They Got Away!!! Trains discontinued before we rode

[Lentinula]

A second for the New London - Norwich - Worcester service that was run by PC up to the Amtrak takeover. As I recall by the end PC had moved the Worcester stop out of Union Station to an inconveniently located freight house which would have made connecting with service to Boston difficult.

Also the Philadelphia to Newark NJ RDC remnant of the famed RDG "Crusader" which I believe lasted until Conrail exited the passenger business in the early 1980's. As I recall they had one RDC configured as a snack bar in the morning and a bar car in the evening. By that time is was essentially a commuter train but would have been an interesting alternative to the NEC.

I was fortunately able to ride the RDC's from Philadelphia to Bethlehem and Reading/Pottsville just before they were discontinued.

Jon

Didn't they move it to the now absent stop right across from George's Coney Island Hot Dogs? Honestly I'd take that trade off.

[Anthony]

In my case, a couple trains that were discontinued before I rode were the Pioneer and Desert Wind, although I was only 2 1/2 years old when they were cut. lol

[CarterB]

Last run of the RDC "Crusader" and "Wall Street"
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2315857
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2315865

[Return to Reading Company Olney Sta]

Last run of the RDC "Crusader" and "Wall Street"
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2315857
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2315865

+1

Also the Rdg Terminal - Bethlehem and Rdg Terminal - Reading - Pottsville services.

[Statkowski]

One mustn't forget the New York, Susquehanna & Western's Butler Day Express which ran four days a year one-way from Susquehanna Transfer to Butler, N.J. It had quite a railfan following, which may have well made up the bulk of its passengers. One RS-1 and two ex-NYC Pressed Steel coaches.

[Tadman]

Amtrak Cape Codder
Amtrak North Star to Duluth
Via Canadian over CP
Via Atlantic
CN Newfoundland/Terra Transport
Algoma Central's full line train to Franz(?)
Ontario Northland Northlander (and/or the sleeper counterpart that was cut 20+ years ago)
Trenes Argentinos Mendoza line
Trenes Argentinos Bariloche line before it was cut in two (no service b/w Bahia Blanca and Viedma)
Michigan Northern's Traverse City Train (although a bit useless since it didn't go to Chicago or Detroit)
MILW Copper Country Limited
Northwestern Pacific

[mtuandrew]

MILW Copper Country Limited

Ditto (reference my screen name)

Would also have enjoyed riding the Soo train across northern Wisconsin? that sold tickets for its caboose. I think it came off in the late 1980s.

[Ranger762]

Last run of the RDC "Crusader" and "Wall Street"
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2315857
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2315865

Man, that brings back memories, the first train model I did was a Crusader, and that's one of the things that got me interested in American trains! Will there be one kept at a museum or something like that?

[Gilbert B Norman]

Mr. Morris, while the photos you located at RRPictures show the Crusader at "The End", let us not forget what a classy little Streamliner it was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_ ... usader.JPG

The equipment pictured was sold to the Canadian National as part of their 60's passenger service initiative.

Crusader reminds me of another "bold" initiative in "our part of the world" - the Wabash RR. How and why they ended up purchasing a matched six car consist, including four (corrected) Domes from which to view the prairie, from Budd to use on their circuitous secondary CHI-STL route escapes me. The only intermediate stop of note was Decatur, and their route out of STL involved running West then doing a 180 to head East to X Ol' Man River on the Merchants Bridge with first IL stop at Granite City.

[CarterB]

Mr. Morris, while the photos you located at RRPictures show the Crusader at "The End", let us not forget what a classy little Streamliner it was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_ ... usader.JPG

The equipment pictured was sold to the Canadian National as part of their 60's passenger service initiative.

Crusader reminds me of another "bold" initiative in "our part of the world" - the Wabash RR. How and why they ended up purchasing a matched six car consist, including three Domes from which to view the prairie, from Budd to use on their circuitous secondary CHI-STL route escapes me. The only intermediate stop of note was Decatur, and their route out of STL involved running West then doing a 180 to head East to X Ol' Man River on the Merchants Bridge with first IL stop at Granite City.

Indeed, Mr. Norman, the streamlined five car Crusader and Wall Street were classics, with obs car at each end so they didn't have to turn the consists.
One Obs car survives at the Strasburg RR museum in PA.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Note I was mistaken; the Blue Bird consist as delivered from Budd had four domes - and if that weren't enough, they added a P-S Dome Parlor, which resulted in five Domes for a seven car train - and with nothing much in the way of scenery (no "more smiles to the miles").

The Bluebird even had a movie (albeit, propaganda):

https://youtu.be/pIl9-aNAV-k

The Wabash also ordered one additional "streamliner", the "City of Kansas City", from ACF. No Domes.

But by the later '50's (or before I first got to Chicago on my own during 1961 - hence appropriate for this They Got Away topic) , Wabash saw the futility of these two matched trains, and they "spread" the equipment over the secondary trains, such as the "Banner Blue". Along with some PS lightweight equipment from the Boston and Maine, they largely relegated their heavyweight equipment to peak travel periods.

Incidentally, the PS Dome was sold to the Central of Georgia, and after their service got whacked on A-Day, the car was assigned to the Southern Crescent and continued there until SRY signed up with Amtrak during 1983.

The Late Mr. Ainsworth's site, "Dome Main", remains hosted by Trainweb.com and should be a source as to where these cars ended up.

[FLRailFan1]

OK, let's be straight up, this topic is directed more towards our "elder Statesmen" around here, now that the Amtrak-era is closing in on fifty years. In short, anyone short of "seventysomething" cannot be expected to "have known it when".

What are the routes that you would have liked to have ridden, including discontinued Amtrak routes, but didn't?

Mine:

NKP-DL&W(EL) "City of Chicago"; what hurts the most is that during Dec '61, I was running down the platform (yes a 20yo could do that stuff) at LaSalle St. as it was pulling out. By the time I did get to ride during Dec '62, the "Blue Bird" PA's and the Chi-Hoboken Pullman line were gone. The ride to Cleveland and a transfer to NYC #16, Ohio State Limited, was an experience with more negatives than positives.

KCS; I was going to do a KC-NO joyride during Spring Break '62, but didn't. KCS was pro-passenger and even ordering new cars during '65 (those cars are still in NCDOT service), until they suddenly pulled the.plug during '67. Funny how TRAINS had an October '67 article then declaring "we have no intention of getting out of the passenger train business", and just as it hit the newsstands, they did just that.

The Berkshires (NYC -- Danbury -- Pittsfield)
The Nutmeg (Boston -- Waterbury)
The Owl (Boston -- Norfolk,VA)
The West Coast Champion (Chicago -- Tampa)
The East Wind (NYC -- Bar Harbor, Maine)
The 'Ghost Train' (Boston -- NYC on the Air Line)

[FLRailFan1]

On May 1st 1971 I was 13 years old at the start of Amtrak. My only train ride prior to Amtrak was a round trip between Washington and Baltimore on the B&O to visit the B&O Museum. Today that trip can still be made on MARC.

Other than that all my train riding in the US and Canada occurred during my 19 years (1977-1996) with Amtrak. During that period I pretty much got the entire system. Below are the segments that I missed due to trains being discontinued -

The Montrealer via New London.

The Niagara Rainbow Buffalo to Detroit.

The International between Port Huron and Sarnia. Now this one takes some explaining. When the Blue Water started running I rode it from Chicago to Port Huron. From there I took a taxi to Sarnia where I spent the night before riding VIA onward to Toronto the next day. I never did get back to ride the International. So yes, I have a two mile gap in this route.

The Prairie Marksman to East Peoria. This was one of those out in the evening, spend the night and back to Chicago the next morning trains. Those types of trains never worked for the limited vacation time I had.

The Northstar between MSP and Duluth.

The St Louis section of the City of New Orleans.

The Sunset Limited New Orleans to Jacksonville.

The Mobile section of The Crescent (819/820 I think). I think it was called the Gulf Breeze. This train needs to come back now that Amtrak is returning to Mobile .... but of course it won't.

The Broadway Limited via the CSXT (B&O) route after CR downgraded the Fort Wayne line.

The Adirondack railroad service between Utica and Lake Placid. I believe the NIMBY's up there are trying to convert the last couple miles of track into Lake Placid into a rail trail. I remember hearing about the large numbers of passengers they were hauling during the Olympics. Unfortunately once the snow melted so did the service.

So there you have it, the one's that got away that I wish I had rode.

As for the one's that DIDN'T get away during my Amtrak days ....

The National Limited (including the Port Road branch on the Washington section).
The Shenandoah
The Hilltopper
The Floridian
The Lone Star
The Inter-American (Fort Worth to Laredo and back)
The North Coast Hiawatha
The Conrail/TH&B/VIA service Buffalo to Toronto.

Hopefully some of these routes, or parts there of, will come back someday.

I think you might see a Passenger Train on the New England Central. New London, Norwich, Willimantic (Connecticut), Palmer, Amherst (Massachusetts) and Brattleboro (Vermont) all want it...

[mtuandrew]

I didn’t include these earlier, but I missed out on the Canadian Pacific-hosted Canadian and the full Algoma Central service within my lifetime.

[Pensyfan19]

This might be a bit recent but the Hoosier state, operated by both Amtrak and Iowa Pacific. I even remember seeing and taking (blurry) pictures of the IP-ran Hoosier state trainset while pulling into Chicago about 5 years ago.