1937 rail travel to West Point

I am writing a non-fiction book in which one of the primary persons leaves Lexington, Missouri in June 1937 for his commission at West Point. For him to arrive on the July 1 check-in date, he would have had to leave either Sunday June 27 or Monday June 28. One person gave me two routes - one direct from Lexington to St. Louis on the Missouri-Pacific, changing to the New York Central in St. Louis and then onto Albany, NY for transit to West Point. The second route went from Kansas City on the AT&SF to Chicago for the change to the New York Central and, again, Albany, NY for transit to West Point. I assumed Grand Central Station in New York City would have been the changeover for West Point, but...?

Many thanks for any and all information.

Dennis

Albany to West Point on a S/B West Shore line train; travel into GCT not warranted, as there were no trains from GCT to West Point. You would have to go to Weehawken across the river to catch a N/B West Shore train.

If you Google a New York Central map, You will see a heavy line down the east side of the Hudson River which was the main passenger route into Grand Central Terminal. The great majority of travelers from Chicago would take this route. However, there were no connections across the river by rail and the tracks ended at Grand Central with the trains being hauled back out to the Bronx for servicing and cleaning. There may have been a bus connection to West Point from some place like Peekskill which crossed the highway bridge or one of the ferries may still have been running at this date but I don't know the details of any of these. More than likely, your hero would have switched to one of the trains on the West Shore, which was the New York Central route on the west side of the Hudson. This line actually passes under West Point via a short tunnel. It ends in Weehawken NJ across the river from midtown Manhattan but passengers had to take a Ferry to reach New York. There was a passenger station located at West Point located a river Level entailing a walk up to West Point proper. My June 27, 1937 New York Central Timetable shows 5 Trains traveling all the way from Albany with a stop a West Point and 4 on Sundays departing at various times from 3:40 AM to 4:40 PM and stopping at West point from 6:57 AM to 7:49 in the Evening. One train, leaving at 6:45 AM daily and arriving at 9:08 AM was called "The West Pointer" in the timetable but these were not streamliners-just a few coaches, baggage cars, and maybe a mail car painted dark green and making all the stops. There should be some photos on the internet of the West Point Station and its location.

Here is a link to a June 1937 timetable for the entire New York Central system http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/ptt/ ... t-0637.pdf
Look at Table 4 for St. Louis to Albany (and then on to New York City (Grand Central) or Boston-) - you could leave St. Louis at 9:25 AM and arrive Albany around 5:00 AM the next day (hopefully riding in a sleeper!). The "Big Four" mentioned in the table heading was a nickname for a subsidiary of the New York Central RR from St. Louis to Cleveland. The NYC mainline was Chicago to Cleveland to Buffalo to Albany to New York City (Grand Central).
Table 24 has the West Shore route (south from Albany on the west side of the Hudson River) to West Point . Your cadet could then connect in Albany to the "West Pointer" appropriately enough (mentioned above), arriving ~9:00 AM, for about 24 hours from St. Louis. Getting on the "West Pointer" in Albany, on what is probably your 18 yr old cadet's first trip so far away from home, might give him goose bumps when he got on the train or cause him to puff out his chest with pride, or maybe both.

If you continued south from West Point, you would end up in Weehawken, NJ. From there to New York City you have to take a ferry. Your cadet might do that on a day off to go see the sights. (if they had days off!)

For the Chicago - Albany route, that is Table 2.

Sorry I can't help on Lexington to St. Louis. (or Kansas City to Chicago) There was a book that used to be put out every year called the "Offiicial Guide" to Railway schedules across the US - you can find some editions on Google Books on the internet. That had schedules for all the major lines in the country.

EDIT: fixed the link to the 1937 timetable

Good Luck, JS

The http://www.mopac.org/ may be able to help you with the MoPac schedule from Lexington to St. Louis for that time period.
Lexington was not on the main line KC to St. Louis.
I would think the previous poster's info on St. Louis to Albany via the NYC and Albany - West Point on the West Shore would make the
most sense. Although he could have gone across the river to Henrietta, MO and caught a Santa Fe train to Chicago.

Pictures of West Point station from 2001 (by a Metro-North engineer): http://piercehaviland.com/rail/photo33.htm.
The "Rail Cathedral" one is most impressive. JS

I found the 1921 Official Guide - to give an idea of the 1937 schedules. HUGE File (~200 MByte). http://cprr.org/Museum/Official_Rail_Guide_1921.html
The Missouri Pacific schedule for Lexington branch to Sedalia (which is on the main KC to St Louis line) is on the bottom of p. 605 Table 8. Read up on the right side. Leave Lexington 9:20 AM , arrive Sedalia 11:45 AM, then connect on the main line (p. 604) leaving Sedalia 12:05 PM arriving St. Louis 5:30 PM. Missouri Pacific also had a "River line" along the Missouri River to Jefferson City, joining the main line there (top of page 605). Leave Myrick (on the edge of Lexington on the river) at 9:20 AM, arrive 5:30 PM St. Louis via that route. (coincidentally the same timing as via Sedalia - maybe actually the same train after Jefferson City. ) So it means spending the night in St Louis if you wanted the 9:25 AM train to Albany I mentioned above - or leaving on the 6:00 PM out of St. Louis, arriving Albany 2:55 PM the next day, and then 3:30 PM Albany to 5:56 PM West Point. The 30 minute layover in St. Louis might be tight - but everything is at St. Louis Union Sation at least. In any case, the Missouri Pacific times would be different in 1937, so its all hypothetical. Depending on the St. Louis layover, it is ~33-48 hours Lexington to West Point.

The relevant ATSF schedule is on page 801: Leave Lexington Junction (same as the town of Henrietta mentioned in CarterB's previous post, about 4 miles across the river from Lexington) at 7:15 AM (train #10) or 8:55 AM (#8), arrive in Chicago Dearborn Station 7:23 AM or 8:50 AM the next day (hard to read the exact time right because of the poor scan). Then you could take a New York Central train (from La Salle St. Station, a few blocks away) leaving around 11:00 AM or 1:00 PM (see the N.Y.C. schedule) and get to Albany around 5:00 AM, and then to West Point as before. So it is a ~48 hour trip all the way. The ATSF map in the Guide seems to show a spur from Lexington Junction towards Lexington ( which I see in old maps but stopping before crossing the river), but didn't see any passenger schedule for it).

Whew, amazing what you can find on the web... JS

MMI wrote:I am writing a non-fiction book in which one of the primary persons leaves Lexington, Missouri in June 1937 for his commission at West Point. For him to arrive on the July 1 check-in date, he would have had to leave either Sunday June 27 or Monday June 28. One person gave me two routes - one direct from Lexington to St. Louis on the Missouri-Pacific, changing to the New York Central in St. Louis and then onto Albany, NY for transit to West Point. The second route went from Kansas City on the AT&SF to Chicago for the change to the New York Central and, again, Albany, NY for transit to West Point. I assumed Grand Central Station in New York City would have been the changeover for West Point, but...?

Many thanks for any and all information.

Dennis

Dennis,

First of all, don't call it Grand Central Station. That's a Subway platform. The place where you catch a train is Grand Central Terminal.

West Point had its own station on New York Central's West Shore route, on the west shore of the Hudson River. This line was accessed from Albany Union Station, easily accessible if you were traveling on a New York Central train from Chicago. You would have changed trains at Albany Union Station for the ride down the West Shore to West Point. No need to go all the way down to New York City, take a ferry to Weehawken, NJ, and then come back up on the West Shore...

By the early 1950's there was not too much passenger service on the River Division of the New York Central out of Albany and in some cases it truly would be better to ride through to New York and take the ferry over to Weehawken for a local up to West Point. Another alternative until the bridge at Newburgh was built woud have been to get off the train at Beacon, some express trains stopped there years ago, and take the ferry over to Newburgh. Incidentally the West Point Station remained open and staffed by the New York Central and even the Penn Central long after the last passenger train stopped there in the late 50's. I think it remained open to sell though tickets on Central trains east and west through New York or Albany. I don't have the date the office at West Point was finally closed but it showed in early Penn Central timetables as open 8 hours a day Monday through Friday. There was a pedestrian boat operated between West Point and I think Cold Spring or Garrison and that boat might still be operating for government folks out of West Point.
Noel Weaver

Noel hit on something I was thinking about when I mentioned the possibility of crossing the Hudson by Bridge or Ferry from a stop on the main line. . Only the regular readers of this web site would go through the time and expense of traveling all the way to Grand Central, Making their way to the ferry to Weehawken and then going back up the Hudson on the other side. Perhaps if you contacted the historical section or library at West Point, they could supply some information on what travel options were available for arriving cadets.

Otto Vondrak wrote:First of all, don't call it Grand Central Station. That's a Subway platform. The place where you catch a train is Grand Central Terminal.

And the name of the Post Office branch around the corner from the Terminal.

Old & Weary wrote: ... Only the regular readers of this web site would go through the time and expense of traveling all the way to Grand Central, Making their way to the ferry to Weehawken and then going back up the Hudson on the other side...

Or, I might add, spend all the time poring over all the details of old Official Guides and timetables.
JS

It's possible the most convenient routing would have taken the water level route (i.e., east side of the Hudson) and stopping at place like Beacon to finish the trip via taxi or bus or whatnot. I believe a ferry operated between Beacon and Newburgh at that time.
I have an Oct. 1937 Official Guide... somewhere. I'll look it up if I can find it.

Bethlehem Jct. wrote:It's possible the most convenient routing would have taken the water level route (i.e., east side of the Hudson) and stopping at place like Beacon to finish the trip via taxi or bus or whatnot. I believe a ferry operated between Beacon and Newburgh at that time.
I have an Oct. 1937 Official Guide... somewhere. I'll look it up if I can find it.

That's super you have the 1937 Guide. If you have time, could you also look up the connection times from Lexington MO to St. Louis on the Missouri Pacific, and from Lexington Junction to Chicago on the Atchinson, Topeka and S.F.? All I could get access to (posted above) was the 1921 Guide.

I looked on the June 1937 NYC system-wide timetable posted earlier and it didn't mention any ferry at Beacon (perhaps since it wasn't operated by the RR) but there probably still was one. Maybe a local timetable would have more info. JS

The ferry between Newburgh and Beacon lasted until 1962 or so when the bridge was finished with the first span, the second span came much later on.
Noel Weaver