page_title: 20th Century Limited
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: 20th Century Limited / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Photo of the streamlined steam locomotive New York Central Hudson No.5344 "Commodore Vanderbilt", as it left Chicago's LaSalle Street station pulling the 20th Century Limited.
context_page_description: The 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along the railroad's "Water Level Route".
  NYC inaugurated the 20th Century Limited as competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad, aimed at upper-class and business travelers. It made few station stops along the way and used track pans to take water at speed. In 1938, streamlined train sets designed by Henry Dreyfuss were added to the route.
  The 20th Century Limited was the flagship train of the New York Central and was advertised as "The Most Famous Train in the World". It was described in The New York Times as having been "[...] known to railroad buffs for 65 years as the world's greatest train", and its style was described as "spectacularly understated". The phrase "red carpet treatment" is derived from passengers' walking to the train on a specially designed crimson carpet.
context_section_description: The 20th Century Limited first ran on June 17, 1902. It completed its run from New York to Chicago in 20 hours, four hours less than previous trains, and arrived three minutes ahead of schedule. It offered a barbershop and secretarial services. The New York Times' report  stressed on the routine nature of the trip, with no special procedures being followed and no extra efforts being made to break records. It said that there "was no excitement along the way," and quoted a railroad official's claim: "it is a perfectly practical run and will be continued." Engineer William Gates said, "This schedule can be made without any difficulty. I can do it every time, barring accidents."
  The schedule cut two more hours off the run in June 1905, and on the 21st of that month, the train was wrecked on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway line at Mentor, Ohio, killing 21 passengers.  It reverted to 20 hours in 1912 and was unchanged until 1932. In 1935, it dropped to 16 hours, 30 minutes, then to 16 hours on June 15, 1938, when lightweight cars took over.
  The engine change point was moved to Croton–Harmon station in 1913, when the NYC line was electrified south of that point.
  In the 1920s, the New York-Chicago fare was $32.70 plus the extra fare of $9.60, plus the Pullman charge (e.g. $9 for a lower berth), for a total of $51.30. This fare entitled a passenger to a bed closed off from the aisle by curtains; a compartment to oneself cost more. In 1928, the peak year, the train earned revenue of $10 million and was believed to be the most profitable train in the world.
  The cars of the 20th Century Limited were lit with fluorescent lamps soon after their introduction, which did coincide with the introduction of the new Art Deco train sets in 1938.
caption: 20th Century Limited pulled by Hudson #5344 Commodore Vanderbilt departing Chicago's LaSalle Street station, 1935
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