For reasons of personal history, I am trying to research how my sister, 21 years old at the time and a student at UofM, might have made this trip. Anyone with OG's of the period can help. The simplest probably would have been direct B&M to Boston and Boston to Ann Arbor. Did the Minuteman, then a through North Station - Chicago via Toledo train, have a Pullman switched to the Wolverine at Buffalo? Would local to Concord (which Mom, Dad, and I rode, but unsure about my sister), then State of Maine to Worcester, and then west been practical? Or morning local to Concord, west to Clairmont Jc., down to Northampton or Srpingfield and the west? Or up to White River Junction and then down to Northampton or Springfield? Or via Montreal and then the one through Montreal - Chicago CP-NYC train? Cost would have been a factor plus number of changes and the need to go from one station to another.
Sounds to me like the local option to Boston or Worster, then west to Troy/Albany then NYC to Detroit and whatever to Ann Arbor or to Albany to Toleldo to Ann Arbor. Although, NYC from either Boston or Worcester were good options, too. MY OG's jump from June 1929 to June 1950, but I'll try to look later unless better answers come along...
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Dave, from the November, 1939 issue of the Guide, it looks as though the simplest and most direct routing would have been B&M #310 (ex Su) to Boston (8:49 am to 11:05 am), and transfer from North Station to South Station. The Wolverine (#17), which left Boston at 3:50 pm and arrived in Ann Arbor at 8:27 am, had a through sleeper from Boston to Chicago. The Minute Man’s sleeper arrived in Albany 22 minutes after the Wolverine left. Thus, any attempt to use the B&M’s Boston-Chicago sleeper involved at least one more long wait.
The distance via this route was about 671 miles; via Montréal it was about 947 miles.
It would have been possible to take the B&M #57 (ex Su), which left Boston at 11:25 am and arrived in Troy at 5:35 pm, and had a connecting train to Albany (lv Troy at 5:55 pm, ar Albany at 6:20 pm), then take the Wolverine at 9:00 pm.
It also would have been possible to leave Franklin at 8:05, arrive in Concord at 9:18, take #3803 (ex Su) at 10:05, arrrive in Claremont Jct. at 12:23 pm, take #72 (ex Su) at 1:13 pm, arrive in Greenfield at 3:03 pm, and then take #57 at 3:00 pm--No, that will not work, unless #72 took only 20 minutes from East Northfield to Greenfield (the usual time from Greenfield to East Northfield), arriving at 2:57!
Johnny
The problem with the most direct routing was the NSta-SSta transfer. I believe the Atlantic Ave Elevated had already been shut down but not removed. A taxi in the middel of the day would not have out of the question, however.
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