According to the Wiki page of NYC’s 20th Century Limited, citing the source from New York Times, December 3, 1967, p. 31: “In 1928, the peak year, the train earned revenue of $10 million and was believed to be the most profitable train in the world” I do not subscribe to New York Times so I cannot confirm this from their archive. Assume that this is the fact, what was the second highest grossing train in America and the world from 1930 to 1960? I understand that it would require months of research to find the answer, so I don’t expect an absolutely accurate answer. Please feel free to share your thought or take a guess in this post. [Y]
Well somebody was #2 but it may never be known. UP’s City of Los Angeles had its moment in the light as did Santa Fe’s Hollywood star filled Super Chief. The California Zephyer briefly. Hiawatha’s definitely very popular and had their day. The Panama?, but not sustained.
Even something obscure as Canadian Pacific’s Chicago Express Montreal/Toronto -Chicago was always packed with businessmen, never tailed off and huge howls of protest when CPR cancelled it in 1960. It always ran with 2 full sections minimum, sometimes 4 or 5…lots of parlour cars! CN/GT never had the panache to match and replace the alternative competitive service, it remained pedestrian.
Nothing matched the 20th Century with its red carpet, mystique and legends. Perhaps the Super Chief but only for a brief time.
Probably 6 of the top 10 revenue producers were NYC trains.
You are right! In terms of fame and popularity, the Century was really hard to beat since it was the most welcomed train connecting two most important commercial hub of America. I guess the total annual revenue income of the #1 and #2 might had a large disparity! My guess at the moment is Santa Fe Super Chief or The Congressional of PRR, one served between the Hollywood and Chicago, one connected the finance center and political center of the States.
Santa Fe’s El Capitan was a contender, running full during most seasons (though combined with the Super Chief) and running as a separate train in peak seasons. It was important enough to rate new equipment (hi-level coaches) in 1964.
Thank you, rcdrye. I do believe the 2nd most profitable train would be a train of Santa Fe or the most popular train serving Chicago to Westcoast. Without years of studies, it is quite difficult for me to determine which one was the #2 though. I guess If I ask this question 40 years ago in a Railroad Club, I might got the answer more easily.
With life and Tax codes being simpler - I suspect, but don’t know that the accountings used in those days were much more straight forward than such accounting is today.
Gross revenues. But if our forum member willing to share other figures relate to the topic, different trains, different definition of “Profitable”, it’s always welcomed! [swg]
(P.S I am searching for the Interstate Commerce Commission report right now)
The first phase of trying to find the answer is that I will put data I found on web here for reference; no matter what trains, which time period (not earlier than 1930), title also changed, I am going to focus on 1930 to 1960. Any updates will be put on the first post.
Your participation is always welcomed! [#welcome] Thank you.
Olympian Hiawatha $3.3 million in 1959
“According to the ICC’s official statistics from 1959…Milwaukee earned $3.3 million in passenger train revenues for the Olympian Hiawatha, alone, while the Northern Pacific earned just $6 million in revenues for its entire passenger train fleet and the Great Northern $10 million”
I would like to, but I am afraid I can’t provide such detailed information with limited resource and time. I don’t even have the data of revenues and expenses of the 20th Century’s Limited in any year. The main goal of this post, as stated, is to find out if there was any named train in America or outside America ever beat the historical record of $10 million a year (assume this figure is gross revenue) made by the 20th Century Limited, I didn’t expect an very accurate answer with very detailed calculation and data supported.
Some book stated that SP claimed their Daylight was the most profitable train since 1937 to postwar era, I think I would focus on this claim and see if it was true or not. [C]
You need to change the title a little more. Profit and ‘gross revenue’ are only peripherally linked … and some of the expenses of the Twentieth Century Limited (as Beebe indicated*, always spell out The Name, just like this, even if some of its own drumheads abbreviated it) were known to be more extravagant than other Steel Fleet trains … take the flower bill as a case in point.
What you’re asking is how much money the railroad made off the train, not how much it spent to create buzz in general at a cost that didn’t have to be justified to stakeholders or whatever. And I suspect that even in 1928 that number might have been higher for less extravagant trains, perhaps including some on the NYC itself.
Reminds me of what William H. Vanderbilt said surrounding the ‘public be damned’ quote – he’d really prefer operating nothing but relatively slow trains, and not compete with other roads just to go faster, to maximize the revenue to the stockholders. Just a little while later Daniels came into his own and revolutionized how things were done…
*Did we not quote the entire text of the poem somewhere back on a Forum thread somewhere? I can’t find it, and someone ought to put it here… the one with the refrain ‘The Twentieth Century must go through’…
Thank you for the suggestion, Overmod. Would you mind providing a meaningful title for this post? What I am trying is to find out is if there was another single named train’s gross revenue ever beaten the record set by the 20th Century in 1928 or any other years.
If I replace it to “net income”, this post will probably sink to a place even deeper than the wreck of the RMS Titanic. If I replace ’gross revenue’ to “2nd most popular train”, every forum member would have a different answer mainly base on personal preference…… [C][^o)]
Needs nothing more than to substitute something like ‘highest grossing’ for that word ‘profitable’ that means something different from what you mean it to mean.
Yesterday I reviewed an article from Classic Trains :“The Broadway’s best years” written by Joe Welsh, (Reader could download it free via this link: http://ctr.trains.com/rapid/2018/03/penn-central-and-its-predecessors) It gave me a more clearer picture about the competition between The Broadway Limited and The 20th Century and corrected some wrong impression in my mind.
Base on the data provided from this article, The Broadway’s revenue had risen 525% and was earning a healthy $3.94 per mile since PRR eliminated the extra fares of the trains in 1943. The article also mentioned that by 1947, the revenue per train-mile of the Pennsy’s east-west fleet increased 217% since 1940. In May 1954 the Century carried an average 119 passengers per trip while the Broadway carried 140.
The article didn’t provide any figures of gross revenue of both trains, so I wouldn’t say the Broadway was the “2nd”(before 1954) we are searching for. I can’t assume the Century was the highest grossing train or the highest grossing tr
