NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD 20th CENTURY Ltd. POSTER

Updated September 24, 2026

This auction ended on October 1, 2026. See upcoming auctions from Bell Remnants.

Lot number	300
Auction	Round #2 ~ CENTREVILLE, MISSISSIPPI Van Cleave Family ESTATE
Date	October 1, 2026 at 6:00 PM CDT
Auction house	Bell Remnants
Location	McComb, Mississippi

NO SHIPPING ~ LOCAL PICKUP ONLY > A large 36" x 42" framed New York Central System promotional poster for THE NEW 20TH CENTURY LIMITED, mounted beneath acrylic on a rigid backing board and enclosed within a narrow gold-patina sectional metal channel frame. Likely of recent production, this poster exhibits the celebrated 1938 Leslie Ragan design created for New York Central to promote the newly streamlined 20th Century Limited, one of the most famous passenger trains in American railroad history. This example is offered as a decorative element, protected under acrylic and secured to a backing board within the gold-patina sectional metal frame. The narrow metallic perimeter is particularly appropriate for the image, complementing the locomotive’s streamlined industrial forms without visually competing with the bold poster graphics. The Albany Institute identifies the original poster as a 1938 photomechanical print published by New York Central Railroads and printed by Latham Litho Co., with Ragan’s composition created specifically to showcase the new streamlined locomotive designed by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. The poster text reads THE NEW 20TH CENTURY LIMITED across the lower field, followed by the emphatic route and schedule statement NEW YORK - 16 HOURS - CHICAGO, and the railroad name NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM. That 16-hour claim was a major part of the 1938 relaunch: the streamlined train entered regular service on June 15, 1938, reducing the New York-to-Chicago schedule to sixteen hours. Contemporary reporting described the new train as a luxury liner incorporating air conditioning, all-room Pullman accommodations, dining cars, lounges and interiors designed in cooperation with Dreyfuss and the Pullman Company. The 20th Century Limited itself had begun service in 1902 as New York Central’s premier overnight express between New York and Chicago. It became the railroad’s flagship and was marketed to business and affluent travelers with first-class service, dining, sleeping accommodations and the celebrated red-carpet treatment at departure. The train operated between Grand Central Terminal in New York and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, following New York Central’s comparatively level Water Level Route, and continued in service until 1967. Ragan’s design is a particularly strong example of American Art Deco and Machine Age advertising. Rather than showing the locomotive conventionally from the side, he places the viewer almost at rail level, looking dramatically upward into the immense streamlined nose of the engine. The locomotive dominates the composition, with the low perspective exaggerating size, speed and technological power. The rounded aerodynamic casing, circular headlamp, sweeping dark body and metallic tonal transitions contrast sharply against the bright blue sky and stylized clouds. The Hudson River Museum describes Ragan’s related New York Central imagery as an excellent example of the Machine Age aesthetic of t

NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD 20th CENTURY Ltd. POSTER

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