their new train briefly before splitting the new cars among other, non-feature trains. The new route had pedigree since the older B&O Great Lakes Limited had been a regional favorite but in time, the Cincinnatian lost much of its daytime ridership between those two cities. Instead, the Cincinnatian became a through-service link to connections at Cincinnati for southern destinations. The train lost it’s distinctive, streamlined steam locomotives in 1956 – all four were replaced initially by steam boiler-equipped EMD GP-7 diesel-electrics as a cost cutting move. Further downgrades continued until the train was discontinued when Amtrak came into being on May 1, 1971.

While the Cincinnatian has not be reproduced for the masses in HO, large-scale versions appear from time to time. The concept of a short, five-car train, powered by either a steam locomotive or diesel-electric, make this prototype an efficient way to add passenger service to modest and mid-sized layouts – in addition to larger operations. When you make the decision to move forward, please make MTS your first destination for locomotives, cars and related accessories and make certain to return frequently to see the new and attractive additions we post daily.

Frank Wrabel

Modeltrainstuff.com