McKeen Gasoline Motor Car 101 Poster

From www.railphotoexpres.biz; The McKeen Motor Car Company of Omaha, Nebraska, was a builder of internal combustion-engined railroad motor cars (railcars), constructing 152 between 1905–1917.Founded by William McKeen, the Union Pacific Railroad's Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery. The first cars were constructed by the before McKeen leased shop space in the UP's Omaha Shops in Omaha, Nebraska. The UP had asked him to develop a way of running small passenger trains more economically. The vast majority of the cars produced were for E. H. Harriman's empire of lines (Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and others). Harriman's death in 1909 lost the company its major sponsor and investor, and Harriman's successors were less enthusiastic about the McKeen cars. "Many McKeen cars ended up being re-engined with a variety of drive mechanisms — gasoline-mechanical, gasoline-electric, diesel-electric, or even steam power. One method of advertising the motor cars has proven particularly effective. I refer to picture postcards illustrating the car, and describing in fine type The cards were left in hotels, news stands, cigar stores, etc., for free distribution, and we find that they are being mailed very generally throughout the country, and even abroad. It has been interesting to note that in addition to diverting travel to our line, these cards have in a number of known instances brought curiosity riders from considerable distances." Mr. McKeen Promoted by Albert H. Flint, the New York, Auburn and Lansing Railroad was chartered on March 16, 1900. It was to re-use the old "Murdock Line", a rail grade which had briefly seen service as part of the Auburn Branch of the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad, to connect Ithaca and Auburn, and would enter Ithaca via a friendly connection with the Ithaca Street Railway. It went into receivership in 1912 and was reorganised as the Central New York Southern Railroad in 1914.