Named Trains to New York City Metro Area

I'm not sure what you mean by "have a replica of each". There were a number of PRR "name trains" that left NYC pulled by a GG1 with the same or similar looking cars following. Some, like the Silver Meteor, switched to other RR's engines and added cars on the way to Florida. The GG1 was usually switched to non-electric power in D.C. or Harrisburg before continuing on. 

Here's a few to start but in no way complete.

New York Central - 20th Century Limited

Pennsylvania - Broadway Limited, The Federal Express ( Ran between Boston and DC ) originated southbound on The New Haven RR in Boston  or  northbound Pennsy in DC and stopped in NYC, engine change to GG-1 south bound or New Haven power northbound ) 

New Haven - The Federal Express 

B&O - Capital Limited, Royal Blue,

Lackawanna - Pheobe Snow 

The New Haven Railroad had many named trains that ran into New York City. Some of the best known are listed below:

1) Bay State

2) Bostonian

3) Connecticut Yankee

4) Federal

5) Forty-Second Street

6) Gilt Edge

7) Mayflower

8) Merchants Limited

9) Murray Hill

10) New Yorker

11) Owl

12) Patriot

13) Pilgrim

14) Puritan

15) Senator

16) Shoreliner

17) State of Maine

18) Yankee Clipper

MELGAR

You are looking at hundreds of names.  It is quite an endeavor you are embarking upon.

To name trains into the CNJ Communipaw Terminal included:

Jersey Central:  Queen of the Valley, The Blue Comet, Bullet

B&O:  Capitol limited, Royal Blue, Columbian, Diplomat, Metropolitan Special, National Limited, Shenandoah, Washington Night Express

Reading:  Crusader, Harrisburg Special, Wall Street, Williamsporter

Here are Baltimore and Ohio's Name Trains,  which included train-side motor coach service using the ferry from Jersey Central's Terminal in Jersey City to ticket offices and hotels in Manhattan and Brooklyn. B&O service to NY City ended in April1958.

Odd number trains were westbound, even numbers east bound. In some cases, certain trains carried cars that were transferred another train at Washington DC or along the route.

One example  were sleepers on Train# 1/2 for Train #50 /51 which was to Louisville KY from NY. They were dropped off W bound at North Vernon IL and received there E bound. All trains listed below were daily and carried sleeping cars, except The Royal Blue, which made one round trip each day with same cars and power.

National Limited, Train#1/2 to St. Louis, via Washington DC and Cincinnati. (Cars from Frisco, MKT and MP to and from Oklahoma City, OK, San Antonio TX and Wichita KS  were included until about 1953. A reciprocal B&O sleeper was also used on these trains).

The Diplomat, Train # 3/4 to St. Louis via Washington DC.

The Capitol Limited, Train # 5/6 to Chicago via Washington DC. (A car from Santa Fe Los Angeles CA to Washington DC and return was include as scheduled until 1954. B&O did not provide sleepers to the West Coast as four cars would be needed to cover the time and distance. Santa Fe needed only two cars between Chicago and DC).

The Shenandoah, Train #7/8 to Chicago via Washington DC.

The Metropolitan Special, Train #11/12 to St. Louis via Washington DC. 

The West Virginian, Train  # 23/24  to Wheeling WV via Washington DC.

The Royal Blue, Train# 27/28  reserved seat coaches, diner, lounge and parlor car to Washington DC. 

The Marylander, Train # 523/524 to Parkersburg MD, via Washington DC.

S. Islander

Southern Railway Trains into New York Penn included:

The Crescent

Peidmont Limited

Aiken-Augusta Special

Ashville Special

Birmingham Special

Pelican

New Yorker

Seaboard Airline Trains to NY Penn:

Florida Limited

Metropolitan Limited

Southern States Special

Cotton Blossom

Palmland

Silver Meteor

Silver Comet

Silver Star

Atlantic Coast Line Trains to NY Penn:

Champion

Everglades

Florida Special

Gulf Coast Special

Havana Special

Miamian

Vactioner

The rainbow train award would be the PENN TEXAS, with PRR, MP Lines, Katy, and Frisco cars.  NYP to STL on the PRR.

And do not forget through trains north of NYC.  Some of the trains to Canada look interesting.

You may need a big yard to hold them all.  Sunnyside sized, perhaps.

Some of the Pennsy have already been mentioned, but here's from the 1954 timetable, Chicago to New York:

Manhattan Limited

The General/The Trail Blazer

Broadway Limited

The Admiral

Pennsylvania Limited

Gotham Limited

From St. Louis:

The Allegheny

The St. Louisan

Spririt of St. Louis

Indianapolis Limited

The Penn Texas

The American

There are plenty more; here's a link to the timetable:

https://streamlinermemories.info/PRR/PRR54-1TT.pdf

I would likely make many mistakes in typing more. 

David

The New York, Ontario, & Western Ry ran the "Mountaineer" from Weehawken, NJ (across the river from NYC) to Roscoe, NY.

Long Island: The Cannonball... The Sunrise Special... The Fisherman’s Special... The Shelter Island Express.

Jon  

No one has yet mentioned the PRR's Congessional.

Yet to mention all the New York Central trains other than the 20th Century:

Lake Shore Limited, Pacemaker, Commodore Vanderbilt, Wolverine, Chicagoan, Empire State Express, etc., etc., etc.!

Jim

Jim Policastro posted:

Yet to mention all the New York Central trains other than the 20th Century:

Lake Shore Limited, Pacemaker, Commodore Vanderbilt, Wolverine, Chicagoan, Empire State Express, etc., etc., etc.!

Jim

How would the original poster model those NYC trains? Pulled by electric locomotives out of Grand Central Station to Harmon, NY or steam powered/diesel powered out of Harmon?

Good question! 

Might have to include Harmon in the layout plan.  

Jim

Randy Harrison posted:

No one has yet mentioned the PRR's Congessional.

That is a pretty funny miss at this point in the thread! 

Also, I'm honestly not sure if it was a name train or simply another Clocker, but the Keystone Budd Set of 1956 might count as well.

[edited based on some quick research - The Keystone was a name train and ran under the following names based on time of day - Morning Keystone, Midday Keystone, Evening Keystone, and Midnight Keystone.]

While not a commercial success, this is an interesting set of cars I'd like to see in O someday.  The Keystone was a unique train that was both ahead of its time and behind its time at the same time. 

For the Erie:

• Erie Limited
• Lake Cities
• Pacific Express
• Atlantic Express
• Midlander

For the Lackawanna:

• Owl
• Phoebe Snow:
• New Yorker
• New York Mail
• Pocono Express
• Twilight
• Westerner

Under Erie Lackawanna the following trains remained but not for long in some cases:

• Phoebe Snow
• Pacific Express
• Atlantic Express
• Lake Cities - note this surprisingly lasted the longest until the end of 1970
• Owl

The best resource for finding the names of all 1950's trains to, from or passing through NY City is an issue of "The Official Guide of the Railways" from that period.  Original copies are hard to find and expensive. Also, originally printed on cheap,thin newsprint-like paper, original issues by now have become quite fragile.  It may be certain issues have been scanned to discs, but I'm not sure.  I have a worn, original May 1954 issue. When it came to name trains, the New Haven comes out on top.

Besides the usual New York - Boston runs, New Haven conducted trains out of New York to Montreal Canada, Portland and Bar Harbor in ME, Hyannis MA, Springfield CT and other points.   The NH trains out of Grand Central Terminal as well as Penn Station in NY. Run-throughs the NH handled from NY were essentially extensions of PRR trains between Washington DC and NY. In the May 1954 issue of the "Official Guide," I counted 35 named NH trains with NY city contact all of which carried sleepers and or parlor cars, thereby being a step or so above numbered day coach runs. 

Attached is a scan of the named New Haven trains from New York, copied from the May1954 "Official Guide." I hope it will show up OK.

S. Islander

Well, not so great I see. My apologies. 

The last train name in the left column that is covered by the image number, is the Bar Harbor, which like the State of Maine, passed through Boston, on to Maine.

The Bar Harbor was famed in the 1920's for carrying private cars of the wealthy from their winter stay in Florida to summer residences on the Maine coast.  The household staff would travel a day or two beforehand by coach, to get things ready. The chauffeurs, driving high-powered Packard, Cadillac, Rolls Royce or Bentley limos raced onward to Bar Harbor after dropping the owners at their private car. They drove US 1 as fast and as long as possible in order to reach Bar Harbor before the owner's private car arrived by train. They were expected to be there on time, to drive the family to their summer estate.

S. Islander 

From the 1947 PRR timetable:

Blown up:

GG1 4877 posted:

Randy Harrison posted:

No one has yet mentioned the PRR's Congessional.

That is a pretty funny miss at this point in the thread! 

Also, I'm honestly not sure if it was a name train or simply another Clocker, but the Keystone Budd Set of 1956 might count as well.

[edited based on some quick research - The Keystone was a name train and ran under the following names based on time of day - Morning Keystone, Midday Keystone, Evening Keystone, and Midnight Keystone.]

While not a commercial success, this is an interesting set of cars I'd like to see in O someday.  The Keystone was a unique train that was both ahead of its time and behind its time at the same time. 

 

 

The Congressional, both morning and evening, were trains between Washington, DC and New York City. Clockers only ran from Penn Station New York to Philadelphia.

I haven't seen the New York Central Southwestern Limited mentioned. 

A few other New York to St. Louis trains (I believe all have been mentioned above):

B&O - National Limited

PRR - St. Louisan

PRR - Spirit of St. Louis

PRR - Penn-Texas

PRR - Jeffersonian

Actually, the SUNSHINE SPC. got it name changed.  Twice.  It became, for 18 months in the late 1940's the TX EAGLE.  Then the PENN TEXAS.  Guess calling a train by a MP name did not set well with the MKT and FRISCO.  I think the SUNSHINE and EAGLE carried through cars for both roads in ST. Louis.

And how about this!  Some NY City  trains had through cars from other trains.  For a while there was a Pullman car which ran once a week (?) NYP to Mexico City PRR- MP Lines-NdeM.

The attached Excel file is what I have so far, but there is more to follow.

How does ine open said Excell file? I click on it and nothing happens.

Just a note, Southern's Crescent went to Penn Station via the PRR.

The NYO&W's trains departed from the NY Central's West Shore terminal at Weehawken NJ. Roscoe is 137 miles northwest of NY City in the Catskills, the other end of NYO&W's passenger service which ended in the early 1950's. The track continued to Oswego on Lake Ontario.

The Federal Express was a New Haven/PRR train, Boston to Washington DC via Penn Station.  In the early 1950's, powered by a K-4s steam loco had bad wreck near Perth Amboy NJ, attributed to speeding through track work and a bridge being serviced at the time.

I can help a bit more with New Haven trains at Grand Central or PRR. It's shown in time table listings by train number instead of names in most cases.  If you would like to separate Erie trains from Lackawanna's, pre-merger they had separate terminals. I think it would make a clearer picture of mid 50's NY train service.   Let me know?

Here are a few more for your list:

Lehigh Valley:  Maple Leaf, Black Diamond, Star.  Penn Station.

Delaware & Hudson (via NY Central):  Montreal Limited, The Laurentian. Grand Central Terminal.

Chesapeake & Ohio (via PRR):   F.F.V., Sportsman, George Washington. Penn Station.

Nickle Plate Road: (via DL&W):  Nickle Plate Limited, The Westerner. Hoboken Terminal.

S. Islander

S. Islander posted:

The Federal Express was a New Haven/PRR train, Boston to Washington DC via Penn Station.  In the early 1950's, powered by a K-4s steam loco had bad wreck near Perth Amboy NJ, attributed to speeding through track work and a bridge being serviced at the time.

Some minor corrections.  The accident in the 1950's was the wreck of the Broker in 1951 that happened at Woodbridge and was powered by K4 2445.  The train was a daily train to the Jersey Shore via the NY&LB.

The Congressional had an accident at Frankford Junction in 1943 where one of the cars had a journal failure that caused one car to wrap around a catenary pole while another car went air born and was cut horizontally in half by the top beam of the catenary structure.  A gruesome incident in PRR history. 

The Federal Express was the famous accident where there was a brake failure and GG1 4876 ended up in the basement of Union Station, DC in 1953. 

However, it does add some interesting and less common trains to this list that have not been mentioned

On the PRR "The Broker" was a named commuter train.  I think it was the only one off the NY&LB, but I could be wrong.  The "Nelly Bly" went to Atlantic City via Philadelphia and the PRSL. 

Not an official name train but the CNJ ran what was locally known as the "Jersey Builder" on the NY&LB as it consisted of former BN cars painted in BN, GN, and NP BSB colors that were converted to 106 seats and had the former owners names painted out and CNJ logos stenciled on the window band in matching paint.  It terminated in Newark, NJ as all CNJ shore trains did under the Aldene plan of 1967.

NJDOT/NJT ran a Saturday only special until the early 80's to Monmouth Park in my hometown of Oceanport, NJ called the "Pony Express".  It consisted of a pair of former CNJ GP40P locomotives and 8 to 9 of the cars that came out of the "Jersey Builder" and PC fleet prior to their full retirement around 1985.

During the heyday of horse racing, 4 trains served the park (2 CNJ and two PRR).  Until the siding was removed there was a section outside of the physical racetrack that had at least two full train length tracks and once in the racetrack site, 4 terminal tracks.  As another interesting aside, manual gates were used at Port Au Peck Ave during the summer racing season until 1985 as I recall.  That was a full 2 years after the manual gates came down at South Amboy.  TMI for this thread, but an interesting history.

I found one not mentioned "The Orange Blossom Special"...ran only during the winter on the SAL from NYC to Florida. Also the name of a fiddling song that some old timers threatened to shoot anyone playing it, it is so overplayed

  In the sixties ,seventies ,eighties and even later  during  the summer season the LIRR ran a train from the Hunters Point  station in LIC to Montauk called the Cannon Ball .It consisted of several coaches ,a bar car and a first class car with arm chairs and reserved seating

I have to amend the NYO&W Mountaineer entry... after doing some reading, the "Mountaineer" ended prior to 50's. Year round passenger service ended in 1950, and seasonal service to Roscoe ended Sept. 10, 1953. The trains in the 50's were #1, #2, #5, & #96 all known as the "Ontario Express". 

Bobby Ogage posted:

Taking a snapshot of the 1950s, what named trains went to the New York City Metro Area? This includes the New Jersey ferry terminals. Please mention their home railroads. My O-gauge railroad goal is to have a replica of each.

Bobby,

It has been interesting to read everyone's list of named trains in New York City. But did you think it would be feasible to have a replica of each? A worthy goal but not easily achieved.

MELGAR

MELGAR posted:

Bobby Ogage posted:

Taking a snapshot of the 1950s, what named trains went to the New York City Metro Area? This includes the New Jersey ferry terminals. Please mention their home railroads. My O-gauge railroad goal is to have a replica of each.

Bobby,

It has been interesting to read everyone's list of named trains in New York City. But did you think it would be feasible to have a replica of each? A worthy goal but not easily achieved.

MELGAR

Most of the famous trains have been made by MTH, Lionel, and 3rd Rail.  It would be easy to get a model of the Congressional, 20th Century Limited and Broadway Limited.  The other trains could be assembled from coaches, sleepers and dinning cars with the appropriate engine.  I suppose if you have the money and the space you could achieve most anything.  Here is an example of that - the Erie Lackawanna in G gauge.  Yes, G gauge.  This is an indoor layout that was built by professional modelers.

http://lackawannarailroad.com

There is no way I can replicate them all, but I can do several. Currently I have the 20th Century Limited, The Crusader. The Crescent, The Flying Yankee, The Broadway Limited, The Senator, The Blue Comet, The Commodore and The Texas Special. I am building the LIRR's Sunrise Special and the Cannon Ball, both steam powered.

I have the C&O's Yellow Belly 490, but I do not know if this locomotive pulled any trains into the New York Metro Area. I also have a NYO&W 4-8-2 to build a train around.

All forwarded trains to New York of the C&O, N&W, Southern, ACL, Seaboard and Lehigh Valley came to NY City Penn Station over the PRR with GG1 power. For trains from the south, this engine change was at Washington DC.  For the Lehigh Valley, it was a  junction with LV near Newark NJ.

New Haven trains usually entered Penn Station with a GG1 at the point. Most of these trains went farther on to Washington DC. Some carried through cars for trains running farther south. The transfer of power from steam or diesel to electric was made where New Haven's overhead catenary system ended, which was New Haven CT by 1913.  GG1's could run through on New Haven's electrification.

S. Islander

the broker on nylb railroad prr.  it famously? derailed at temp bridge at construction site for the garden state parkway.  it was steam powered at that point in its evening travels to north jersey shore points.  i do not know if it began at Penn station or exchange place in jersey city. 

 i believe NH electrics changed to gg1's at Penn station. 

mikeg