Members’ first-hand passenger train experiences pre-Amtrak?
Not just “I rode the North Coast Limited, blah, blah” but more descriptions anecdotes, etc. Could include overseas but pre-1971.
I rode tre NYC -Florida trains a few times. They generally had two dining cars, numerous Pullman cars and lounge cars that were designed for sightseeing. The Atlantic Coast Line had the East Coast Champion to Miami (until the infamous 1961 strike using the FEC) and West coast Champion to several West Coast destinations. At Jacksonville, the various sections would add cars from the Chicago-Florida trains (either the South Wind or the City of Miami). They would make a back-up move at the station, which today is the convention center. The Atlantic Coast Line also used Union Pacific cars in the winter while the UP used ACL cars in the summer. In the winter, their 2 NYC trains were supplemented by the Florida Special, an extra fare train with extra amenities, which I never rode on. The ACL was double tracked to Jacksonville, though in the '60s they single-tracked it.
The rival Seaboard Airline had the Silver Meteor and Silver Star, which had separate Miami and St. Petersburg sections separated at Wildwood, FL. Their trains featured rounded observation cars at the end, with the Silver Meteor having a sleeper-lounge with wrap-around glass in the lounge part.
I remember in the middle of the night at either Florence (ACL) or Hamlet (SAL) workers with ball pean hammers would pound the wheels listening for air pockets.
For me LD journeys were 1956 overnight in coach on the NYC Pacemaker, hard to sleep; 1962 two nights on the CB&Q/DRG/WP California Zephyr, I think in a double bedroom shared with parents, spectacular scenery but hard to sleep; the Daylight SF to LA, also 1962, the Pacific Ocean looked cool to a teen; El Capitan three trips in 1962, fun in the lounge car playing cards; 1964-68, Panama Limited (once in the parlor car) and other IC trains Chicago to Champaign. Pretty fast but the student trains were disgustingly dirty with beer and vomit; 1968, CB&Q Morning and Afternoon Zephyrs, E. Dubuque- Chicago, dining car good: 1968 Flying Scotsman to York and the Rheinblitz, Freiburg-Mainz, fast.
I rode the Anatolian Express in Turkey in the spring of 1970. I was with two friends and we rode from Ankara to Izmit in coach. People thought two of us were nuts because we sat on opposite sides of the car with cameras ready and we kept an eye out for steam locomotives. If we saw one, we called out and the other guy bounced across the aisle.
Dinner in the diner was interesting. Since nobody spoke English, they asked us in French if we wanted to eat. One semester of high school French paid off. There was no menu. Everyone got the same food served in courses. They came later to the coach to collect.
The restrooms on the train were definitely Turkish. A hole in the floor with the tracks below plus a place to wash your hands. We always called them bombsights.
When we arrived in Izmit, we ran to the front to take a photo of the Alco that pulled us. Again strange stares.
1 Like
In the late 1950s, I rode the Union Pacific City of Portland to Tacoma, Washington. Two nights and two days on the train!
The most vivid memories:
– flushing the toilet and seeing the tracks rushing under the train
– my mother telling me what the little bowls of water on the table were for in the dining car
– walking between the cars where the floor was shifting and bumping.
1 Like
My first LD train ride was in the mid 1950s when I was about 5 years old on the New Haven and B&M from NY to Concord , NH.
Then in 1966 I was off to college and my parents sprung for a roomette for me for the overnight trip on the NYC from Harmon to Dayton, Ohio. My roomette was on the Hudson River side. As a budding college student I no longer saw the need to tuck my shirt tails in, but when I got to the dinning car, the steward pointed out that my shirt was not tucked in. At Christmas break, a NY student group would charter coaches from the PRR to New York. Of course it was sitting up all night, as were my subsequent trips back home. I followed this pattern until junior year when student half-fare airline flights became to hard to ignore.
I didn’t ride LD trains again until after Amtrak, and have since then ridden almost all of their (and VIA’s) LD trains.
2 Likes
When I was a little kid we took the train from Chicago to Los Angeles. It was around 1970. It was still the Santa Fe railroad. Before we boarded my grandfather and I walked up to the front of the train to check out the engines. There was one locomotive in the classic War Bonnet paint livery. Directly behind it was what my grandfather called engine cars or something like that, referring to the B unit helper locomotives. I remember standing next to them and could hear the motors running and feel the heat they were putting out.
We rode in a sleeper car. We were in it for 3 days and two nights. I remember the porter using a tool to open up the top bunk bed. It was pretty small but so was I. I think my sister slept up there too. A week later we did the return trip. The next time I would ride a train it would be Amtrak.
1 Like
My first solo train experience was a round-trip to Baltimore from Kent, Ohio as an 18 year old. By March, 1967 the B&O’s Washington Night Express was a shadow of its former self, but for a young railfan it opened the door to trains and travel by myself. The consist had two coaches, one a “food-bar coach,” of the type seemingly beloved by some here, and a 10-6 sleeper, with some head-end cars and a single E8 or whatever. I loved the ride.
I’ll never forget the fabulous sight of Pittsburgh at work at night! “Hell with the lid off!” indeed. The train went through a mill on the Monongahela River so closely that one could read inventory numbers on the boxes inside! Seeing the white capitol dome at 6 AM, and later wandering around inside by myself, thrilled this future history teacher. For the ride to Baltimore I rode behind a GG-1 on the PRR that seemed to accelerate like a rocket.
For the return on Sunday, I boarded a B&O Budd car at Camden Station, which exuded an air of history and long-ago events. The wooden floor boards creaked as I walked on them.
In Washington, the Chicago Night Express awaited; it was the same three-cars & baggage train. I didn’t know enough to bring food on board, so I had to use the “food-bar.” I remember I had a ham and cheese sandwich that was OK but expensive. There was no dining car atmosphere, which in later years I would come to enjoy very much. At Pittsburgh that evening a noisy bunch of KSU (!) fellow-students boarded and at least one had a guitar; many KSU kids traveled from homes in NJ, NY, & PA. They had us singing folk songs as we rode up to Newcastle and then headed west. Nevertheless, we were all quiet by the time we got off in Kent around 11:30 and then schlepped back to our dorms or frat/sorority houses.
The crewmen were not particularly friendly, there was no dining car, I had only a coach seat–but I had 4 memorable train rides and knew I wanted more!
2 Likes
Even though it’s not pre-Amtrak, we rode the last passenger train Southern RR ran in 1978. My fiancé and I rode to Atlanta, stayed several days, and then rode back on the last passenger train.
The train was full with everyone having a good time, including Southern RR employees who had been on the passenger run for many years. It was like a large going away party.
We asked the dining car waiter if there was anything we could take as a souvenir, and he said everything had to be accounted for. He let us have a menu:
3 Likes
I just recalled riding the overnight D&H train from GCT to Montreal in 1967 to visit Expo 67. Coach. Hard to sleep, especially as the attendant wheeled a snack car up and down the aisle shouting, “Ice cold Fresca!”
Fresca! I couldn’t figure out as a child why anyone would want a grapefruit-flavored soda. Now I can’t get enough of the stuff!
I grew up in Altoona, which was a crew change point for the PRR’s mainline fleet. An average of 38 passenger trains a day stopped in Altoona in 1957, which was the year I graduated from high school.
Our trips to the big cities, i.e. New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc. were by train. Between 1957 and 1971 I rode the Duquesne, Juniata, General/Trail Blazer, Manhattan Limited, and Spirit of St. Louis between Altoona and New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, or St. Louis.
Sometime prior to 1957 I rode the Aero Train from New York City to Altoona, but I do not remember the exact date.
The coaches on the premier trains were very comfortable: big windows, comfortable reclining seats with lots of leg room, overhead reading lights and large lounges at the ends of the car. If I remember correctly, they had 44 seats with overhead reading lights. The coaches on the Duquesne and Juniata were older cars. I believe they may have been P70s.
I spent three years on active duty in the Marine Corps following high school. I rode the East Coast Champion, City of Los Angeles, El Capitan, and Coast Daylight to new duty stations or on leave. When going to Altoona on leave, I connected with one of the PRR trains mentioned above.
The only business trip I took on an overnight train was on the Broadway Limited from New York to Chicago. I had a roomette. The bed pulled out of the wall, which made getting up in the middle of the night, if necessary, easier than doing so in a Superliner economy room. The train was spick and span. I remember the twin-unit dinning car and the squared off observation car at the end of the train. The dining car was staffed by a steward who greeted and led passengers to a table. I believe I had a steak; it must have been good. I ate every bite.
2 Likes
Was that after you had…?
1 Like
Some people were raised as military brats, I was raised as a railroad brat. Until I struck out on my own, our family, that started in Baltimore, had stops in Newark, OH; Auburn, IN; two locations in Pittsburgh, back to Baltimore then on to Garrett, IN on to Akron, OH thence Washington, IN and then back to Pittsburgh.
With all that, the primary ‘long trip’ transportation was the B&O on employee passes as Dad held various positions from Assistant Trainmaster to Assistant General Manager at his time of retirement.
Normal family travel was on the Capitol Limited when living in Garrett & Auburn and either the Shenandoah or the ‘Night Expresses’ when in Pittsburgh and by then Dad was high enough on the ladder to have a Pullman Pass, so we would normally have a Bedroom on whatever train we rode.
One time I can recall the family going from Garrett to Chicago on train #245 - the Wheeling to Chicago train that was still being operated with steam in the 1951-53 period of time. A drafty coach with snow making it through the loose fitting windows, along with the smell of burning coal.
NKP_guy mentioned the ‘Light Show’ put on by the steel mills that were clustered alongside both sides of the Monongahela River between P&LE Station in Pittsburgh and McKeesport. Today’s laser light shows have nothing on the show those mills put on after dark.
The Diner was always a treat as my Grandfather was Superintendent of the operation from 1937 until his retirement in 1957. The Stewards knew us and made sure we got the best service. Recall one trip back to Garrett when I was 5 or 6, I had been sick during our stay in Baltimore with relatives. Mom ordered a steak in deference to my desires, expecting there being enough left to fill he up - mistake - my apatite returned with a vengeance and I cleaned the plate. B&O diners were the hallmark of a demitasse cup of coffee, the big salad bowl and the finger bowl to clean up afterwards.
In 1961 we took a ‘grand tour’ vacation, leaving Garrett on the Shenandoah to catch the Panama Limited in Chicago that was still all Pullman all the way to New Orleans. Fine Service and watching the speedometer in the Observation car register 100 MPH going through the farm fields of Southern Illinois. As we were approaching New Orleans recall the Spanish Moss hanging from the trees. We spent three days in New Orleans sampling Bourbon Street and the music and food from the area. Took the tour boat through the New Orleans harbor area - and swore there was a train on the river from the sounds of a tow boat with EMD 567 engines powering it.
Leaving New Orleans we too the Gulf Wind to Jacksonville, the L&N diner on the train was ‘if I remember correctly’ named the Cross Keys Tavern - as it rode, it should have been called the Square Wheels Tavern. Upon arrival in Jackonville we rented a car and stayed a week in Daytona Beach.
Upon return to Jacksonville we then caught the Silver Meteor for the trip to Washington/Baltimore. I recall local vendors at Orangeburg, SC selling peaches and other local produce during the station stop. After visiting with family for several days it was the Capitol Limited back to Garrett.
About 1954-56 we took a family vacation from Baltimore to Miami - riding the East Coast Champion both ways. As I recall I woke up as the train was arriving Jacksonville Southbound - in my mind Miami was the next stop; thus learning the hard way just how far the distance is between Jacksonville and Miami. Learned that several ACL Dining Car Steward swapped between ACL and B&O to fill out the busy seaons for each carrier.
1 Like
At the risk of taking this off topic… a-treat soft drinks (out of Allentown) made/make a grapefruit soda that was awesome. The original A-treat company shut down about 10 years ago, and another person bought it and started producing it again, but even though they say it’s the same — it sadly isn’t. Just tastes watered down.
Back to pre Amtrak.
1 Like
I thought it discontinued. I should try to find it. Taste sorta like an (NA) Radler.
Here’s two. Both PRR NEC. I was 5 years old. Went to DC with my mom. 1961. Had ridden LIRR some before. Mostly Ping-Pong coaches (aptly named). Remember Penn Station because there were pigeons INSIDE, which I thought was weird. Remember the train because it was super smooth. No lurch starting or stopping. Also remember the snack cart that came down the aisle. Also remember them adding and dropping cars at 30th St. P70s with green seats.
Next trip. July 20, 1969. Penn Central. Phila to NY and back. Age 13. Metroclub on the way up. Swivel parlor seats. Got to peak over engineer’s shoulder at speedometer. 120+ mph. Bumpy, but felt really fast. Ride back home on clocker. Same coaches as in 1961 - but now filthy.
(yes, moon landing day. Went to Yankee Stadium. Bat day. 31" Bobby Murcer. Later dinner with mom and sister at Rainbow Room. Checked my bat at the coat room.)
Rode the Metroliner from Phila to NY and back a couple solo or with a friend in 1970/71. Still bumpy, still felt really fast, very, very cool. Fun watching us dust off all the cars on I-95 in NE Phila.
1 Like
Rode UP several times as a kid, LA to Vegas. Equipment seemed…worn. Freights had priority! Don’t know how many times we had to wait in the hole, and it was always a freight.
My dad died in 57, so family friends paid for us you come visit. Probably 59-62 as we moved up to The Valley then.
Last scheduled was east coast from Connecticut south.
Lousy equipment. Seats. Creak and grind.
Windows all moisture damaged.
1970.
Ah, the Rainbow Room! Along with “21”, these classics were my two favorite, but now gone, New York restaurants.
Your observations about Penn Central are similar to mine.
I liked the LIRR from the old Penn Station 1967. Change trains in Jamaica on to eithrr Mineola or Stony Brook.