What was America's finest Passenger Train?

[jefelectric]

PRR BROADWAY LIMITED

Because that was the only one I can remember riding before Amtrak took over. Have riden quite a few Amtrak trains and service varies widely. I enjoy the long distance trains because I am now retired and can take the time. They are slow, much slower than the trains of 1930 or 40 were for the same routes. Often take the train from home to Phia, NY or DC. It sure beats driving.

John

[Anonymous]

Empire Builder was America's finest passenger train.

[PBenham]

Lehigh Valley's Black Diamond, circa 1938. From an Otto Kuhler rebuilt and streamlined Pacific on the point, refurbished parlor cars,an impressive Diner, (rehabbed at Sayre) new "American Flyer"Coaches and Observations Black Diamond,or White Diamond and you had one mighty nice train to spend youir day on. The competition on the Metro New York- Buffalo/Niagara Falls route in daylight included the Central's Empire State Express, which in 1938 was somewhat stale, except for the J3a up front! Lackawanna had the Lackawanna Limited.Its best feature, a Pocono (Northern to those of you in Rio Linda) from the 1929 American (ALCO) order Hoboken-Scranton, then a heavy Hudson the rest of the way!. Poor Erie had their handsome K5 pacifics, but out of Hornell to Buffalo, you rode in a doodlebug!

[Anonymous]

Without a doubt the Best Classic Passenger Train was the California Zypher. And, the most beautiful as well. As a runner up I would vote for the "Empire Builder". These trains had character and poise, scenery and speed.

[passengerfan]

How about the Santa Fe train DeLuxe when the trains entered California Male passengers were given a pigskin wallet and women were given fresh flowers. This all happened at Needles wher the Santa Fe grew their own flowers and raised the hogs that provided the wallets. All Pullman heavyweight train fore runner of the SUPER CHIEF. Even the Santa Fe CHIEF was more than a match for most railroads first class trains. When it first entered daily service as a streamliner it was staem powered with new Hudsons handling the train east of La Junta and new Northerns handled the train from their to LA. The ten car trains provided pullman space for 151 passengers and lounge and dining seats for 105. That was more lounge and dining space per passenger than the Twentieth Century or Broadway Limited provided. Only the SUPER CHIEF provided more dining and lounge space per passsenger than the CHIEF.

[Anonymous]

Definetly Canadian Pacific´s Trans Canada Limited in 1929. Second to none! Before the depression, trains reached their absolute maximum when it comes to design, service and luxury. This standard was never ever reached again later, not even in the streamliner era. Consisting exclusively of first class sleeping cars, even having a full bath on board (all the later trains never featured a bath, only showers!), this was a true hotel on rails. giving you all the comfort you would also have in a luxury hotel. What else is better than sliding slowly through incredibly beautiful nature for a couple of days, meet new friends and enjoy being serviced like a king? The 20ies were unbeatable when it comes to this. It was the ultimate climax for luxury passenger trains in an era full of richness. And the Trans Canada Limited was the king of rails. Beat that Super Chief!!!

[Anonymous]

The Peapack-Gladstone to Hoboken, NJ Lackawanna local. I rode it to high school every day in the 1950's, so I speak from personal experiance[:D]

[blade]

the california zepher

[Anonymous]

america's finest passenger train, obviously, would be the central pacific/union pacific combination known as the transcontinental.

it opened up the nation.

[Anonymous]

For best public relations and classiest clientele, I would say there was a tie between The Super Chief and the Twentieth Century Limited.

Erik

[Anonymous]

AMTRAK!!!

Naw, the old ones were better.

Guess I am just a young and confused kid...[%-)]

[daveklepper]

Considering the train itself, unquestionably the Super Chief, perfect in every way with top service, food, equipment, ride, you name it. But as an overall travel exprience, with the scenery more than making up the difference, and especially in the earlier days when well maintained and kept to schedule, definitely the California Zephyr.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the Amcrap era. I did grow up in New England. My uncle worked for the New Haven. How about the Merchants? I would have liked to see some of the B&M-MEC trains to Vacationland, like the Pine Tree, Kennbec, or Flying Yankee.
I think that Amtrak is a joke. It is a waste of taxpayer money. There is not enough service to make it attractive. If the government really wanted it to work, they shoud do things 100%. I work on the D&H. at one point, they had 1.5 trains a day NYC to Rutland, VT. on our line. The last southbound was a deadhead. This reminds me of the Eagles song Hotel California, " You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
When I lived in Hartford, CT, You could not make a round trip from Hartford to Boston via the B&A. It could not be done in one day. I also think that it is a joke how they try to market themselves to airline passengers. We have 1st class. The seat may be 1 inch wider than in the regular coaches, but they are nearly the same. How about parlor cars, which had real furnature, probably better than in most of our houses.
Business people, not politicians should manage things.

[BNSF4ever]

1. California Zephyr--no question.
2. Hi-level El Capitan
3. North Coast Limited
4. Mid-century Empire Builder
5. Super Chief

[Anonymous]

North-Empire Builder
South-City of New Orleans
East-The Congressional
West-California Zephyr
Midwest-Electroliner

[cnw4001]

Any answer is higly subjective, especially in light of the broad question.

B & O's Cincinnatian would certainly be worth mention including numerous other trains. There just is no single answer which will fall on common ground.

Dale

[Anonymous]

I like New England railroads. How about the New Haven Merchants Ltd. or the B&M's flying Yankee or Pine Tree Ltd.?

[jlampke]

A little off the topic, but I tought this might be of interest to some of you; A couple weeks ago a friend of mine called Amtrac to make a reservation from Portland, OR, to Tacoma, WA. The ticket salesman working for Amtrac advised my friend to take the bus not the train due to the inability of Amtrac to stay on schedule. With employees like that, who needs enemies?
I have ridden passenger trains in England, Italy, Japan, Korea and the States. The foreign trains were fast and kept a good schedule. Sadly, that was not always the case with the American trains. The only trains I have ridden in the States was Amtrac's Coast Starlight and Coast Daylight during the 70's and 80's a few times. As an example, to take the train from Oakland to Eugene takes about 16 hours. A plane takes less than an hour and a half for the same trip. The drive by car can easily be done in 9 hours. That is primarily why I rarely take the train. I've always loved trains, but usually when I take a trip I'm in a hurry to get where I'm going.
Another bit of a disappointment (for me) was that some of the best scenery of the trip, going through the Shasta area, is done in the middle of the night when you can't see anything.
I don't like to fly anymore. I deeply resent the security measures that the Muslims have caused to be necessary. (Long lines, belts off, shoes off, pat-downs, etc..) Maybe that and high fuel prices will bring about a change in the railroads' fortunes.

[Anonymous]

Super Chief. I've never heard a single word against it.

[traintownofcowee]

What about the Daylight Limited, Coast Daylight? What about the beautiful Daylight trains???

[Anonymous]

in my humble opinion in the east the 20th century ltd ,powhatan arrow,broadway ltd were the finest in the west empire builder,super chief,texas special

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Doggy

What do you think was America's finest Passenger Train?

DOGGY
GO CUBS

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wallyworld

The Super Chief

[#ditto]

[Anonymous]

Sentimental favorite: Capitol Limited
I would sit on my front porch every time I could and watch it's stop at 63rd street in Chicago all through the 60's.
Best looking: a Burlington Zephyr with back to back E's, domes and a round end dome car.
Most Famous: Super Chief ( and gorgeous too!)
Most impressive: a twenty something car "City of Everywhere" with 5 or 6 E units on the point.
Catching Santa Fe PA's running out of Dearborn Street and pacing them riding in a CTA bus is something I'll never forget!
And standing on the platform at Central Station, watching the City Of Miami blast off for Florida with my Grandmother aboard, waving out the window, is indelibly etched!!!
Jimmy

[BaltACD]

The IC's Panama Limted....Choclate Brown and Orange....flying over the Southern Illinois flat lands at 100+.....Steady as a rock! All Pullman, All Class.

[Anonymous]

-The Norfolk & Western J class pulling the Powhaton Arrow.
-The Santa Fe Super Chief.
-The Southern Pacific Day Light Special.
-All the others I can't think of at the moment...

[jimrice4449]

So many choices, so little space.
I've got two standouts both from the middle forties. The first is the Milw Afternoon Hiawatha. From many saturdays of train watching at the Canal St crossing I knew that the assigned power for that train was one of those new DIESELS. Imagine my disapointment as I settled into the rear seat of the Beaver Tail observation car and saw as we passed under the CNW that smoke and steam was billowing out from under the overpass. We had one of the Hiawatha Hudsons on the point. God, we're dumb when young. At that time the Milw had, in the public timetable, a picture of a milepost and a chart showing the number of seconds between milposts and the corresponding speed. We passed 100MPH on three occasions and, just west of Tunnel City passed a CNW psgr train like it was standing still. From the way the side rods were going it was probably doing about 60.
A year or two later my father had to go to St Louis for a family funeral and took me along on the IC Green Diamond. This was in the narrow time slot between the IC sending the original 4 car articulated train Down South and the arrival of post-WWII lightwieght cars and the train was a mix of some pre-war lightwieghts and a refurbished Harriman parlor observation. They gave it the welded, big window, brown and orange streamlined look, but, since it was only a temporary expedient, didn't bother walling up the open platform. I rode it all the dusty way to the Eades Bridge in St Louis.

[Anonymous]

well it was not ameriacs most favorit but mine was the wabash banner blue to and from st louis out of decatur ill i rode at age 10 buy myself to and from st louis with conductor watching me close . for dinner i had a roll of candy mints nothing else and i was on a hig of my life remember it as it was yesyerday them were the days of passenger trains

[Anonymous]

short run chicago/st louis wabash blue bird hard to beat when new