Shot by an amateur filmmaker named Arthur L. Gardner, these beautiful color home movies show the Chicago Railroad Fair, possibly in 1948 but most likely in 1949. The film begins with images of the Indian village that was part of the Fair, before showing some of the railroad apparatus and steam engines that made the Fair such an amazing spectacle. The highlight of the Fair was a musical number with parades, dancing, and the display of different locomotives and older cars to highlight the progression of American rail history.
0:10 Arthur L. Gardiner presents, 0:18 Chicago Railroad Fair, 0:27 a replica of a high-ball railroad signal, at :35 the “Deadwood Central” was a narrow gauge locomotive from Colorado that operated at the Fair. This is probably the locomotive that wore “Cripple Creek & Tin Cup Railroad” livery 0:44 replicas of Pueblo Native American buildings and Totem Poles, 1:05 replicas of Navajo summer shelters and mud houses, 1:38 a mud oven next to Pueblo houses, 1:55 a Calico Railway RGS 2-8-0, 2:08 The Shrimp House restaurant, 2:20 children and parents riding on a miniature train, 2:26 a miniature trombone stand, “anyone can play one”, 2:35 visitors on a San Francisco cable car #524 2:48 the Calico Railway RGS 2-8-0 driving past, 3:00 a performance with different horse drawn carriages and early steam trains including an Illinois Central Railroad No. 201 and Pioneer locomotive 14:48 Lionel 8701 Locomotive followed by more carriages and Western reenactments, 6:59 different types of early 20th Century cars driving including Ford Model Ts, 7:16 an Empire State Express No. 999 with a parade in front of it, 7:36 rapid close ups of different locomotives, 8:02 a Santa Fe 5 Locomotive driving with passenger wagons, 8:34 fireworks at night.
The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan and is often referred to as “the last great railroad fair” with 39 railroad companies participating. The cable car shown in the film, #524, arrived at the Fair in 1949. Western Pacific Railroad sponsored its participation. It ran on a short cable operation along the shores of Lake Michigan. To make sure everyone knew positively where it came from, the signage on the side was changed from just “Municipal Railway” to “Municipal Railway of San Francisco”. Many Powell cable cars later received this lettering. The car remains in service to this day in San Francisco and is known as the “Willie Mays” cable car.
Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies — including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
