Sorry, no photos, only memories of riding the Spirit of St. Louis from NYC to Columbus on an August night in 1965. I had taken NYC's Ohio State Limited from Col's to NYC a week earlier to visit friends, then returned home on the Pennsy. Maybe I rode with your dad? I vividly recall seeing Zoo Tower pass by and the train shed at Harrisburg. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see the GG1-to-diesel swap there from on board. We crossed the Susquehanna River in daylight, but darkness came as we cruised along the Juniata River. K-4 1361 was floodlighted as we passed Horse Shoe Curve, and Pittsburgh at midnight, the steel mills blazing, was a great sight. I guess I slept from there to Col's, where the next day's dawn was breaking. Oh, I still recall a conductor on the Main Line calling out, "Coatesville" with his distinctive, eastern Pa. accent - something between "Coatesvile" and "Catesville." My memories of breakfast while cruising along the Hudson River are vivid, too, but that's another part of the story. I'm so glad I made that trip by train!
The 6 and 10 did operate through to Amtrak start-up and I rode Silver Rapids in this service from NY to Ann Arbor, via Detroit.
daveklepper You are correct: The NYC trains that had slumbercoaches continued with them with PC, except that the New York - Detroit slumbercoach was dropped, but I am unsure whether this was during NYC or PC management. The Boston - Chicago slumbercoach was dropped by NYC and did not make it to Amtrak.
You are correct: The NYC trains that had slumbercoaches continued with them with PC, except that the New York - Detroit slumbercoach was dropped, but I am unsure whether this was during NYC or PC management. The Boston - Chicago slumbercoach was dropped by NYC and did not make it to Amtrak.
Johnny
We've beat the slumbercoach issue into the ground....anyone out there care to comment on the original question in this post??
Quoting Dave Klepper: "The PRR and PC did not run any slumbercoaches or sleepercoaches."
Dave, you are referring to just the former PRR trains, and not to the former NYC trains, are you not? In 1969 and 1970, I rode in sleepercoaches on former NYC trains (NYC to Detroit in 1969, and Rensselaer to Chicago in 1970).
The PRR and PC did not run any slumbercoaches or sleepercoaches. They were introduced to the Broadway the first day the Broadway was run by Amtrak. I had gotten off the last eastbound City at Elgin, rather than continue to C&NW Chicago, so that my friends in Barlett could easily meet me. The agent was on duty, and I said he could make Amtrak reservations for me to NY but I would have to buy the tickets at Union Station. I found out the "Steel Fleet" via Toledo and Buffalo was not running, but the Broadway was and had slumbercoaches or sleepercoaches. They were simply the cars shifted off the old NYC route onto the PRR route. I recognized them as the rebuilt roomette cars the NYC and PC had been using on what is now the Lakeshore but was then called by most of us :The Steel Fleet." I rode Amtrak's Broadway often, and often this was in the slumbercoach/sleepercoach. I had not ridden the PC or PRR Broadway as often, but did ride it. On at least two occasions when I wished to ride the Broadway in PRR days, I had to ride the General instead.
I rode the duplex roomette or single-room "Creek" cars on both the General and the Broadway on a few occasions, but the regular roomettes more often. And coach several times.
It probably wasn't a slumbercoach but the Broadway in the Pre-Amtrak era did include duplex roomette sleepers in its consist.
daveklepper After overnight with friends in Bartlett IL, I had a sleepercoar or slumbercoach on the Broadway Chi - NY.
After overnight with friends in Bartlett IL, I had a sleepercoar or slumbercoach on the Broadway Chi - NY.
Dave, I didn't realize that the Broadway Ltd. ever ran with slumbercoaches. Do you (or any one else) remember when the PRR, or maybe it was the PC by that time, added them to the consist of the Broadway. My one and only trip in a slumbercoach was in 1964 between NY and Chi on the 20th Century. In terms of space and comfort they were decidedly inferior to a roomette so after that one experience I always willingly paid the extra fare and travelled in a roomette on overnight trips.
Mark
Possibly the trainman who talked to me in the dining car was not a conductor but a trainman-ticket collector, and he was worried that some Amtrak official had boarded the train in Phily, so both he and your Dad agreed to ask me to ride the rest of the way in a coach. That might be one explanation. I am pretty certain the conductor was your Dad, and he was fairly used to my practice of riding Lancaster - NY on a Harrisburg - NY ticket just so I could ride "his" train. I never regretted paying the difference, even when the expense account could not provide reembursement, because of the lack of hastle of changing at Philly and the Broadway's continiuing good dining car food to the end of its operation. And assurance of comfortable equipment . Many of the Keystone trains at the time had the rebuilt Budd equipment, once luxurious as Senator and Congressional cars or 22-roomette sleepers, but now with non-reclining hard-back seats, half in each direction, as commuter cars.
Also, The evening of May 3rd through May 4th, 1971, I rode the third eastbound Amtrak Broadway limited. I had been in the LA area at an Audio Engineering Society Convention, and was lucky enough to get a roomette on the last eastbound City fo Los Angeles, with 844 up front between Rawlins and Cheyenne. After overnight with friends in Bartlett IL, I had a sleepercoar or slumbercoach on the Broadway Chi - NY.
My Dad passed away a number of years ago and I heard alot about the regular commuters. At one point in the late 60's the son of one commuter was a playmate for a few years. 28 and 48 from what my father related, carried a number of passengers locally from Harrisburg, Lancaster and Paoli to New York. Apparently when it was all-Pullman the "regulars" rode with a 1st class tkt and were charged the rate for a Parlor Car Seat. I'm sure he could have pulled a few people from memory and was tolerant of railfans that didn't spew endless unrelated facts about the RR. He would have been on 48 on the day you mentioned(29 April) but it sounds odd about a new crew at Philly...he would have gone through to New York. In any event well behaved fans were treated well and it could be unpleasant for "foamers"! Thanks for the note!
I do not have photos at hand at the moment, and hope others can supply what you need. I can say that I am sure I rode with your Dad lots of times. Possibly he remembers a passenger who wanted to ride the Broadway back from Lancaster to NY and thus bought a round-trip ticket to Harrisburg, paying the extra fare, since the ticket from Harrisburg would allow me to ride back from Lancaster, otherwise a discharge only station for the eastbound Broadway, in PRR, PC, and Amtrack days.
A day before the last eastbound Amtrak Broadway, I had business in Lancaster. Coming back I pulled my usual stunt. The conductor said, there are some friends of yours in Bedroom ? of the sleeper, and you have my permission to ride with them, and I did, two fellow railfans returning from Chicago. But while I was having a meal in the dining car, the replacement conductor who got on at 30th Street said "Don't go back to the sleeper. You are traveling on a coach ticket, and you must go to the coach for the rest of your trip." I replied: "No problem, I will do so after I retrieve my luggage from the sleeper."
Anyone out there have pictures of the trains noted at Harrisburg, Lancaster, Paoli or North Philadelphia in the period 1967-1971? Pictures of trainmen from those trains at those locations? My Dad was a Harrisburg Division Conductor 1939-1982 and try as I might I can find little out there or for that matter fans willing to deal on photos from that era. (to hear my Dad there was no lack of fans back then). Your stories about riding in the final declining days of PC passenger service would be interesting too.
I'm also looking for pictures of PC Train #23 on April 30th 1971 at Lancaster and PC Train #31 at North Philadelphia or Paoli on April 29th 1971. In the first instance I was on that last run before Amtrak and looked out at a large number of fans that afternoon in Lancaster. In the latter case it was my Dad's last pre-Amtrak run on the PC. He didn't get a regular run on the remaining long distance trains until the National Limited began on an independent basis, east of Harrisburg, several years later.
I was a teenager then and the photographers were adults young and old so I hope some of you are still active in the hobby.
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