Penn Central mail trains

[timz]

in 4/69 and 10/69, 35 left GCT Sat only at 2046, stop Harmon and Poughkeepsie, arr Albany 2335.

Turns out I do have a Northeastern Region for 10/70.

Train 5 is at Albany 0815-0915 daily, stops Syracuse, at Buffalo 1445-1550. 6 is at Buffalo 0205-0320 daily, stops Syracuse, at Albany 0840-0910.

Couple of Western Region timetables, showing 5 and 6 west of Buffalo, at

http://prr.railfan.net/documents/EmployeeTimetables.html

 

[Christopher D]

Lake Region covers Buffalo to Chicago. Northeastern Region covers Albany to Buffalo. Does it say what time 35 left GCT? And any stops it made? Thanks.

[timz]

Don't have any PC empl TTs for west of Albany. (Lake Region, would that be?) As I recall, no help at multimodalways.org but maybe you should check. No help at http://prr.railfan.net/documents/EmployeeTimetables.html , so far anyway.

In 4/69 (and 10/69 I think) train 35 ran to Albany -- dunno about beyond. In 4/69 train 1 left GCT at 0551 daily, nonstop to Harmon, then nonstop to Albany. Train 2 left Albany 1750 daily, arrived GCT 2045. Train 5 left Spuyten Duyvil 0538 daily exc Mon and reached Stuyvesant at 0750 and didn't go to Albany -- presumably it continued west via Selkirk. But train 6 did leave Albany, at 0910, and arrived Spuyten Duyvil 1133. The 4/69 timetable doesn't show them running to 30th St, but the 10/69 does.

In 10/69, train 2 is gone and train 1 just runs to Harmon, where it presumably connects to train 5, which left 30th St at 0400 daily. Train 6 arrives 30th St 1330 daily. For some reason train 1 has an S stop at tower OW, 0.6 mile south of Tarrytown; no other stops shown.

[Christopher D]

Thanks for the info. Would you happen to know how far train 35 went and if train 1 happened to continue beyond Albany in April? I'm just wondering if anything made it all the way to Buffalo. Also does it look like there was any southbound counterpart to train 1? Based on this it looks like the book that I have is giving the pre Empire Service train numbers.

[timz]

In the 4/69 and 10/69 PC NY Region empl timetables (which cover NY-Albany and NY-Trenton) train 25 is the Duquesne and 3 is the Penn Texas. No 14, 15, 26 or 96 anywhere. Train 35 is a Sat-only newspaper train out of GCT; trains 5 and 6 run between 30th St and Albany and 1 runs GCT to Albany in April and just to Harmon in October. If you want details, speak up.

[Christopher D]

The reference I have is the book “25 Years to Oblivion” which lists the last runs of multiple RPO routes including the train numbers on which they ran. The numbers I posted above are what the book lists as the last trains to carry the RPO between NY and Buffalo on Nov. 4, 1969. Upon further examination It appears that trains 3 and 14 are New York Central mail trains and all the other numbers are pre Empire Service New York Central passenger trains. I know a lot changed when Empire service started and none of the above numbers appear in the Penn Central East/West time table. I don't have a Penn Central ETT that covers this area for 1969. If anyone out there has access to one it would show if any of these numbers continued as mail trains after Empire Service started.

[pennytrains]

With Penn Central anything was possible.

[Overmod]

Leads me to wonder if 25/26 were kept as a M&E train after the Century was taken off.  He says he has a reference...

[pennytrains]

NYC trains 25 & 26 were the 20th Century Limited.  However they were discontinued in 1967.

[Christopher D]

A few months ago I had posted asking about a Penn Central RPO route between NY and Buffalo. I just purchased a book listing discontinued RPO routes. For the NY to Buffalo RPO route it lists trains         3, 14, 15, 25, 26, 35, 96 all as carrying an RPO betwwen NY and Buffalo in 1969. Im assuming they are all mail/express trains because I dont see any of them listed in the East/West public timetable. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about these trains and what other types of cars they might have carried other than the RPO. The only mail train that I was aware of is train 5/6 between NY and Chicago. Thanks.