I grew up in San Diego, and have spent essentially my whole life here. By the 1970's, I had been to Chicago once, between Christmas and New Years of 1959 or 60. We spent most of a day there between trains, having come in from Washington in the morning, and scheduled to depart that evening on UP's City of LA. We about froze to death, but we did manage to spend some time at the Museum of Science and Industry.

In the '70s, early in my 29 year career at Kelco in San Diego, my boss was a guy from Chicago. He was always going on about what a great and famous guy his wife's father was, Maj. Lenox Lohr, head of the Museum of Science and Industry. Of course I'd never heard of Lohr, but I did manage to tell my boss, that, yes, I had been to the Museum of Science and Industry once. My boss tended to inflate things a bit, so I didn't think much more about Lohr.

Now, take a look at the page shown in the program that listed all the railroad officials. Right at the top is Lenox Lohr! I Googled him, and it turns out he was also the head of the Century of Progress exposition in the '30's, and head of NBC. Guess my boss wasn't inflating his father-in-law too much.

I was surprised to see an Atlantic locomotive in the background of the film. I figured it might be one of the few remaining Atlantics, but C&EI 222 was later scrapped.

Chris -

Yes, but not quite 100%. The valve gear of the 222 was preserved at Chicago's famous Museum of Science & Industry. If you press a button, the gear does its "thing". Often wondered why the museum didn't try to save the entire locomotive as it seemed it would have made a nice MofS&I addition, especially since at that time, the museum did not yet have New York Central 4-4-0 #999, or AT&SF Northern #2903. After years of outside display, the Santa Fe 4-8-4 was, of course, eventually donated to Illinois Railway Museum and removed from museum property. Sure wish the C&EI Atlantic had been saved. She sure was a pretty thing.

Les

I seem to recall a mini version of the railroad fair in the South Water Market area east of Chicago's Loop sometime 1966-1968. It was probably more on an industry trade fair, But I was in high school at the time and don't recall having any trouble getting in. I don't recall taking any pix... in fact, I don't recall much of the displays... one of the minority builders (must have been GE because ALCO was gone by that time) had a locomotive on loan from the IC on display, and International Car Co. had a caboose on display, surprisingly not one of their standard wide cupola jobs, but a bay window caboose. The thing I recall most about the caboose was the Rockwell "high speed" trucks. The only place I've ever seen any other examples of this truck is on a couple newly built ballast hoppers for the CTA "L" lines. Guess the engineers liked the additional trolley rail clearance this design offered.

Dennis -

I remember something like this down near the IC's Central Station. I walked over to take a look one lunchtime from my office building in the Loop. Don't remember what was there EXCEPT that some outfit had a crane that was lifting up the end of a C&NW Baby Trainmaster. The unit had probably been (or was soon to be) retired by the NorthWestern. It's the only photo I ever got of one!

Les

There are still railway equipment trade shows and some are held in Chicago.

Steve

I never heard of Major Lenox Lohr. I'm glad I scanned that page since your mention of Lohr revealed this:

http://www.iridetheharlemline.com/tag/trains/



Never knew this.

Steve

Steve

Steve

Steve: I'm glad you scanned something that seems so mundane as a list of people who were involved. You never know who might turn up! I'll need to take some time later to really read through all the pages you scanned. But, I'm a bit involved with other things the next couple of days: Conductor on a sold out train to the North Pole Friday night, and engineer on two trains to the same place Saturday, church choir Sunday. Whew.

Here's another pic of C&EI 222 at the Fair.

Someone included a photo from my Railroad Fair site, http://www.railarchive.net/rrfair/. Material there has come from several contributors, and I would be glad to add additional photos or other material to the site (crediting the source, of course), to bring as much together in one place as possible. I only have the 1949 program book, so the 1948 book would be a good addition. If you have such material you would be willing to share, I would be glad to hear from you. Email rleonard@railarchive.net. Thanks!

That is exactly why I'm scanning every page, details that some people might think trivial can prove to be valuable to somebody else. This guide was my Dad's which I found in his basement and I'm more than happy to share. It is in excellent condition since it has been in storage for untold years.

Sounds like you are one busy person.

Steve

I didn't even notice but you're right - a young lady is the creator of that website.

Steve

You are more than welcome to use anything I post here.

Nothing irks me more than selfish people who didn't lift a mother loving finger to produce these fantastic pieces of history. Yet these people who happen to own a piece of history will try to claim copyright on what they didn't contribute an ounce of energy to create.

These scans are from my copy that belonged to my father, Roderick Arthur O'Connor who lived in Chicago and who visited the fair.

If you wish to give credit to my Dad, I'd be honored that you would give him the credit for having the wisdom to preserve this history.

I know my Dad would be tickled pink that his copy is now giving railfans on the internet the chance to see a complete program that they would have no other way of ever seeing.

He was an awesome man who lived what he preached - and selfishness wasn't in his vocabulary. He loved teaching and for a short time taught at Aurora College (time study - my Dad was a manufacturing engineer and graduated from IIT. He spent his entire engineering career at one company - DuKane Corporation in St. Charles). He especially loved kids and the thrill of them learning something for the first time.



This is a photo of my Dad during Korea. He was drafted and served in a 90 mm anti-aircraft battery at (then) Camp McCoy, Wisconsin.

I was very lucky to have him for my father.

Steve