I remember being angry when I saw it in the original run. I didn’t like the Playboy mocking review of Trains Magazine or ‘I’m Melvin, run me to Chicago’ either. But then again, I hadn’t had much experience with foamers then…
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I suggest you start on PDF page 8 here, to get an idea of what your choices Chicago to SF were in 1925
Then on PDF pages 15, 16 and 21 you can see what stops each train made. This route, UP to SP, is the first route that comes to mind west of Chicago. East of Chicago there were more choices of route – one possibility was
PDF page 3 shows the numerous trains on PRR to Chicago, and later pages in that timetable show stops for each one.
If you’d like help with the timetables, speak up.
Might as well look this over
In the 1920s, a 20-hour train like the Broadway cost $42.30 NY to Chicago. That’s just the transportation cost – the bed to sleep in adds to that. Same fare on the 20th Century Limited.
The long list of amenities (to use the modern term) just applied to those top top trains.
Eventually you might want to look around in a 1926 Guide
We can escort you around it if you like – it’s probably too dense for you at this point.
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“Shunting” is British English for “Switching”. A small engine that we would call a switcher is called a ‘shunter’. Hence the “Shunte” name.
Michael Palin, who I believe wrote the sketch (most likely with Terry Jones, who plays Mr. Shunte), is a life-long railway enthusiast, going back to being a trainspotter as a kid, so was essentially poking fun at himself in the sketch.
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IIRC for a while in the 1920s or 30s, you could take the Pennsy from NYC to St. Louis, then take an airliner to Denver or someplace in Colorado, and then board another train to the coast? It was an arrangement PRR made with the airline to do a joint service.
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The Official Guide has a wealth of information. The layout in the site makes it difficult to find an specific railroad or route you may be thinking about.
I did find the B&O and while the Primer Train names are the same - looking at the consists of equipment for the trains has them doing a lot of switching cars into and out of the trains at various locations. In the case of the Capitol Limited the diner is switched into and out of the train at intermediate locations.
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I disagree that the “first” stop for a crew change would be 406 miles away in Buffalo. Amtrak now has two crew changes, Albany and Syracuse. Back in the twenties I would guess that there were at least that many crew changes. 150 miles +/- would have been about the longest a crew would run.
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I don’t know NYC specifics, however, on the B&O the run districts for Conductors and Engineers in passenger service were sometimes different.
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NYC trains did not run from GCT to Buffalo without a crew change.
To begin with, the first crew change was at Harmon, where the electric locomotives would be exchanged for steam. The next crew change was at Albany. I’ll wager the next was at Syracuse and then at Buffalo, but I’m not sure.
Edward Hungerford in The Run of the Twentieth Century (1930) confirms the crew change at Albany. This book is a great read for any railfan and is easily found or borrowed. It would also be a good book to consult for anyone writing about the subject.
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From Buffalo west crew changes would be at Cleveland,Toledo, and Elkhart. Since this is before the modern Cleveland Union Terminal opened (1929) the Cleveland crew change would be at the lakefront Union Station. The Harmon-Albany-Syracuse-Buffalo-Cleveland-Toledo-Elkhart-Chicago crew districts work out to 95-120 miles each, very common at the time. NYC might have negotiated extended crew districts for the Century and one or two other trains, but there’s no strong evidence that they did.
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Hudson Division south of Albany, Mohawk Division Albany to Syracuse, then Syracuse Division to the Buffalo outskirts
How often did engine crews cross division borders? (Wasn’t unheard of – PRR engineers ran Manhattan Tfr to Philadelphia, if not farther.)
And yeah, the conductor and brakemen might well have run farther than the engine crew.
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They had the Chief and California Limited..of which a portion went to Richmond..which is a ferry ride to San Francisco.
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In Stauffer & May’s “Thoroughbreds” book, they describe a typical day for engineer Bob Butterfield in the 1930s. He would run the 20th Century from Harmon to Albany in about 2 hours, have an hour wait, then run the Empire State Express back to Harmon, again taking about 2 hours.
Due to the high pay rate of the run, he could only do that two days in a row, then had to take a day off.
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I can understand why the engine crew would change at Harmon with the change of engines from electric to steam, but why would the passenger car crew change?
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Often passenger engine crews would change at nearly the same terminals or terminal areas as freight crews. Passenger trainmen often had interdivisional runs, usually two normal freight districts. Depends on local conditions and agreements, etc.
Enginemen in both freight and passenger service and freight trainmen had a basic day of 100 miles. Passenger trainmen had a basic day of 150 miles.
Jeff
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Plus remember Pullman conductor, porters and others working in Pullman cars worked for Pullman, not the railroad, so had their own employment rules to follow.
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Until at least the 1930s, a Pullman Conductor’s crew district was the length of the Pullman “Line”, in this case New York-Chicago, or Chicago-West Coast. Pullman Lines that involved cars that moved from one train to another might have their own Conductors, or the Conductor on the arriving train would hand off the cars to the Conductor on the departing train. Porters stayed with their cars until the run was completed.
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Wasn’t it 160 miles? 20 mph average instead of 12-1/2?
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I would expect that at Harmon only the engine crew would change with the change in power. I would expect the train crew to work between GCT and Albany or some point West of Albany. I feature the electric engine crews stayed with electric service.
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I have trainmen’s schedules for Rock Island (various years), CB&Q 1952 and CNW for 1959. All have a 150 mile basic day, something that would’ve been in the national agreements.
I did see in the schedules an overtime rate of 20 mph for some types of passenger service.
Jeff
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