I’m feelings curious about passenger trains, and have a hankering to learn more about the more obscure ones. So, tell us a little about your favorite streamliners, commuter runs, mixed trains, or anything that carried or carries passengers that isn’t as famous as trains like the Super Chief, The Canadian, and the Broadway and 20th Century Limiteds.
Great idea for a thread. I never rode the DOLLY from Burlington IA to Galva IL. I would like to know more about this train.
The Dolly Varden was a familiar personality as she made her daily rounds from Burlington to Oquawaka, Ill., and then continuing to the Illinois towns of Keithsburg, New Boston, Joy, Aledo then on to Galva with stops at Gilchrist, Viola, New Windsor, Alpha, Woodhull and Nekoma. The “Dolly” was a branchline train that linked many of the small communities of west-central Illinois and for 84 years, her comings and goings became part of the fabric of these towns. Steam was replaced around 1926 with gasoline and then a gasoline/electric similar to this one.
This is only pic I have of the dolly
Considering where I grew up, all the passenger trains through my neighborhood were relatively unknown. My favorite would be the “Lake Cities”, which operated on EL between Hoboken and Chicago, making its last runs in January 1970. On the west end of EL, it usually was down to two coaches and a diner, supplemented with about 7-10 cars worth of mail. The mail contract was terminated about 1968, leaving a short train of 2 E8A’s, two head-end, and two coaches. The diner was turned at Huntington IN. It probably lasted as long as it did because it served most of the smaller towns in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania that the airlines didn’t serve.
My favorite, comparatively insignificant among the plethora of passenger schedules run in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, was a DMU (Japanese RDC) train (actually a whole series of trains, on fairly short headway) that ran from Hachioji to Takasaki. At the time (early 1960’s) it ran through comparatively undeveloped countryside, meeting other DMU sets and the occasional steam powered freight and passing interchange points with two private railways and a JNR branch. The best part was that, as a passenger, I could stand at the windowed bulkhead between the passenger space and the driver’s compartment, giving me a head-end view through the front wraparound windshield.
The most interesting feature of the railroad was a “Lionel tunnel” about 150 meters long. A shallow cut directly in line with the main runway at Yokota AB had been roofed (think large concrete culvert) and bermed over - a “hump” about 6 meters tall in otherwise perfectly flat ground.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Mine was the E&N Dayliner. Nice day trip from Victoria to Courtney return. Wish it also did the Port Albernie side as well but oh well… Oh, VIA still runs this.
Another good one was BC Rail’s run from North Van to Prince George. Very nice trip.
My favorite pass. train I really want to learn some history on is the old south shore line How. Far it ran and when it went out of service. Also when the tracks were pulled up.
If you mean the South Shore interurban that runs between Chicago and South Bend IN. it is stilll in operation.The old orange cars were replaced with new equipment in 1983.The eastern terminal is now the South Bend airport.
The only unknown passenger trains I have ridden were the Amtrak Lake Cities,from Toledo to Chicago via Detroit, and the River Cities connection to the City of New Orleans.This train ran from St.Louis to a connection with the C. of N.O.at Centrailia IL.I also rode the train from Boston to New Haven via Springfield.
Two of my favorites were both on the Reading. I used to ride the King Coal from Philadelphia to Shamokin to visit relatives. It was a nice ride behind a trainmaster or RS3s, and sometimes AS16s.
The other was The Wall Street, which followed the Crusader from Philly to New York. To me it was a much nicer ride to New York than the Pennsy. And when you got to Jersey City you got a ferry ride over the Hudson. The Wall Street generally had FP7s. In the 1970s I was employed by American Cyanamid at Bound Brook NJ. I could have used the Wall Street to commute from Philly as the train would stop at the plant and let several people off, even though it was not a scheduled stop (the Bound Brook station was about a mile away). The return Wall Street also stopped at the plant to pick the same people up. By that time the train was operated with RDCs.
As a fan of the old New York Central, I think the ride on the current commuter line going up the old NYC mainline on the east bank of the Hudson to Poughkeepsie is a great deal. At the time I rode it (10 years ago) I think the 75 mi. round trip cost about $16-17. Start at Grand Central, get to see a lot of New York, the beautiful Hudson River, West Point, SingSing, etc.
Best to do it on the weekend of course when traffic is light!!
Smooth track even at 90MPH