TAT

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Marty:
N&W's involvement with TAT appeared in the PRRT&HS's Summer, 2003 edition of
The Keystone, p. 46.  Here are some excerpts:
1- "On August 1, 1929,  the N&W became one of three railroads in the United States offering
     an air-rail route from coast-to-coast partner Transcontinental Air Transport."

2- "Train #23 arrived at Broad Street Crossing in Columbus at 7:35 (AM),. . . A TAT 
     Aerocar met Train #23 and conveyed passengers to Port Columbus, where breakfast
     was served prior to boarding the Tri-motor scheduled to leave at 8:45 a.m."

     A correction to what was previously sent - TAT's Aerocars (there were 13)  were NOT busses,
     but a trailers hauled by an automobiles. It had been designed by  Ford and closely resembled
     what  an Air Stream trailer looks like today.

3- "Westbound, ticket agents of the Norfolk & Western sold tickets via rail and plane to
     Los Angeles and San Francisco, Cal. or to any intermediate point at which planes were
     scheduled to stop."

4- "Eastbound, TAT ticketed passengers to any point on the Norfolk & Western in West
     Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina" (but apparently not Ohio),

5- "N&W's service lasted over a year".

The article was published in the Norfolk & Western Magazine, Vol. 7, Number 9, but the
bound volume for 1929 has been checked out of the archives and I'm not able to offer any other
N&W data.   

If you have any interest in TAT, The Keystone article  is a "must  read" complete with a
multitude of b&w photos and with logos, brochure covers, baggage labels, and playing cards in
color.

Not N&W-related, but on March 31, 1931, a Fokker Tri-Motor left Kansas City at 9:15 a.m.
Less than an hour later, it was a mass of twisted steel,  wood, fabric and aluminum in a
wheatfield near Bazaar, Kansas.  The crew and six passengers were killed -- including
Knute Rockne of Notre Dame fame.  He was en route to Hollywood to serve as a technical
advisor.                                          Harry Bundy
   
       
 
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