This beautiful reproduction poster created by renowned artist Sascha Maurer has been re-mastered from an original advertising poster for the New Haven Railroad’s “Snow Train” excursions to ski resorts in New England.
The vibrant colors and detail of this classic image have been painstakingly brought back to life to preserve a great piece of history.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" and 24”x36” formats are excellent image sizes that look great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online. The 24”x36” size has a 1” white border.
A great vintage print for your home, cabin, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF SASCHA MAURER AND THE NEW HAVEN RAILROAD SNOW TRAINS
SASCHA MAURER AND THE SNOW TRAINS
This classic image by renowned commercial artist, Sascha Maurer (1897 - 1961), promoted skiing via the New Haven Railroad’s innovative "Snow Trains,” that provided service from New York, and other cities, to the New England ski slopes.
These specially scheduled and uniquely equipped winter trains were like self-contained ski lodges, offering rental ski equipment, as well as room and board at the ski slope. The Snow Trains were typically a one, or two-day excursion.
The Snow Train concept spread to other railroads and became hugely popular due to limitations on winter driving and lodging at the slopes. The trains brought thousands of customers to the ski resorts, and they were instrumental in the growth of the New England ski industry.
Sascha Maurer's posters captured the public’s imagination for the ski slopes with bright images and stylish designs. Maurer was trained in modernist design in Germany, and he was an accomplished skier himself. Maurer's streamlined, Art Deco images offered a bright visual respite for the beleaguered railroads during the depression years.
THE NEW HAVEN RAILROAD
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (reporting mark NH), commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of the New York and New Haven and Hartford and New Haven railroads, the company had near-total dominance of railroad traffic in Southern New England for the first half of the 20th century.
Beginning in the 1890s and accelerating in 1903, New York banker J. P. Morgan sought to monopolize New England transportation by arranging the NH's acquisition of 50 companies, including other railroads and steamship lines, and building a network of electrified trolley lines that provided interurban transportation for all of southern New England. By 1912, the New Haven operated more than 2,000 miles of track, with 120,000 employees, and practically monopolized traffic in a wide swath from Boston to New York City.
This quest for monopoly angered Progressive Era reformers, alienated public opinion, raised the cost of acquiring other companies and increased the railroad's construction costs. The company's debt soared from $14 million in 1903 to $242 million in 1913, while the advent of automobiles, trucks and buses reduced its profits. Also in 1913, the federal government filed an antitrust lawsuit that forced the NH to divest its trolley systems.
The line became bankrupt in 1935. It emerged from bankruptcy, albeit reduced in scope, in 1947, only to go bankrupt again in 1961. In 1969, its rail assets were merged with the Penn Central system, formed a year earlier by the merger of the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. Already an ill-conceived merger, Penn Central proceeded to go bankrupt in 1970, becoming the largest U.S. bankruptcy until the Enron Corporation superseded it in 2001.
The remnants of the system now comprise Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line, much of the northern leg of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, Connecticut's Shore Line East and Hartford Line, parts of the MBTA, and numerous freight operators such as CSX and the Providence and Worcester Railroad. The majority of the system is now owned publicly by the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
