Passenger Trains on the Cairo Sub

What year did the Egyptian stop running on the Cairo to Chicago line? My Grandpa, his 3 brothers & a nephew all worked on this line out of Lyons yard near Danville IL.
I know in 1946 they still had a Pullman sleeper on the train.
I am always interested in talking to people interested in this division of the NYC

Dave Huffman

DBH wrote:What year did the Egyptian stop running on the Cairo to Chicago line? My Grandpa, his 3 brothers & a nephew all worked on this line out of Lyons yard near Danville IL.
I know in 1946 they still had a Pullman sleeper on the train.
I am always interested in talking to people interested in this division of the NYC

Dave Huffman

It was cut back from Cairo to Harrisburg before it was taken off alltogether. I went through my beat up copy of the Official Guide for April, 1947 and I noticed that schedule was only between Harrisburg and Chicago even then so it had to be before that. I have a little bit that predates 1947 but that is not a job for tonight.
Noel Weaver

Without consulting one of my Official Guides in the attic, I'm pretty sure it was about 1955 or 1956.

It was still running Harrisburg-Chicago in the Dec. 6, 1953 timetable reissue. I did go to the attic after all.

I dug out some old New York Central system timetables and here is what I came up with:
April 27, 1941 shows one round trip Chicago - Cairo one round trip with a through sleeping car. It took close to three hours to cover the 60 odd miles between Harrisburg and Cairo. This timetable does not show any intermediate stops but I'll bet this train made plenty of intermediate stops. The timetable that took effect February 8, 1942 showed the same train running between Chicago and Harrisburg with service between Harrisburg and Cairo provided by a mixed train except Sunday on an irregular schedule.