by Noel Weaver
I get into a “kick” when I re-read old stuff from my collection. Right now I have been going through my old New York Central 1001’s. For those who don’t know the New York Central issued a public timetable that while it did not show every train operated it did show basically just about every line operated and has lot of interesting stuff in it. Most commuter trains were not shown and the Putnam Division never warranted a listing of any sort. I have most of them from 1949 until the end and a few earlier issues as well, all provide a history of their superb passenger services through the years.
Here are some notes from the 1001 dated September 29, 1949, why did I pick this particular issue? I can’t give you an honest answer.
They devoted a full page plus promoting their passenger services, here is a quote”
“YOU GAIN IN WEATHER DEPENDABILITY!
Let storms sweep the skyways…or sleet glaze the highways., Day or night, the year around, you’re sure of your railroad travel plans. For you go weather or no…aboard New York Central’s streamliners and Dreamliners.”
They didn’t shut the railroad down because of a snow storm, ice storm or most any other storm either for that matter, they ran generally as scheduled.
Some more tibits from 1949:
Chicago to New York had 10 daily through trains
Chicago to Boston had 6 daily through trains
St. Louis to New York had 4 daily through trains
St. Louis to Boston had 2 daily through trains
Detroit to New York had 5 daily through trains
Detroit to Boston had 2 daily through trains
Cleveland to New York had 11 daily through trains
Cleveland to Boston had 5 daily through trains
Buffalo to New York had 16 daily through trains
Buffalo to Boston had 6 daily through trains
Buffalo to Albany had 15 daily through trains
Albany or Troy to New York had 23 daily trains
Albany to Boston had 8 daily through trains
Many trains made almost no scheduled intermediate stops so I did not include them in the above, for example if a train did not stop at Buffalo for passengers I did not include it in the above totals. There may be errors but it is simply amazing what existed at the time. Of course this predates interstate highways and jet planes but the Central was really after the passenger business and invested heavily in really good equipment through these years to steadily improve their already fine passenger operations.
Many of the through trains between New York and mid-west points had multiple sleepers, the consists would sometimes list 10-6 (bedrooms/roomettes) 3 cars or whatever number of sleepers of that particular type were normally assigned. Some of these trains also ran in two or more sections.
These 1001 folders also included the trains on the Harlem Division between New York and Chatham of which some continued on to North Adams, the River Line through trains between Weehawken and Albany plus the Catskill Mountain Branch to Oneonta and the above one also showed passenger trains (two each way daily) between Toledo, Ohio and Charleston, West Virginia with meal service of sorts on one of them. The Charleston trains went the following year but even after that they still ran a passenger train between Charleston and Hitop, WV, two round trips a day which went in to some remote country in backwoods West Virginia. I think these trains also acted as school buses. These trains lasted long enough to get an RDC assigned to them and I think the Central modified the RDC assigned to this service to 3 and 2 seating for increased capacity. Trains Magazine did an article on this many, many years ago. That will be my next research effort.
Hope I did not bore you all with this stuff.
Noel Weaver
Here are some notes from the 1001 dated September 29, 1949, why did I pick this particular issue? I can’t give you an honest answer.
They devoted a full page plus promoting their passenger services, here is a quote”
“YOU GAIN IN WEATHER DEPENDABILITY!
Let storms sweep the skyways…or sleet glaze the highways., Day or night, the year around, you’re sure of your railroad travel plans. For you go weather or no…aboard New York Central’s streamliners and Dreamliners.”
They didn’t shut the railroad down because of a snow storm, ice storm or most any other storm either for that matter, they ran generally as scheduled.
Some more tibits from 1949:
Chicago to New York had 10 daily through trains
Chicago to Boston had 6 daily through trains
St. Louis to New York had 4 daily through trains
St. Louis to Boston had 2 daily through trains
Detroit to New York had 5 daily through trains
Detroit to Boston had 2 daily through trains
Cleveland to New York had 11 daily through trains
Cleveland to Boston had 5 daily through trains
Buffalo to New York had 16 daily through trains
Buffalo to Boston had 6 daily through trains
Buffalo to Albany had 15 daily through trains
Albany or Troy to New York had 23 daily trains
Albany to Boston had 8 daily through trains
Many trains made almost no scheduled intermediate stops so I did not include them in the above, for example if a train did not stop at Buffalo for passengers I did not include it in the above totals. There may be errors but it is simply amazing what existed at the time. Of course this predates interstate highways and jet planes but the Central was really after the passenger business and invested heavily in really good equipment through these years to steadily improve their already fine passenger operations.
Many of the through trains between New York and mid-west points had multiple sleepers, the consists would sometimes list 10-6 (bedrooms/roomettes) 3 cars or whatever number of sleepers of that particular type were normally assigned. Some of these trains also ran in two or more sections.
These 1001 folders also included the trains on the Harlem Division between New York and Chatham of which some continued on to North Adams, the River Line through trains between Weehawken and Albany plus the Catskill Mountain Branch to Oneonta and the above one also showed passenger trains (two each way daily) between Toledo, Ohio and Charleston, West Virginia with meal service of sorts on one of them. The Charleston trains went the following year but even after that they still ran a passenger train between Charleston and Hitop, WV, two round trips a day which went in to some remote country in backwoods West Virginia. I think these trains also acted as school buses. These trains lasted long enough to get an RDC assigned to them and I think the Central modified the RDC assigned to this service to 3 and 2 seating for increased capacity. Trains Magazine did an article on this many, many years ago. That will be my next research effort.
Hope I did not bore you all with this stuff.
Noel Weaver