The City of Portland 39 Mins #SRP-COP $29.95 Union Pacific Historical Collection   In the Spring of 1935, a single flash of brilliant yellow across the Union Pacific’s central artery to the west eclipsed every conventional way to measure time across the North American continent. The world’s first streamlined sleeping car train slashed travel between Chicago and the West Coast by almost a full day. The City of Portland made five round trips, nearly 23,000 miles every month, month after month at an average of 57 miles per hour, all stops included. Never before had an isolated industrial event had such far reaching consequences. A window thrown wide giving sudden relief from the cigar smoke and defeatism that gripped almost every passenger-carrying railroad president. A nearly vibrationless 118 MPH with the glint of stainless set off by pastel interiors. For a generation just a step behind bread lines and soup kitchens, this was the trumpets of Joshua with a crystal sharp wake up call. A stunning production shot entirely on Ektachrome Commercial to bring out the beauty of the great Gorge of the Columbia and the magnificent armour yellow bullet that whistled for more than 200 miles along its edge. It tracks two trains across the Blue Mountains. Compared with the snowbound-fastness shown in “The City of Los Angeles in Winter”, the Great Plains are soft with new green. The freshly turned earth of Iowa is a dark moist brown. Takes you right into the lower level of Union Station Chicago. back