C&O's subsidiary Pere Marquette Railway was used by C&O's pro-passenger Chairman, Robert R. Young, as a test bed for his ideas on how to cure the passenger train problem in America. He ordered two diesel-powered 7 car lightweight trains that went into service in mid-1946 on the Detroit-Grand Rapids corridor. Over the next year they reversed the passenger losses on this line and actually built up traffic.

The trains were the first to emerge all-new from the clogged car builders shops after WWII. The new trains were of latest design and the on-board services were superb for a coach operation with hostesses, on-board passenger representatives, tickets delivered on the train, credit cards, no-tipping, etc. Many of these things were later tried on C&O's main line trains, and the equipment showed the way for the huge re-equipping of the name trains on the old C&O in 1950.

Eventually affected by the continued erosion of passenger traffic, the trains experienced a slow decline, but lasted as a shadow of themselves down to Amtrak on May 1, 1971. The story is told in great detail from original documents and illustrated with great photographs, many of them from C&O official files.

Contents:
Ch. 1: Rolling Through Michigan, Getting Ready, Motive Power, Waitresses, Public Relations, Newspaper Trip and Christening, pp. 1-13;
Ch. 2: Regular Trains, 1946-1948, pp. 14-17;
Ch. 3: To Chicago and Trouble, pp. 18-21;
Ch. 4: Decline, 1950-1971, pp. 22-29;
Cars, Motive Power, Rolling Through Michigan, Color Album, Grand Rapids Station, Detroit's Fort Street Union Depot, Amtrak, pp. 30-92.

TLC Publishing, soft cover, 92 pages, 8.5 x 11 x .25 in., b&w and color photographs (16 pages), car diagrams, C&O publicity photographs and ephemera.