Seashore’s Finest Train The Blue Comet by Rosenbaum & Gallo Soft Cover

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Seashore’s Finest Train The Blue Comet by Rosenbaum & Gallo Soft Cover
Seashores Finest Train The Blue Comet book
This is the Seashores Finest Train - The Blue Comet by Joel Rosenbaum and Tom Gallo.  Soft cover, copyright 1983.  60 pages.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword: E. Lewis Pardee 4
Section One: The Seashore's Finest Train
A History of the Blue Comet 5
The Locomotives17
The Baggage Cars 20
The Combines 21
The Coaches 22
The Diner 24
The Observation Cars 25
Blue Comet Memorabilia 28
A Blue Comet Album 32
Section Two: Route of the Nellie Bly
Pennsy's Atlantic City Service 39 Section Three: Creating the Blue Comet in Miniature
An Introduction 44
Creating the Locomotive 46
Creating the Baggage Car 48
Creating the Combine 50
Creating the Coach 52
Creating the Diner 54
Creating the Observation Car 56
Epilogue: An Interview with Howard E. Simpson 58
References 59
Acknowledgments 60
FOREWORD
A childhood revelation occurred for me in June, 1929, at the Atlantic City Railroad's old Arkansas Avenue Depot. It was there that I had my first startling glimpse of a brand new train called the Blue Comet. As long as I live, I will be grateful to my indulgent father for taking a day off from his business just so he could introduce me to the Seashore's Finest Train. It was the start of my love affair with the Blue Comet. I watched and rode and photographed that great train until that final, first Saturday in the autumn of 1941, when I stood trackside at Winslow Junction and watched it pass by on its final trip to New York. Ah, the stuff memories are made of!
The Blue Comet was more than just another passenger train. It was the very embodiment of a novel experiment, a radical approach to the packaging of rail passenger service. It embraced dramatic ideas, and nothing set the stage better than its new paint scheme. The Packard blue was like a sky in which comets flew, and was a symbol of speed. Jersey Cream was in harmony with the New Jersey seashore's sandy beaches, which were the mecca for the train's patrons. A theory was embraced by the planners which reasoned that by spending more money one could save money, if not actually turn a profit.
The Blue Comet's objectives were three-fold: To in-crease ridership; to eliminate a costly Pullman parlor car lease (which ran at a deficit ten months of the year); and to discontinue all regularly scheduled passenger train service south of Winslow junction to Vineland and Bridgeton. To accomplish the first objective, a new train was designed, and it was like nothing ever seen before. Coaches were refurbished lavishly with the finest fittings available. Expensively upholstered inseats were spaced far apart to provide extra leg room. New, larger lounges for women were provided. Floors were carpeted. Porter service was provided, and seats were assigned, thus avoiding rushing and over-crowding.
The second goal was achieved by the deluxe coach accommodations just described. In addition, there were two cars dedicated to relaxation-the observation, with its comfortable wicker chairs, and the smoker with its blue leather individual seats. Everything was done to create an ambience not inconsistent with first-class service. The parlor car passenger would be satisfied, and out went the Pullman Lease.
The third objective would have been impossible under any circumstances other than the unusual atmosphere of good will which prevailed prior to the inauguration of the train. This was created entirely by the railroad in a phenomenally successful advertising campaign which focused on the positive aspects of the new service and obscured the fact that regularly scheduled train service from Winslow Junction south to Vineland and Bridgeton would be discontinued and replaced by a bus connection. The railroad widely advertised the Blue Comet "service" to the line points south of Winslow Junction, and pictured the latest and most luxurious
inter-city motor coaches, complete with the Blue Comet logo and color scheme. They did a good job of selling the service to residents along the line. What a lesson there was for the railroads, when in later years they agonized through the long "train-off" hearings.
The public relations and advertising campaign continued into the early years of the train's life, and was in-deed conspicuous for its many innovations. Where else but on the White Horse Pike, east of Hammonton where the CNJ crosses over the highway, would one find the entire railroad bridge covered by a giant billboard advertising the Blue Comet? Who else but the CNJ erected a sign along a public highway overpass where it crossed the route of the Blue Comet, and listed the times that all four trips passed that location? I wonder how they got permission from the highway department to put up that sign?
As to the train itself this book has been written, but let me say that my favorite place was aboard the dining car Giacobini. It had a character all its own, with a blend of the 19th and 20th centuries. It fairly exuded charm with a grace and beauty which reached its apogee by master carbuilders of the last century. While the arwindows had been steel plated on the outside, they remained inside, and had hand-etched opaque glass with comets and stars. The woodwork was rich with inlays, and the chairs were hand carved. Tables wore light blue linen and specially designed silver. Crystal and china complemented each other in two shades of blue. Each table was crowned with a silver lamp covered with a silk shade. Waiter's uniforms carried out the theme of the train, right down to their white shoes. If I can mention only one thing, it has to be my favorite dessert. Freshly baked apple pie with a generous wedge of aged New York cheddar cheese on the Blue Comet could not be beat. It was equalled only by the B&O, where I always suspected CNJ obtained the recipe, such were the close ties of "family" members. In the mid-Thirties a Philadelphia newspaper carried a column titled Girard's Talk of the Day, in which B&O apple pie was extolled as the best in the world. I was not one to disagree.
The story of the Blue Comet is a casebook study of an idea whose time had not arrived. It was doomed from the start. Rapid expansion of New Jersey's network of public highways, an unprecedented increase in private ownership of automobiles, and dependence upon a pleabut outmoded ferry boat connection with Manhattan were the root causes of its demise. Ironically, those same elements now combine to set the stage for a renaissance in train service to the Playground of the World. The two-car family, overcrowded expressways, city traffic congestion and limited parking facilities have created a monstrous problem which is still growing. As we search for solutions to these problems, I believe the Story of the Blue Comet demands a hearing.
E. LEWIS PARDEE  Collingswood, New Jersey June 27, 1983
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