From: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Transcontinental trips and other trivia
Date: 23 Jul 92 18:38:23 GMT
Reply-To: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Distribution: na
Organization: Columbia University

>> 		The New Sunset Limited-From Coast to Coast
>>   This will probably be the first-ever true transcontinental service in US
>> history-no other train has crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Uptil
>> now, one always had to change one place (generally Chicago, though New
>> Orleans was another possibility). I vaguely remember that in pre-Amtrak days  
>> there used to be some through coaches which used to be switched at Chicago
>> to give a coast-to-coast ride. Does anyone remember the details?

Chicago, St Louis, New Orleans and Memphis were the places where you could
change to ride coast-to-coast by only two trains.  Chicago and St Louis had
the most choices of route, east and west.

In a 1950 Official Guide, I find five western routes that had one or more
through cars to the east, all via Chicago:

San Francisco Overland (Chicago & North Western / Union Pacific / Southern
Pacific) had a 10-roomette,6-double-bedroom car via New York Central and
another via Pennsylvania.

California Zephyr (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy / Denver & Rio Grande Western
/ Western Pacific) had one 10-roomette,6-double-bedroom car going alternate
days by New York Central or Pennsylvania.

The Chief (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe) had four cars.  A 4-compartment,
6-double-bedroom,2-drawing-room car and a 10-roomette,6-double-bedroom car
both went via New York Central.  A 4-compartment,4-double-bedroom,2-drawing-
room car went via Pennsylvania, and lastly a 6-section,6-roomette,4-double-
bedroom car went to Washington DC via Baltimore & Ohio.

Los Angeles Limited (Chicago & North Western / Union Pacific) had a
10-roomette,6-double-bedroom car via New York Central and another via
Pennsylvania.

Golden State (Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific / Southern Pacific) had one
4-compartment,4-double-bedroom,2-drawing-room car that went alternate days
via New York Central or Pennsylvania.

Let's consider the situation at Chicago:

San Francisco Overland      Oakland 16th St--  Chicago C&NW
California Zephyr           Oakland 2d St--    Chicago Union
The Chief                   Los Angeles Union--Chicago Dearborn
Los Angeles Limited         Los Angeles Union--Chicago C&NW
Golden State                Los Angeles Union--Chicago LaSalle St

New York Central trains     Chicago LaSalle St--   New York Grand Central
Pennsylvania trains         Chicago Union--        New York Penn
Baltimore & Ohio trains     Chicago Grand Central--Washington DC Union

Yes, almost all the connections required odd movements between terminals in
Chicago, using track otherwise used only for freight.  Railfans' delight!
The time allowed at Chicago runs from 2 to 6 hours, typically about 4 hours,
so travellers could probably do better time by changing trains.

Runs east of Chicago took at least 16 hours, and west of Chicago took over
48, so it looks like they needed 8 cars to run each one of the "through car"
services-- that's 2 east of Chicago and 6 west of.

As the California Zephyr was the example we started with, here's the 1950
schedule westbound, as a sample (showing alternate days)--

New York Grand Central   1815  (1815 ET Mon)
Chicago LaSalle St       1215  (1315 ET Tue)   
New York Penn                                 1845  (1845 ET Tue)
Chicago Union                                 1025  (1125 ET Wed)

Chicago Union            1530  (1630 ET Tue)  1530  (1630 ET Wed)
Oakland 2d St            1600  (1900 ET Thu)  1600  (1900 ET Fri)

Why both New York Central and Pennsylvania?  Possibly to avoid a war
between the two rivals!  But also, the two had quite different routes
in between New York and Chicago, so they served more cities by
offering both eastern routes.

Trivia: OK, we've mentioned changing trains, and through cars, now
what's the third possibility?  Changing cars within a train.  You
could have gone from New York via the B&O route shown above, which had
New York--Chicago cars, and changed cars, but not trains, anywhere
between Washington and Chicago.  I wonder how many people tried that.

--Joe Brennan
Organization: Drama, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA