Autocar

1915 · ref. 60717 — Omaha NE: McKeen Motor Car Co. 1915. Oblong 8vo. 16 pp. With photo illustrations throughout. Colour-illustrated softcovers w/ cover art of Streamline Motor Car and McKeen Highway Coach on front cover photo on back cover minor shelfwear date annotations in upper right corner still a VG copy. First edition of this exceedingly scarce catalogue touting the pioneering Streamline powered railway 300 Horsepower Motor Car which a successor to his famed gasoline car run as Union Pacific Railroad’s Motor Car 1. His later designs featured large round portholes evoking Jules Verne and innovative industrial and mechanical designs. The double trouble twin motored McKeen cars were said to have pulled twenty freight cars and the M21 was the first 70-foot car followed by M23 & M24 intended to pull passenger cars hotly supported by E.H. Harriman. McKeen redesigned carburetors transmissions running gear and the compressed air often did not work properly. The inventive genius also produced a special motor coach with Streamline features rounded rear portholes and depressed side door intended to offer highway service between Minneapolis and St. Paul MN with its’ specially designed seats which allowed for greater comfort. See: William M. Schopp Born Thirty Years Too Soon: William Riley McKeen got his Air Foi Sections reversed but had Trouble with the Power Transmission Railroad Magazine 1950. McKeen Motor Car Co., paperback