Within weeks of the end of World War II, New York Central placed the largest order for passenger cars in U.S. railroad history: 420 cars on top of 300 already under construction for the railroad. The December 15 1945 order included 200 sleeping cars from Pullman, 112 coaches and feature cars from Budd, and 108 baggage cars from American Car & Foundry. Including the 300 already on order, the total cost was $56 million — roughly a billion dollars today.

Click image to download a 29.5-MB PDF of this 52-page timetable.

One of the results can be seen in the full-page ad on the front cover of this timetable (the back cover being shown above): a Budd-built, stainless steel observation car at the end of a train of sleeping cars. The ad doesn’t say which train was in this ad, but it could have been any of dozens of overnight trains operated by the Central.