Big Four Railroad Publicity Stunt – April 1930

Every so often I like to thumb through my dog-eared copy of Looking Back on Lorain County by Ernie Henes for an interesting story that I could use on my blog.

Here's one from April 1930. It's about Lorain County's first railroad – the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati line, better known as the "Big Four" – and a record-breaking run it undertook 96 years ago this month. Ernie tells the story:

Big Four Publicity Run of 1930

To show that the Big Four has been a railroad of contrasts, we recall an incident that occurred in the summer of 1930, eighty years after the maiden run, when train No. 6474 roared through Wellington at 97 miles per hour, making the 138-mile run from Columbus to Cleveland in 115 minutes.

The reason, strange as it may seem, was 50 gorgeous girlies in the “Rarin’ To Go” burlesque troupe which had become stranded in Columbus and was due at 2 o’clock in Buffalo for a matinee performance.

The Big Four arranged a six-car special as a publicity stunt. It was fun for everybody except Fireman Switzer. His wife reported that even the money in his trouser pocket was soaked with perspiration. But he kept up steam.

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So how did this get covered in the Lorain Journal? Unfortunately in just two news briefs (below). The first one appeared on April 14, 1930 and the second one ran a day later.

The story was also picked up by United Press. Here's its version that ran in the Indianapolis Times on April 14, 1930. Note that the engineer's name is spelled differently than it was in the Associated Press report. Apparently one of the two news agencies mangled it!

So what about the burlesque troupe of "50 gorgeous girlies?" It seems that "Rarin' To Go" was really more of a Broadway show that was on the road. Google's AI Overview noted, "Rarin' to Go was a Broadway production featured in the 1920s-1930s era, known for showcasing artists like Edith Spencer."

So it's not like it was a strip show or anything like that.

Anyway, it must have been something to see the Big Four six-car special fly through Wellington at 97 miles per hour. And less than two hours from Columbus to Cleveland is pretty good, it slightly edges the same trip today via I-71.