Frequency of stops on the 20th Century Limited

Maybe I should've started a new topic but, when the Century went through Cleveland on the lakeshore route, was that considered the main line or was the CUT route the main line?

Timetable no. 21 of April 30, 1967 shows the main line running on the
Lake Front while Cleveland Union Terminal was on the CUT Branch.
Noel Weaver

The EB and WB 20th Century never went through Pittsburgh, Pa. It was a strictly Water Level Route train.

IIRC from the 1965 NYC TT, the westbound Century stopped at Syracuse to let off passengers only(and crew change). It then departed at 2256 hrs. Used to go out to Belle Isle to watch it at 2310 hrs. Even then, it was rarely late.

In Cleveland, virtually all NYC passenger trains went via the CUT route, stopping at both East Cleveland and the Union Terminal. The Century was the principal exception, which ran over the original LS&MS rain line along the lakefront, changing crews at Collinwood and exchanging first-class mail there with a shuttle run from CUT.

The lakefront line was always considered NYC's main line through Cleveland, but much freight traffic was diverted around Cleveland's south side on the Cleveland Short Line (or Belt Line) because of congestion and delays in the area of the Cuyahoga River drawbridge. Some freight traffic was also routed lakefront-Big Four via Linndale to avoid the drawbridge.

Under various timetables, the following bypassed CUT: (#'s) 1&2 Pacemaker; 15 & 16 Ohio State Limited; 25 & 26 20th Century Limited;
27 & 28 New England States; 59 & 90 Chicagoan; #65, 66 & 67 Commodore Vanderbilt; also Water Level Limited, Lake Shore Limited, and Advance Commodore Vanderbilt.

Prior to the completion of the present Bridge #1 (double-track horizontal lift) about 1959, the bridge over the Cuyahoga River was a gauntlet-tracked center-pivot swing span. West to East there was the junction of the PRR Ore Dock (Whiskey Island) Leads, the west gauntlet, the bridge, the east gauntlet, the junction with the PRR main tracks which went to the North Side, the west Big Four Wye, the Big Four Coal Dock Lead which crossed both the LS&MS and the PRR mains, the east Big Four Wye, the
Lake Front Union Depot entry and exit on the South Side, the diamonds with the PRR / LS&MS crossing under the W. 3rd St. Bridge, and the west end of the E. 26th St. Yard on both sides of the mains (roundhouse was on the south side. In the early 1950's, the Parcel Post Annex was constructed on the north side on the site of the PRR and Big Four coal Docks.

None of this was interlocked, and there were about 7 or 8 switchtender positions which worked 24/7.

The Cleveland Short Line was constructed 1910 / 1912 to relieve the tremendous congestion on the Lake Front (This was prior to the opening of CUT in 1930). Even after CUT opened, there were still over 100 train movements a day on this part of the lakefront, another 50 to 60 via the Short Line, and over 100 movements to /from CUT (including those of the tenant lines). Used to be a swinging place for train watching!!!

As Shel so well explained, before c. 1959, when the worst tangles were untangled, the Cleveland lakefront was generally chaos. The PRR had it particularly bad. Its main line from the SW -- which carried all ore traffic from the C&P Dock and returning empties -- crossed the NYC main at W. 3rd St. (called C&P Crossing), ran parallel to the NYC on its north side for roughly 30-40 carlengths, then joined the NYC to cross what was essentially a single-track bridge to reach the dock. This meant that PRR dock movements were limited in length and had to (1) await clearance at C&P Crossing, (2) cross and again await clearance on what I recall was a single track, (3) then finally cross the bridge.

Oh yeah...and during the Great Lakes shipping season, when all the ore and coal was moving, the old swing bridge was constantly swinging to pass the steady stream of bulk freighters going to and from the upriver steel mills and bulk materials terminals as well as the Erie ore dock.

C&P Crossing itself was a work of antique art. Both NYC and PRR tracks made "S" curves to negotiate the crossing, which was controlled by manually operated tiltboards.

The swing bridge was originally double-track, but at some point it was gantleted, as Shel mentioned, because of weight restrictions.

In all, it would have been quite a spot for trainwatching before CUT opened in 1930, with all NYC/Big Four and PRR passenger traffic as well as most of the freight movements. One wonders how it was ever kept fluid.

Back when the Century (and others) ran in sections, does anyone know if the first section would even bypass all the intermediate stops between Chgo and Grand Central, leaving a second, third or even fourth section to pickup/dropoff passengers???