by Noel Weaver
Even though I have stated more than once how bad Penn Central
passenger service was, actually, there were some things about it that
were better than things are now, for example:
New York - Chicago, Amtrak train 49 the Lake Shore takes 19 hours to go
from New York to Chicago where as the last Penn Central timetable of
March 3, 1971 shows train 61 making the same trip in 17 hours and 50
minutes and that train was called the "great steel fleet" by some of us
because it represented the remains of what the New York Central once
called its streamliners between the east and the midwest cities. There
were six trains between New York and Chicago, three via Buffalo and
three more via Pittsburgh. While some of these trains were pretty poor
trains with just a snack bar and a couple of old "rattle box" coaches, they
offered service that was much more convient to use. There were six trains in one direction and seven in the other direction between New York
and/or Philadelphia and Pittsburg compared with only one today. There
were five trains between Buffalo and New York compared with four today
and the running time end to end was somewhat faster especially west of
Albany. Actually, the New York Central made a pretty decent effort to
operate good service between New York - Albany and Buffalo because
they re-aligned the service in 1968 and along with that, took a fair number
of trains off in the process. In return for no major resistance from the
state, the Central ran the remaining trains on a set schedule like every
train out of GCT left at 30 minutes past the hour and a train to Albany
operated every two hours from 8:30 AM to 10:30 PM with five of these
trains continuing on to Buffalo. It was not until long after the Amtrak
start-up that the state and Amtrak got involved and the improvements
in this vital service took place A lot of improvements took place with the
passenger cars and the seats were fixed up, the AC worked, the cars
were painted and cleaned up and mechanically received needed attention
too. For some time after this, the New York State service had the very
best cars that Penn Central owned in their consists.
One could pretty count on a good trip at least between New York and
Buffalo, west of Buffalo was a different story.
OH and every train even the ones that just ran between Albany and New
York had a snack bar on it.
Noel Weaver
passenger service was, actually, there were some things about it that
were better than things are now, for example:
New York - Chicago, Amtrak train 49 the Lake Shore takes 19 hours to go
from New York to Chicago where as the last Penn Central timetable of
March 3, 1971 shows train 61 making the same trip in 17 hours and 50
minutes and that train was called the "great steel fleet" by some of us
because it represented the remains of what the New York Central once
called its streamliners between the east and the midwest cities. There
were six trains between New York and Chicago, three via Buffalo and
three more via Pittsburgh. While some of these trains were pretty poor
trains with just a snack bar and a couple of old "rattle box" coaches, they
offered service that was much more convient to use. There were six trains in one direction and seven in the other direction between New York
and/or Philadelphia and Pittsburg compared with only one today. There
were five trains between Buffalo and New York compared with four today
and the running time end to end was somewhat faster especially west of
Albany. Actually, the New York Central made a pretty decent effort to
operate good service between New York - Albany and Buffalo because
they re-aligned the service in 1968 and along with that, took a fair number
of trains off in the process. In return for no major resistance from the
state, the Central ran the remaining trains on a set schedule like every
train out of GCT left at 30 minutes past the hour and a train to Albany
operated every two hours from 8:30 AM to 10:30 PM with five of these
trains continuing on to Buffalo. It was not until long after the Amtrak
start-up that the state and Amtrak got involved and the improvements
in this vital service took place A lot of improvements took place with the
passenger cars and the seats were fixed up, the AC worked, the cars
were painted and cleaned up and mechanically received needed attention
too. For some time after this, the New York State service had the very
best cars that Penn Central owned in their consists.
One could pretty count on a good trip at least between New York and
Buffalo, west of Buffalo was a different story.
OH and every train even the ones that just ran between Albany and New
York had a snack bar on it.
Noel Weaver