Pennsylvania Railroad October 1955 Timetable

Posted on by June 18, 2023
Reply

Railfan.net has more than 1,000 Pennsylvania Railroad timetables, but one not found there is the October 1955 edition. Fortunately, Ellery Goode has contributed scans of that timetable to Streamliner Memories.

Click image to download a 30.7-MB PDF of this timetable.

As with all Pennsylvania complete timetables from at least 1927 through 1967, the cover shown above is actually the back cover. The front cover of this edition urges people to take the Pennsy on their winter vacations “to lands of ski and snow,” meaning New England or other ski resorts; “sun and fun,” meaning Florida and the Gulf Coast; or to “cities large and gay,” which has a different meaning today than it would have had in 1955. Continue reading →

The Spirit of St. Louis

Posted on by June 18, 2023
Reply

When this brochure was published in 1949, the Pennsylvania had five trains a day between New York and St. Louis. Three had both coaches and sleepers: the American (which had through cars to Tulsa on the Frisco), the Penn-Texas (which had through cars to Tulsa San Antonio on the M-K-T and Missouri Pacific), and the St. Louisan. The route’s premiere trains were the all-coach Jeffersonian and the all-Pullman Spirit of St. Louis.

Click image to download an 3.6-MB PDF of this brochure.

This brochure (as well as the Liberty Limited and General brochures presented in the last two days) is filled with black-and-white drawings of car interiors. Oddly, one of the drawings in today’s brochure shows two men getting ready for bed in the bunk beds of a compartment while another shows two women ready for bed in the bunk beds of a bedroom, but none show a man and a women sleeping in the same room. Perhaps the suggestion of a heterosexual relationship, even within marriage, was just too controversial while homosexual relationships weren’t even worth considering. Continue reading →

The Liberty Limited

Posted on by June 18, 2023
2

In 1949, when this brochure was issued, the Pennsylvania had managed to close the time disadvantage it had from the B&O. From Washington to Chicago, the B&O’s route was 767 miles while the Pennsylvania’s was 837, but both the Capitol Limited and the Liberty Limited were able to make the trip in 20 hours.

Click image to download an 3.7-MB PDF of this brochure.

The Capitol Limited still had a slight advantage in prestige as it was an all-Pullman train, while the Liberty carried both Pullmans and coaches. B&O’s all-coach train, the Columbian, was combined with the Capitol Limited from New York to Washington, but the trains were separated in Washington and the Cap left and stayed about 10 minutes ahead of the Columbian all the way to Chicago. Continue reading →

The General

Posted on by June 27, 2023
Reply

The Pennsylvania had a dozen trains a day between New York and Chicago in 1929, declining to as few as eight during the Depression. In 1937, it added a new train, the General. A railroad with that many trains on a single route must have had a hard time coming up with evocative names for all of them; some other New York-Chicago trains had names like Commercial Express and Red Knight in 1929 and Golden Arrow and Valley Special in 1937. I imagine the name General was a reflection of the increasing militarization of the world in the late 1930s.

Click image to download an 4.8-MB PDF of this brochure.

The General was conceived as a no extra fare train that was almost as fast as the Broadway. As such, it may have been a major reason why the Broadway‘s ridership was so poor. In any case, when it was inaugurated, the General took 17-1/2 hours compared with the Broadway‘s 16-1/2. Continue reading →

Pennsylvania Railroad Trail Blazer

Posted on by June 27, 2023
4

If the all-Pullman Broadway Limited was a basket case before the war, the all-coach Trail Blazer was Pennsylvania’s success story. Inaugurated on July 28, 1939, the same day as New York Central’s all-coach Pacemaker, the Trail Blazer attracted 16 percent more passengers and earned 24 percent more revenue per train-mile in its first year than the Pacemaker. In its first year it also attracted 35 times as many passengers as the Broadway.


Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

The original eight-car train included a coach-baggage car, four full coaches, a kitchen-dormitory car, an entire car dedicated to dining, and a coach-observation-lounge car. These cars were rebuilt and streamlined in PRR’s own shops out of heavyweight cars. Externally, the train’s two-tone red and gold pinstripes and round-tail observation car made it nearly indistinguishable from its all-Pullman counterparts, while the Pacemaker initially used just ordinary heavyweight cars. Until 1948, the train was pulled by steam locomotives, often the Loewy-streamlined S-1 6-4-4-6 or the unstreamlined but no less impressive S-2 6-8-6. Continue reading →

The Fleet of Modernism

Posted on by June 18, 2023
3

In the mid-1930s, passenger service on the Pennsylvania Railroad was in trouble. The Pennsy was the largest railroad with the largest fleet of passenger trains in the world. Like all railroads, the Pennsylvania was hurt by the Depression, but as the nation was emerging from its economic doldrums, PRR was having a hard time competing against its rivals. In the New York-Chicago market, the 20th Century Limited consistently outperformed the Broadway, which carried an average of just 30 to 35 passengers per trip. In the Washington-Chicago market, B&O’s Capitol Limited was faster than the Pennsylvania’s Liberty Limited.

Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this brochure.

While western railroads were streamlining and Dieselizing, the staid Pennsylvania was reluctant to do either. This led it to particularly fall behind the B&O, which in 1938 purchased General Motors’ E unit locomotives — in my opinion, along with the Santa Fe E1s, the most beautiful and elegant passenger locomotives ever designed — to pull a heavyweight Capitol Limited that had been cosmetically streamlined by B&O shops. Continue reading →

Delaware & Hudson April 1955 Timetable

Posted on by June 18, 2023
1

The Delaware and Hudson was a bridge line, which page 10 of this timetable defines as “a railroad transporting large volumes of traffic as an intermediate carrier and acting as a connecting link or bridge between the originating and terminating lines.” While the PRR, NYC, CP, and CN were mainly east-west carriers, the D&H was a north-south line connecting with the Pennsy in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the New York Central in Schenectady; and the Canadian roads in Rouses Point, New York, just across the border from Lacolle, Quebec.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

Its main passenger service was the Albany-Montreal portions of two daily New York City-Montreal trains, the daylight Laurentian and the overnight Montreal Limited (with the Albany-New York City portions handled by the New York Central). From Rouses Point, the trains were handled by the Napierville Junction Railway, which happened to be owned by Delaware and Hudson. Continue reading →

New Haven October 1955 Timetable

Posted on by June 18, 2023
Reply

Although the McGinnis-era colors were red, black, and white, Patrick McGinnis must have also liked this shade of blue, which I would call cornflower blue. A similar blue was used by the Boston & Maine’s Talgo train that was delivered when McGinnis was running that railroad.

Click image to download a 29.8-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

Like the 1954 timetable, this one advertises trains direct from Boston to Florida. However, in 1955 Atlantic Coast Line eliminated the Vacationer in favor of the Florida Special. This actually benefitted Boston passengers as in 1955 they had a choice of three trains, the East Coast Champion to Miami, the West Coast Champion to Tampa, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, or the Silver Meteor, which served both Florida coasts. Continue reading →

New Haven April 1955 Timetable

Posted on by June 18, 2023
1

In 1954, Wall Street raider Patrick McGinnis took over the New Haven in a proxy fight. His brilliant plan was to save money by deferring maintenance and boost revenues by spending money (some of which went to his wife, an artist, whose main contribution was to select another artist) on a new corporate identity. He went to prison after being indicted for shady deals in 1961, the same year the New Haven went bankrupt, but in the meantime travelers were treated to this new logo.

Click image to download a 29.8-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

It is admittedly striking, but I prefer evocative logos such as mountain goats, beavers, maple leaves, and yin-yangs over alphabet logos such as the famous CN and Penn Central worms. Since New Haven’s previous logo was an alphabet logo as well, the only real complaint in this case is how McGinnis wrecked the railroad. Continue reading →

New Haven October 1954 Timetable

Posted on by June 18, 2023
1

Many travelers to Maine on the Boston & Maine, Maine Central, and Bangor & Aroostook would have started their journeys on the New Haven from New York City. I count thirteen trains a weekday from New York to New Haven, compared with 20 today on Amtrak. Most New Haven trains started from Grand Central Terminal, but a few started in Washington or Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Railroad, so they began their New Haven segment from Penn Station.

Click image to download a 26.7-MB PDF of this timetable contributed by Ellery Goode.

I count 19 New Haven trains a day from New York to Springfield. The timetable also shows six pages showing more than 100 trains a weekday from New York to New Haven, some of which continued on to Boston or Springfield but most of which terminated at New Haven. Other trains went to Cape Cod, Worcester, and many other cities. Continue reading →