I see we've got an active thread going on the 1948 Chicago Fair. Here is a companion
thread on the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. These images all come from a scanned book
(on Google books) on the fair. These images are just a very small sampling.

1. Exhibit Hall (left half). Notice the turntable in center. Lots of vendors here -- I see
a car builder is even displaying a chapel car.


2. Exhibit Hall (right half).


3. CCC&StL ("Big Four RR") Atlantic type on a demonstration turntable.

4. Atlantic types were hot in 1904.


5. Another.


6. An exotic Consolidation.

7. "World's largest steam locomotive" in 1904.


8. Wrecking derrick.


9. State of the art ballast car.

10. Handlan Buck lanterns and lamps.


11. Signals.


12. Tunnel technology.

13. Models of passenger terminals.


14. Last but not least, the prosaic but all-important wood working machine.


That's it for now. There were many more images.

Thanks.

FLO -

Very interesting. Keep `em coming!


Les

IIRC, isn't this the exposition that featured the Cagney Brothers' Miniature Railway Company engines as a conveyance around the fairgrounds?

FLO, could you post the link to the particular guide on google books in which these images are found?

Thanks,

sc 'doc' lewis

My Dad told me all about this and how he attended several times as a 9 year old and hung around the hall. That's what gave him the railroad bug and in 1916 hired out in engine service on the Frisco out of St. Louis and was still an engineer in '64 when he died in an auto accident.
I'll bet the collectors would go spastic with all the markers, lanterns, signals and other collectables.

The whole fairgrounds was ringed by a double track electric railway dubbed the "Intramural Railway" which operated with St. Louis Car Company-built Robertson semi-convertible cars from high platforms.

The railroad was standard gauge, while the St. Louis streetcar system was 4
10". When building the Intramural Railway, they used to bring in fill, using a dump motor from the street railway system. They'd run it up a ramp, onto a flat car, which would then pull it to the location of the dump, where the car would dump its load, and back to the ramp to go off to get more fill.

I agree, neat stuff, keep it coming.

Would you have a specific link to the book? I went looking, but came up with too many hits to search today. However, I'm looking forward to further searching.

I'm wondering whether the Canadian Locomotive Company display was photographed or described. It included the brand new 42" gauge Prince Edward Island Railway 4-4-0 Ist #28 (soon renumbered to 2nd #19 after CLC mistakenly numbered a new PEIR 4-6-0 #28.

It was a brief moment of fame for a beautiful little engine.

Thanks!

Steve Hunter

Since this was 1904, what in the world would the B&O "Historic Exhibit" have had on display?

I have got to get to work on my time machine....

Interesting that it should be mentioned;

We just finished a new video. The first five minutes of the video feature 3 of the locomotives that were at the 1904 Worlds Fair. Our favorite, which is owned by a good friend in Chicago, is the nice blue locomotive in the film, which, is an original and very accurate 1904, as well as our No. 2, which is the race locomotive.

I know that we have a few 1904 Worlds Fair photos, but, we would love to see more. Doc. Lewis asked the question. I will hope to see more.

Here is where you can see some modern footage of the 1904 Cagney Locomotives in operation:

http://wrrc.us/2013/01/impressive-15-gaug/


Kindly,

The chapel car was "http://www.MessengerofPeace.org," now undergouing rehabilitation at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, WA. It was owned by the American Baptist Publication Society and the exhibit reported tied for first prize with the "beer" car, a tough pill for the temperance-supporting church to swallow. the exhibit also inspired the catholic church to get their first chapel car.

Wow! I am a bit stunned here. So THE Messenger of Peace itself was actually there in the display pavilion. I didn't know that. As a former history major, I am a big, big fan of this chapel car at NW Railway Museum because, more than just about any other railway artifact out there, it has a very important cultural connection to Western US history. I have read some of the logs kept by the minister (posted on the Messenger of Peace website) and they are just fascinating.

"04-01-1916 Spangle, WA - Gracious revival stirred the community.
04-20-1916 Spokane, WA - Hard proposition. Church nearly dead.
11-28-1916 Wilburton, WA - Little lumber mill center. Need is apparent. 3 weeks.
12-23-1916 Renton, WA - Mining camp. Religious conditions deplorable. Good finish."

...but this is a topic for another thread on another day.

Regarding the 1904 World's Fair book:

If the following link works, you can see the entire book on Google books for the transportation exhibit:
http://books.google.com/books?id=34FCAQ ... &q&f=false

If you are not familiar with Google books, you can view the book online, or download the book as a PDF file to your computer by clicking the little arrow next to the symbol that looks like a sprocket wheel (see image attached).

Dad also told me the clincher was a few years later he was down on the riverfront in St. Louis and watched one of the Big 4 Atlantics coming over the elevated line on morning. That convinced him he needed to go railroading.