The Chicago World's Fair "A Century of Progress" Exposition took place in 1933 and 1934. American railroads were among the major exhibitors, celebrating the technological progress of railroad equipment with examples of both historic locomotives and those considered state-of-the-art in the depth of the Great Depression.

Visitors to the Century of Progress included Cecil A. Wickham, a high school general science teacher from Michigan City, Indiana, his wife Agnes, and Mr. Wickham's parents, Dr. Archibald and Nellie Wickham of Detroit. Most of the locomotive photos on this page were taken by members of the Wickham family. At the time the younger Wickhams were expecting their first child — my friend the late Don Wickham of Clermont, Florida, who kindly loaned me those photos. Cecil Wickham's untimely death occurred in 1944.

Since this page was inaugurated, additional images have come from other sources, including scans of leaflet covers from the Century of Progress provided by Donna Harrison-Rodeghiero. Select the pages that interest you from the images below, or use the navigation buttons to page through the entire collection. For more interesting viewing, explore the links at left which will take you to our other rail-related web sites.

Dr. Richard Leonard