The cover shown below is the back cover, while the front cover advertises that Delaware and Hudson had “the fastest train” and “the shortest route” between New York and Montreal. In fact, it had two trains in 1953, the overnight Montreal Limited and the daylight Laurentian.

Click image to download a 6.7-MB PDF of this 12-page timetable.

The Montreal Limited was the fast one, taking a little over nine hours each way while the Laurentian took ten. Usually day trains are faster because overnight passengers are less anxious to arrive quickly, but the Laurentian made quite a few more stops (presumably because local travelers would rather depart or arrive during daytime hours than late at night) than the Limited.

The trains followed the New York Central from Grand Central Terminal to Albany and the D&H from Albany to Montreal. The timetable shows the last few miles going over the “N.J. Ry.” meaning the Napierville Junction Railway, but that was a wholly owned subsidiary of Delaware and Hudson.

D&H operated other trains in the corridor. Number 7 & 8 went to Rouses Point, New York, the last stop before crossing into Canada. It included a sleeping car to Plattsburg, partly for the benefit of students at the clumsily named State University of New York College at Plattsburg (later the “college” was removed).

The timetable shows that train 1 also went to Rouses Point, but its counterpart train 2 started its southbound journey at Plattsburg. The equipment must have returned from Rouses Point to Plattsburg on some other train. Train 3 & 4 only went as far as Whitehall, not quite halfway to Plattsburg. Finally, train 40 & 41 went to Saratoga Springs, which was about halfway to Whitehall.

The timetable also shows a train from Albany to Binghamton and one from Fort Edward (which is between Saratoga Springs and Whitehall) to Lake George. It also says the D&H once offered a train from Saratoga Springs to North Creek, but it was “discontinued until June 18, 1955,” meaning it was a summer-only train.