---
title: Life-line of the nation
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/life-line-of-the-nation-american-railroads-1942/
description: A steam locomotive with '1942' on its smokebox rushes toward the viewer, hauling boxcars and flatcars of tanks.
section: Collection
---

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3. Life-line of the nation

[![Life-line of the nation, 1942 US poster: A steam locomotive with '1942' on its smokebox rushes toward the viewer, hauling](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/life-line-of-the-nation-american-railroads-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/life-line-of-the-nation-american-railroads-1942.jpg)

# Life-line of the nation

A steam locomotive with '1942' on its smokebox rushes toward the viewer, hauling boxcars and flatcars of tanks, under the red headline 'Life-line of the nation' and the sponsor line 'American Railroads'. The tell is the virtue-phrase 'life-line' joined to a powerful machine and the war-year date.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
LIFE-LINE
OF THE
NATION

1942

AMERICAN RAILROADS

[signature:] Ralph Treidler
```

[← Life-line of freedom: The Merchant Marine](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/life-line-of-freedom-the-merchant-marine-1942/) [We Are United Nations: Unity Is Strength (Life wartime poster, part 12) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/life-we-are-united-nations-unity-is-strength-1942/)

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