What is it? Plane, train, or???
Answer below the fold…
It’s an airplane. A DC-3 from the late 50s. Mohawk Airlines out of upstate NY were stuck with 2 of them, so they decided to make them look even older, like old railroad cars. They called it ‘Gaslight Service’.
Even the Stewardesses got into it, dressing like dance hall girls in Gay Nineties costumes, with sequins and ostrich feathers served five-cent cigars, free beer, cheese, and pretzels.
Copyright 1996, 2013 ©Henry M. Holden
They filled the airplanes routinely, even adding a ‘family parlor’ to one of them (up front and partitioned off from the back), for women and kids. More than 23,000 passengers flew the “Gas Light Service” downing 31,700 cans of beer, smoking 17,600 cigars, and consuming a ton of pretzels and a half ton of cheese between 1960 and 1962.
On one of my trips from Fort Sam Houston via Fort Leonard Wood to Fort Dix, prior to going to USAREUR in 1973, I flew on one of the DC-3s still in service at that time. It was a short hop, but what I remember most is the angle the seats were at during take-off and landing.
Made a similar trip, Ft Hood to Ft Dix on a Convair 220, in 1960 on my way to Germany.
The seats made me think airplane, but the decor threw me. Great idea, making good use of an older plane.
As long as the plane is in safe condition, it really doesn’t matter how fast we arrive at the destination. Its like traveling by a faster train.
I’d book flights on that today. Looks like they put fun into flying — something that’s lost on today’s commercial airlines.
There is something about the sound of a round engine. Starting them when hot was almost an art form to do it well. Flew the R2800 on the CL215 water bomber many years ago.
Ah! How far we’ve come. (Backwards that is!)
I went back and forth to college in the 1960’s on those old tail-dragger DC-3s and some of the trips in those non-pressurized riding around storms because they could not go over them bumping and sliding all over the place were and adventure. Lot’s of ear popping and occasional barfing by random passengers. One time I was seated next to a very young mother with her nine month old baby in her lap and the young mom decided to projectile her Nehi Cherry drink all over her baby and herself just splashing me a bit. The Stewardess made her way back the bouncing plane, took the baby from the mom and give the little critter to me while the Stew did an excellent job of cleaning up mom first then baby while I was holding the baby and I got a nice thank you and sweet smile from both mom and stewardess. That was Ozark Airlines almost 60 years ago.
I have flown DC-3 as a passenger a couple or 3 times. Flying over coastal plains and crossing over a central mountains range to the other side into more coastal plains. Updrafts and hitting “airless” pockets makes for a fun roller coaster ride. Sudden raises of a few seconds and, then, a second or two of a drop. Dad and me OK. Mom? Not as much.
Position and size of the Windows said Aircraft to me.
Reminds me of flying on Hughes Air West around the PNW in the 1980’s. For just a bit more, you could fly “business class”.
As a young man in Shreveport, LA in the 1970’s who was eat up with the flying bug, I would hang around the airport. I knew most everybody. It was the age of the Learjet and my father’s company, Texas Eastern, owned a Sabreliner – a very nice, modern aircraft. Across from theirs was the Pennzoil hanger and it contained a beautifully restored DC-3. I thought it was because they couldn’t afford a jet so I ask their chief pilot. He said that customers loved the nostalgia and clamored to get a ride. But it takes so long to get anywhere, I said. That’s the point he replied. When traveling with customers the boss has their complete attention. No interruptions. He said the boss has signed more contracts in that airplane than in his office. That was my first important lesson in business acumen.
Ozark! It served the town I grew up in. Had a few C-47 rides in the AF. And in some bigger ones. (LO! Those many years ago.)
Never landed in a DC3 but had a lot of takeoffs in them; a great jump plane, lots of room to move around, and if you got a ‘3 with a cargo door, you could put 8 or 10 jumpers in and around the door for a quick star right out of the door. Took a while to get to altitude compared to an Otter, but a really fun plane to skydive from.
I love that photo.
All- Thanks for the comments. Off at a Con for a few days, so light commenting…
Posted from my iPhone.
I haven’t seen that many neckties on an airline flight in fifty years. Sandals, swimsuits and pajamas are much more common today.
35 years ago, last month, My bride and I flew Aero Virgin Island Air DC3 service from San Juan, Puerto Rico to St. Thomas, VI. Scheduled DC3 service in 1986. Behind the ticket counter in San Juan, “DC3 50 years and still flying” proclaimed on a banner. The only downside was they could not accommodate all the baggage for the passenger load and our Honeymoon baggage arrived the next morning…..GRRR.
I also flew into St. Thomas on a DC3 back in the 70’s. That was quite an airport to fly into back then. Over the mountain, then drop down hard to the runway.
DC3s are still flying strong. Great aircraft.
https://buffaloairways.com/
Basler Turbo Conversions will take an old DC3 airframe, remanufacture it, put in turboprop engines and it is now a new airplane.
https://www.baslerturbo.com/