The 400 Story
Chicago & North Western’s Premier Passenger Trains
“400 miles in 400 minutes . . . the fastest train on the American continent.” —advertisement, December 1934
Chicago and North Western’s modern, sleek, and fast rail line began with a conventional steam-powered train dubbed the “400” and named after its ambitious schedule: “400 miles in 400 minutes.” In 1939, it evolved into an even faster diesel-powered streamlined train. The 400 Story captures the excitement of this era, tracing the rise and fall of the premier passenger system that made “Twin Cities 400” a household term in the upper Midwest.
The trains are extinct, but many details of the landscape they traversed still exist. In this book’s maps, descriptions, and photographs of the 400s at various points along their routes, it is easy to imagine the yellow and green streamliners still rolling across the Wisconsin countryside or easing into a crowded station. Scribbins is at his best analyzing historical data and word-painting interior decor and exterior color schemes. Scribbins’s command of his subject is substantial. Scribbins nicely demonstrates how the 400 fleet’s past has influenced our present. The excellence, historically and photographically, of the 342 illustrations deserves mention. Beautiful full-page views depict the 400 at the Milwaukee lakefront. The 400 Story will serve equally well as a detailed historical reference or as a colorful coffee-table decoration, able to be perused with studious intensity or with a relaxed glance.
Wisconsin Magazine of History
Three midwestern railroads introduced luxury passenger service in 1935, competing for Chicago–Twin Cities business and leisure travelers. Chicago and North Western’s modern, sleek, and fast rail line began with a conventional steam-powered train dubbed the “400” and named after its ambitious schedule: “400 miles in 400 minutes.” In 1939, it evolved into an even faster diesel-powered streamlined train, eventually expanding into a fleet of streamliners that served Wisconsin, Minnesota, and upper Michigan.
The 400 Story captures the excitement of this era, tracing the rise and fall of the premier passenger system that made “Twin Cities 400” a household term in the upper Midwest.
The trains are extinct, but many details of the landscape they traversed still exist. In this book’s maps, descriptions, and photographs of the 400s at various points along their routes, it is easy to imagine the yellow and green streamliners still rolling across the Wisconsin countryside or easing into a crowded station. Scribbins is at his best analyzing historical data and word-painting interior decor and exterior color schemes. Scribbins’s command of his subject is substantial. Scribbins nicely demonstrates how the 400 fleet’s past has influenced our present. The excellence, historically and photographically, of the 342 illustrations deserves mention. Beautiful full-page views depict the 400 at the Milwaukee lakefront. The 400 Story will serve equally well as a detailed historical reference or as a colorful coffee-table decoration, able to be perused with studious intensity or with a relaxed glance.
Wisconsin Magazine of History
Scribbins’s fondness for trains shines through and is sure to fire up a feeling of nostalgia.
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Related Publications
The Missabe Road
The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway
The history of the ore boom on the Iron Range and the role railroads played
The Tootin' Louie
A History of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway
The definitive history of one of the Midwest’s most remarkable railroads
The Hook and Eye
A History of the Iowa Central Railway
Shares the history of Iowa’s hardscrabble but vital railway link to the upper Midwest
The Hiawatha Story
The illustrated history of one of the most spectacularly successful passenger trains of all time.
Twilight Rails
The Final Era of Railroad Building in the Midwest
The first book to document the final wave of railroad construction in the Midwest, written by a preeminent railroad historian