Dave, here are the names of the 14-4’s.
Allyns Point, Beaver Tail Point, Black Point, City Point, Cornfield Point, East Point, Goshen Point, Gull Point, India Point, Long Point, Lookout Point, Lords Point, Manomet Point, Mishaum Point, Monomoy Point, Morgan Point, Napatree Point, North Point, Pond Point, Quonset Point [not Hut[:)]], Race Point, Rocky Point, Roton Point, Sandy Point, Shippan Point, Stratford Point, Wilson Point.
The first one was numbered 500; the last one was 526.
Dave, here are the names of the 14-4’s.
Allyns Point, Beaver Tail Point, Black Point, City Point, Cornfield Point, East Point, Goshen Point, Gull Point, India Point, Long Point, Lookout Point, Lords Point, Manomet Point, Mishaum Point, Monomoy Point, Morgan Point, Napatree Point, North Point, Pond Point, Quonset Point [not Hut[:)]], Race Point, Rocky Point, Roton Point, Sandy Point, Shippan Point, Stratford Point, Wilson Point.
The first one was numbered 500; the last one was 526.
Those were the cars that I rode most frequently on the Owl and on the Federal. I think they all got the orange stripe during the McGinnis era. I wonder if any have survived? Or any of the post-WWII NH sleepers?
At times the buffet lounge on both the Federal and the Montrealer was a PRR car. More often on the Federal. The Owl did not carry one except when it was combined with the State of Maine in Providence, during the last years of the State of Maine. The Owl was, however, all Pullman until the Narraganset was dropped and its coaches added to the Owl, with added stops/
Both the Owl and the Federal had a drop-pickup Providence sleeper. The Owl’s was discontinued before the Federal’s.
I’ve seen quite a few pictures of the New Haven’s sleepers in the McGinnis era, and in all of them the 6-4-6 Beach Series and 6DB-Lounge State-series cars have an orange window stripe, while the 14-4 Point-series cars are all stainless steel with no striping. Not sure what the reason was for the difference.
The B&M cars named Dartmouth College I & II for the WRJ set out sleeper were originally part of the B&M’s group of four “Beach” series cars. LA-based PV “Salisbury Beach” is the only one still in operation. These cars became available in the early '60’s after the State of Maine and Gull were discontinued. They were sold to CN in 1965.
Kevin Holland’s excellent book “Passenger Trains of Northern New England in the Streamlined Era” has a color photo of the Montrealer crossing on a trestle near Swanton, VT. in 1966. The consist is two CV GP-9s, a CN RPO, Southern heavyweight baggage car, New Haven 8600-series coach, CN coach, NH sleeper-lounge, NH 14-4 sleeper and one of CN’s ex B&M or BAR streamlined 6-4-6 sleepers.
Dave
Thanks. An 8600 on the Montrealer was unusual. Most of the time it was one of the American Flyer former grill cars that were rebuilt with 8600 series interiors.
“Bob LeMassena, 90, full-time volunteer of Colorado Railroad Museum, at the museum in Golden… Chinese have uncovered a 105 year old steam locomotive in a riverbed in China. They are asking the rail museum in the US to help them identify it. LeMassena came through for them.” Denver Post, April 18, 2005
http://www.foothillsfuneral.com/obituary/2312572
September 15, 1974
Dear Mr. LeMassena:
Through the kind courtesy of Dave Morgan, I have only this weekend received a copy of Trains Magazine for May 1972. I had asked Dave for the copy, because I had see
Thanks so much for all this. I remember that issue very well…must have read it ten times over the years. So good and rich with history.
In a timely event Amtrak is supposed to have operated a St. Albans-Montreal test train today to verify the upgrades done by NECR since 2013. Equipment came up on yesterday’s 56. Vermont is committed to extending the Vermonter at least to Montreal, if not resurrecting the Montrealer.
rcdrye- Now that is really terrific news. Good for Vermont.
Hope our Shiny Pony Prime Minister has not put a damper on the enthusiam after his latest absurd caper.
The article states that before AC catenary was extended from Trenton to Sunnyside, the swap between PRR DD! third-rail power and New Haven electrics took place at Penn Station, implying that the New Haven electrics had third rail shoes that could be used on overruning LIRR third rail as well as New York Central underrunning.
I had thought this to be the case, but was corrected that the swap took place, the engine change, at Harold Tower, and that the New Haven electrics did not enter Penn until they could use catenary.
Which or some of each?
My memory is firm that Washington Union Station’s steam switcher locomotives were all 0-6-0 standard PRR B-6s with slope-back tenders, labeled for Washington Union Terminal. Massena wrote 0-8-0’s. Were 0-8-0’s used?
I’m pretty sure that Washington Terminal had three C-1 0-8-0’s.
And how many 0-6-0’s?
Since there’s already a lot about my father on this thread, excerpt from 1970 AP article. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SCS19700623.1.17 The Broadway Limited: Old and worn but comfortable, it can take travelers out of New York in late afternoon and have them in Chicago early the next morning in time for a full day of business. The $90 fare, including pullman charges, is about the same as the cost of flying out that afternoon and getting a hotel room. Yet the Broadway on a recent trip had only 10 per cent occupancy, according to a steward. Porters were idling in empty sleepers. “These trains are the best kept secret in the world,” said Joe MacDonald, one of the few passengers aboard. “There’s just no effective merchandising.” MacDonald, a buyer for Continental Can, travels 50,000 miles a year by rail. He has a standing bet with everyone in his New York office that he can spend less business time traveling by train than they can by flying. Nobody has collected yet, he says. But MacDonald says the girl in his New York office who makes 30,000 reservations a year for the company won’t handle his itinerary. He says she tells him: “If you want to go by train, I don’t have time to fool with it, please do it yourself.”
Thats quite the excerpt and very telling…first realization is the price of things before the oil crisis and second stunner is how far passenger service by 1970 had been abandoned and out of the minds of the public. 10% occupancy on the Broadway, the office gal refusing to book travel for the salesman and all by 1970 clearly demonstrates the success of the effort to rid us all of this relic from the past.
As Trains asked back then " Who shot the passenger train".
Those prices don’t reflect oil price shock except peripherally; you’re seeing the consequence of Nixon abandoning Bretton Woods and letting the dollar float.
Excerpt from Congressional Record
HEARINGS BEFORE THE SURFACE TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, UNITED STATES SENATE …ON NOMINATIONS OF JUNE 6, 1974. MARY J. HEAD, CHARLES LUNA, JOSEPH MacDONALD, GERALD P. MORGAN, AND EDWARD L. ULLMAN, TO BE MEMBERS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORP.
Senator HARTKE. …I understood the Amtrak Board was supposed to function not as the handmaiden of the Department of Transportation, the Office of Management and Budget, or even as an arm of the Congress. We want you to do a good job, but we want you to do it with the freedom to act. Because of the fact that we have 5 nominees to consider this afternoon, I am going to ask all of you to sit together as a panel at the witness table; there are several questions I would like to ask the group as a whole, and I would like to have you answer in turn. I want you to feel free, and to be as frank as you can in your answers. We will try to keep this hearing as brief as possible, and yet cover the materials that are necessary to be covered. If the five will please come forward. Ladies and gentlemen, I first want to ask all the nominees whether they feel they are going to have the requisite time to devote to their Board duties. Because of the greatly increased needs for Amtrak service, I would not at all be surprised to see several meetings of this Board each month. Furthermore, the issues to be faced by this Board will be more difficult ones than were faced in the past, which means each Board member will have to do more homework in order to be prepared. In other words, these are not pro forma positions merely to insert in a list of your Who’s Who applications or biography. I wonder if you are going to have the time needed. I wi
Excerpt from Congressional Record
Statement of Sen. George B. Aiken…It is a pleasure to introduce to you Joseph MacDonald today. I support the Presidents nomination of Joe MacDonald as one of the three consumer representatives for the Amtrak Board of Directors. Mr. MacDonald is a member of an old railroad family. I believe he has done more for eastern transportation than anyone else in recent times. Joe MacDonald was honored in 1972 by the New England Governors Conference which gave him his public service award in recognition of his effort which led to the 1972 Amtrak decision to route the Montrealer through New England and Vermont when it was re-established in international rail passenger service between Montreal and Washington. The latest report shows that service in this train has increased 43 percent over the last year and it has the best record of running on time of any Amtrak train. Only a shortage of equipment has prevented the Montrealer from showing a much better record. Joe’s interest in railroads began in his elementary and secondary years when he worked part-time for the Central Vermont Railway. During college days, he organized special passenger train service for his classmates. He has shown interest in rail service all his life. I believe he will ably represent the consumer as an Amtrak director. His resume and a longer statement have been given to the committee for the record.
Biographical Sketch of Joseph V. MacDonald
Born at: St. Albans, Vermont, October 13, 1914. (St. Albans is called the “Railroad City” in Vermont). Parents: The late Joseph A. MacDonald, native of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, locomotive engineer on the Central Vermont Railwa
Terrific read…thats your Dad, right?
Sure hope you were one of the 7 out of 10 that got to go on those Transcontinental trips!
Yup. 1960 NY-LA-SF, westbound UP Challenger, eastbound California Zephyr.
Amtrak named a couple of ex-UP 10-6 sleepers after Joseph MacDonald and his wife. They were used up to the end of Montrealer service in 1995.
