With this timetable, New York Central reduced the 20th Century Limited‘s time from Chicago to New York to 15-1/2 hours, the fastest ever. The New York-to-Chicago time was 15-3/4 hours. The Chicago departure was moved from 3:30 to 4:00 pm, allowing the railroad to advertise that the train “leaves after business from Chicago” because 4:00 pm Standard time was 5:00 pm Daylight time, which was the time everyone but the railroads used. The railroad’s refusal to use Daylight time in its timetables must have confused many passengers, especially when in this case the Central used Daylight time in its advertising when it was convenient to do so.

Click image to download a 28.3-MB PDF of this 52-page timetable.

However, a phrase hidden in this ad hints at declining passenger patronage: “Step aboard” the 20th Century Limited, invites the ad, “at LaSalle Street Station any afternoon Sunday through Friday inclusive.” Saturday was excluded as with this timetable the Century became a six-day-a-week train. Elsewhere, the timetable notes that the train didn’t operate on major holidays such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. When the Century did operate, the Commodore Vanderbilt ran 30 minutes before the Century, but on Saturdays and holidays the Vanderbilt operated on the Century‘s schedule. Continue reading →

Despite having potentially the fastest connections, Rock Island/Southern Pacific dropped out of the coast-to-coast through-car service by the end of 1951. In the Los Angeles market, that left the Santa Fe with the 20th Century/Chief connection and Union Pacific with New York Central trains connecting with the Los Angeles Limited.

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New York Central and Pennsylvania’s fastest trains could go from New York to Chicago in 15-1/2 hours. Santa Fe and Union Pacific’s fastest trains could go from Chicago to Los Angeles in 39-3/4 hours. Adding the two together (as the Pennsylvania did when it first proposed a coast-to-coast train in 1937) and it seems reasonable that coast-to-coast service could take under 57 hours — but not if the railroads used slower trains such as the Chief or Los Angeles Limited. Continue reading →

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.