Chatham passenger trains on the Harlem in the 60s

I understand there was a period in the early 60s when at least some of the Chatham trains were reduced to RDC connections. Can somebody provide details about what trains and what years? I am not referring to the Pawling and Dover shuttle trains, only those that ran to Chatham.

My riding on the Harlem began in Sept. 1964, and I seem to recall they were all through trains then.

Tom:
You just missed the Beeliners. They ran between Brewster and Chatham from April 26, 1964 until the timetable change in September 1964. They were discontinued because of inadequate seating capacity. The trains that saw the Beeliners were #917 (Saturday only), #921 (Mon-Thurs.) and #925 (Friday only)...all northbound. The south bound beeliner was train #912 (Mon-Sat.). Sunday trains were not replaced by Beeliners. My source is the NYC RR Hudson and NY Terminal Division employee timetable #15 dated April 26, 1964. It appears that a change of trains was necessary at Brewster for passengers to and from GCT.

Thank you for the info. I don't have my train nos. handy, but I presume:

#917 (Saturday only) was the job that left GCT early afternoon,
#921 (Mon-Thurs.) was the regular daily afternoon northbound,
#925 (Friday only) was the second "up" train on Friday evenings,
#912 (Mon-Sat.). was the southbound morning train out of Chatham.

I guess I did "just miss this" experiment. The earliest Chatham passenger TT I have is the one issued right after this!!

Tom:
Your assumptions are correct, however the Chatham RDCs appear to have been connections at Brewster and they apparently never ran thru to GCT. At this time, the NYC was trying to dump passenger service north of Millerton. I'll be happy to xerox and send you the pertinent pages from my employee timetable that show the RDCs, if you want. A public timetable for the summer of '64 would probably resolve the matter since the Central's timetables clearly indicated connecting trains at Brewster. I don't think the Harlem RDCs ran to CGT until a year or so later when the off-peak Brewster - GCT trains were replaced by RDCs that were coupled onto electrics (MUs ?) at North White and towed into GCT. By then, the Chatham service was back to conventional trains. Hope this helps.

I didnt know RDC's ran all the way to Chatham... I always thought service was with conventional trains...

-otto-

The passenger train service to/from Chatham had an interesting history
but I will only go back to the late 1950's on here.
During 1958, there were two through trains each way between New York
and Chatham with extra service on weekends.
With the timetable of April 30, 1961 the service was reduced to one round
trip every day and an addition train to Chatham Friday evening and an
additional train from Chatham on Sunday PM. All of this service was again
through trains. This service changed very little right through to the end of
service which came months after the start up of Amtrak, it finally ended on Monday, March 20, 1972 when a court order was lifted and Penn Central abolished the trains in the middle of the day. They got the people
to New York but they would not take them back up in the evening. Penn
Central was quoted as saying "we don't care how they get home".
On April 29, 1962, Budd Cars were substituted for most of the train
service between Brewster - Pawling - Dover Plains with a change required
at Brewster.
The timetable of April 26, 1964 changed the makeup of the Chatham
trains and to Chatham Monday through Thursday a change at Brewster to
a Budd Car was necessary. The second train on Friday also required a
change at Brewster to a Budd Car as did the Saturday train. This left one
train on Friday and the Sunday trains as through standard equipment.
From Chatham to New York the Monday through Saturday train was a
Budd Car to Brewster and change while both trains on Sunday were
standard equipment through from Chatham to New York.
The use of Budd Cars to Chatham did not last very long and indeed may
have only lasted for a few days. A new timetable was issued on July 1,
1964 which shows all of the Chatham trains returning to standard
equipment running through.
Incidentally there were four round trips on this line all of the way to
Chatham all through WW-2 and dining/lounge cars also lasted well into the
late 1950's. These dining cars were not shown in the N.Y.C. system
timetable but were shown in the Harlem Division Local Timetables of the
period.
For quite some time long distance 2600 class coaches were also used on
these trains to Chatham.
It was a wonderful ride.
A really neat circle trip was possible much of the time by taking New Haven tran no. 138 from New York to Pittsfield, B. & A. train 405 to
Chatham, break for lunch and either one of the PM trains back to New
York.
One last thing, there was an excellent book done in 1989 called "The
Coming of the New York and Harlem Railroad" written by Louis V. Grogan.
I do not know if this book is still in print or not but it is well worth the
price and I highly recommend it.
Noel Weaver

Russ, I will certainly take you up on that gracious offer to copy the TT pages from April 1964 that show Chatham connections at Brewster. My own employee TT from that era is 1966, and of course by then everything was back to "normal."

If you contact me off-forum at [email protected], I'll send you my mailing address.

Thanks again, look fwd. to hearing from you.