20th Century Limited in Cleveland

In its salad days, I always thought the 20th Century Limited by-passed Cleveland using Lake front trackage. However, postings in another web-site suggest that the 2nd (and possibly other) sections of the 20th Century did indeed stop at Terminal Tower to pick-up and discharge passengers. Is there any documented proof of this occurance?

All sections of the Century (Trains Nos. 25 & 26) stopped in Cleveland only for a crew change, servicing, and mail relay at Collinwood.

In steam days, the time lost for 2 engine changes and running via CUT was prohibitive, and in both directions the trains were late at night.

Cleveland had #'s 57 & 58 (Cleveland Limited) which provided all-Pullman service to / from New York City as well as numerous other trains which also provided service.

For a very brief period c. 1965-66, the eastbound Century did run via CUT to handle mail, but the loss of time was too much and the train resumed running via the Lakefront Line.

Hope this helps.

During my short time as Asst. Track Supervisor at Collinwood, March - June 1966, 25, 26 (the Century) and 27 (New England States) ran via the Lakefront. 28 (NE States) ran through the Terminal. Tracks 1 and 2 on the Lakefront were therefore passenger mains, and an official of the Lake Division Track Dept. had to ride the rear of a passenger train over them once every week (or two). It was mostly deadhead time, because the west end of the Lake Division was BE at Berea, and there were no stops between Cleveland and Toledo.

I usually paired off with our Division Engineer of Track, driving with him to Toledo to catch 26, and then picking him up at Collinwood. That was the only eastward passenger train on the Lakefront, so he had to ride the rear of the obs. Tough duty, but it ate into my supper time. Gary got to eat in the diner on 26. No. 4 (Mail and Express) was the other eastward first-class train on the Lakefront, but he spent an hour or so at the mail hall around 3.00 a.m. and that was not really desirable. He didn't have a diner, either.

We usually used 27 the other way, because it was just easier during the VERY early morning hours. No worry about getting into the observation car at 3:30 a.m. - there was none.

One Saturday morning I had to go to a meeting in Toledo, and I rode out on 201 from the Terminal with John Thompson, our Track Supervisor at Linndale and a real, true great guy to work with. We were standing out on the rear platform across the Cuyahoga River Bridge and through Linndale, but then we started picking up speed and the moving air commenced to become uncomfortable. John suggested that we might be better off inside the door looking out, and I agreed. Just as we closed the vestibule door behind us, one of our passengers flushed the hopper in the car ahead and we were treated to the sight and sound of "Splat, Splat, Splat" on the window of the vestibule door. John just looked at me, grinning, and said, "That was good timing, eh?"

Slightly off topic: Someone tried to tell me that 25 and 26 didn't carry working RPOs, just storage mail... was this true?

They had working RPOs at the end---- I still have the "letter to myself" handed to the RPO clerk on the n. end of Track 34 at GCT, just before departure. It has an RPO cancellation.

Seems to me they had working RPOs at least as far back as the original streamlined trainsets in 1938.

There were four full length RPO cars, NYC 5017-5020, that were used for the Century. They were built by Pullman-Standard in 1938.