Well, I had another driving lesson today, and my instructor gave me a coin dating from 1934, commemorating the UP M10000. The back reads: "a sample of the aluminum in the new union pacific train built by pullman car & mfg. corp". The very bottom reads "Aluminum Co. of America". Can someone give me some background? I assume it was given out during the tour of the M10000. I'll have some pictures up in a few minutes.

Here are the pictures. My apologies for the bad quality, but my iPod camera isn't the best

Well, Aluminum Co. of America continues as the present day Alcoa.

Good work Dylan, drive safe.

The NS Steam trips last November included 630 and 154 running from Knoxville to Alcoa and back the morning after the TRAIN banquet in Chattanooga.

Alcoa would have been even bigger had it embraced aluminum foil before Reynolds.

One thing I was always curious about, was what ever happened to the EBT cars that Alcoa purchased and shipped to South or Central America in the early 1950s. Theoretically they might still survive today.
O.

Your token or 'lucky piece' was one of three versions produced for advertising purposes from around 1934-1940. Yours celebrates the M-10000. The one produced in 1940 celebrates 'Road of the Challengers' on one side and 'Road of the Streamliners' on the other. (Convenient for railfans calling 'steam' or 'diesel' instead of 'heads' or 'tails' on the toss of the coin) The third version was produced for the premier of Cecil B. DeMille's epic motion picture "Union Pacific".

Pictures and some information on these other two versions can be seen at this website

http://www.brianrxm.com/dirhtm/cnstokens_railroad.htm.


sc 'doc' lewis

Thanks Doc. So, were all three made between 1934 and 1940, or were they replaced in sequence? On another note, did many of these survive the scrap drives of WWII? I'm not sure if the drives got to the point where even the smallest scraps of metal were taken.

Update:

I found that there was a fourth token produced by UP for the 1939 World's Fair held on Treasure Island in San Francisco (aka "Golden Gate Exposition"). Picture of this lucky piece is the third one down on this page
http://www.brianrxm.com/dirhtm/cnstokens_expogoldengate.htm

So by my count:
1934--M10000 (displayed at the 1933-34 Chicago 'Century of Progress' Worlds Fair)
1939(April)--Union Pacific Motion Picture Premier
1939--Golden Gate Exposition
1940--Road of the Challengers/Road of the Streamliners (likely distributed at the 1939-40 New York Worlds Fair)

Having been on eBay over a dozen years, it is my impression that the most common versions are the 1934 followed by the 1940 IMHO, of the two 1939 issues the one for the motion picture is the more rare.

Interesting to think that these served the same purpose that pens, hats, t-shirts, mousepads serve now days at trade shows...and just coming off of the Great Depression they were labeled 'Lucky Pieces'.

Does anyone know for sure if the 1940 issue was produced for the New York World's Fair (1939-1940) where the production "Railroads on Parade" was seen?

sc 'doc' lewis