Varney Air Transport  Lockheed 12A  NC18125     (c/n  1222)

                                    

                                        Clearly the attention of these spectators is on something more electrifying than the two Lockheed
                                        12As of Varney Air Transport on the apron here at Denver Airport.  I suspect that the occasion was
                                        a visit, to the airport, of a DC-3 or some such, and was probably taken in late 1936 or 1937.  The
                                        Lockheed 12A (the so-called Electra Junior) was first produced in 1936 as an enhancement to the
                                        earlier Lockheed 10 series.  For some strange reason it never made it as an airliner, although some
                                        130 were produced (almost as many as there were Electras).  The airlines never really took to them.
                                        In fact, only six were ever flown on revenue passenger services within the U.S.  Varney Air Transport
                                        was an exception and had four of them.    The main route of the airline was from Denver to El Paso,
                                        via Pueblo.