Classic Train Questions Part Deux (50 Years or Older)

[passengerfan]

I came up with five.

Ann Rutledge - Alton later GM&O between Chicago and St. Louis

Dixie Flagler - FEC owned but operated over the C&EI, NC&STL,L&N, AB&C, ACL, FEC between Chicago and Miami

Nellie Bly - PRR PRSL - Philadelphia - Atlantic City

Phoebe Snow - DL&W New York - Buffalo later after merger with Erie extended to Chicago

POCAHONTAS - N&W  between Norfolk and Cincinnatti 

Al - in - Stockton 

[al-in-chgo]

 

The Nancy Hanks, Atlanta - Savannah, Southern Rwy. 

[KCSfan]

Henry,

I had real life women in mind when I asked the question but I wasn't specific on that point. I think it's only right to accept Miss Phoebe and any other fictional women as valid answers.

Mark

[henry6]

Do they have to be real life people or could they be made up or fictional characters?  I.E. Phoebe Snow.

[KCSfan]

Not very many US trains were named after women. Name those in the 1900 - 1959 time period, the RR's over which they ran and their end point terminals. Specific women's names only; not, for example, the Southern Belle.

Mark

[wanswheel]

Mark, yes your turn.     

The quote is from A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, Now Met in Congress at Philadelphia, Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms. July 6, 1775.  This was the 2nd Continental Congress, same as that met in York in 1777 to formalize the union with Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union.

1941 Time article says the new Jeffersonian is only ten minutes slower than the Spirit of St. Louis, with which it was combined in 1950.  The Jeffersonian was discontinued in 1953.

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/images/adaccess/T/T31/T3108/T3108-med.jpeg

http://photoswest.org/photos/00014376/00014452.jpg

http://prr.railfan.net/documents/Jeffersonian/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795217,00.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=PxQpiIDTOh4C&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q=&f=true

Mike

[KCSfan]

The Pennsy's Jeffersonian running between New York and St. Louis. The quotation is attributable to Thomas Jefferson.

Mark

[wanswheel]

Not George Washington and not John Quincy Adams.

His last name within an adjective similar to Wilsonian.

[KCSfan]

 The New Haven's John Quincy Adams which ran between Boston and New York.

Mark

[passengerfan]

Was it the George Washington.

Al - in - Stockton

[wanswheel]

Nope

 

[al-in-chgo]

Did the route the train took operate all or mostly over today's CSX system? 

 

[wanswheel]

Yes

[al-in-chgo]

Did it operate all or mostly east of the Mississippi River?  -  a.s.

 

[wanswheel]

Nope. You're right the train was named for a president.

[al-in-chgo]

Was it the  Abraham Lincoln ?   -  al s.

 

[wanswheel]

"Our cause is just. Our union is perfect."

What train was named for the man who wrote that?

Mike

[adkdivfan]

wanswheel

Quemahoning Tunnel. Pittsburgh, Westmoreland & Somerset RR

http://timetabletrust.com/images/08689-1916may28.jpg

http://www.lvrra.org/pws.htm

Correct. A logging operation from 1909-1916 that offered a passenger connection to the PRR. A portal to this tunnel can be viewed by parking at mm 106.3 westbound, and carefully climbing over the guardrail. Wanswheel, you're up.

[wanswheel]

Quemahoning Tunnel. Pittsburgh, Westmoreland & Somerset RR

http://timetabletrust.com/images/08689-1916may28.jpg

http://www.lvrra.org/pws.htm

[henry6]

This is the neatest question I've seen here in a long time.

 

 

ER, no, I don't have the answer.

[adkdivfan]

In the 1880's NYC/Vanderbilt interests began construction of the South Penn RR from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh in reaction to PRR'S opening of the West Shore RR in New York State. A deal brokered by J. P. Morgan in 1885 resulted in the PRR & NYC trading these properties, and contruction of the South Penn was halted, but not before 11 of a proposed 13 tunnels were bored. In the 1930's the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission purchased the right-of-way and used 7 of the tunnels, 4 of which are still used today. Which 1 of the 11 bored was the only 1 to ever be used by trains, including passenger service, and by what railroad?

[al-in-chgo]

What a great question!  Based on your description of the limited trackage the Egyptian traversed that is now NS, I was dying at ask about Big Four routing.  But I didn't want to risk making yet another wag, especially since the questions were beginning to run out.  

Based on some time spent in "Egypt" (Sou. Illinois in general) I'm curious if anyone knows if that part of the route running through "Egypt" (Carbondale and south, for a perhaps oversimplified definition) is still in operation as freight, and whether the Bigs or short lines, or both, operate there; also whether any of that track has been ripped up.  Also what were the first few stops heading out of Cairo northward?   

I didn't mean to get this explicit, but feel free to e-mail or PM me if you'd rather not add extra space regarding a solved question. 

Am looking forward to the next question!  -  a.s.     

 

 

 

[KCSfan]

adkdivfan

The Egyptian, the only north-south NYC train out of Chicago that operated out of Lasalle St. Station, as opposed to Central Staion. Trains out of Central ran alongside, and presumbly under at some point, the wires of the Illinois Central Electric suburban service, shared by the CSS & SB. This train carried sleepers to/from Harrisburg IL at least as late as 1943. The southern terminus was Cairo on the north bank of the Ohio River, 459 miles from Chicago.. The route from Englewood through Whiting IN is NS's ex-Conrail entrance to Chicago today.

Bingo, you've got it. The humble Egyptian of the Big Four (NYC) running between Chicago and Little Egypt in Southern Illinois. It was the only NYC train that ran out of Chicago on a true N-S route. In the late 1930's it carried Pullmans from both Cairo and Evansville via a connection from Mount Carmel. Sometime after WW2 it was cut back to run only between Chicago and Harrisburg. I don't know when the train was discontinued but it ran at least until the mid '50's. Its consist in the latter years was RPO's, baggage/mail/express cars, two non-reclining seat coaches and a single heavyweight Pullman.

Welcome to the forums and the Classic Train Questions game adkdivfan. The next question is yours to ask.

Mark

[adkdivfan]

The Egyptian, the only north-south NYC train out of Chicago that operated out of Lasalle St. Station, as opposed to Central Staion. Trains out of Central ran alongside, and presumbly under at some point, the wires of the Illinois Central Electric suburban service, shared by the CSS & SB. This train carried sleepers to/from Harrisburg IL at least as late as 1943. The southern terminus was Cairo on the north bank of the Ohio River, 459 miles from Chicago.. The route from Englewood through Whiting IN is NS's ex-Conrail entrance to Chicago today.

[al-in-chgo]

Mark, I would  guess the Twentieth Century Limited, but part of its route ot of NYC/GCS was powered by "shoe" and the route is more than 500 miles long.

We know that the train used what are today called "slab-sided" coaches as opposed to fluted or streamlined ones, that its route was less than 500 miles, no part of its run was electrified, that one of the terminals was Chicago but the other one was not Detroit.   Also that at least some of its run was over the old New York Central. 

I'm a loss.  The only clarification I can think of this time is to ask whether this train, at any point in its history as a passenger train, carried "slumbercoaches" (aka sleepercoaches -- no need to be picky about the brand name).   -  al

 

[KCSfan]

Now that you have the RR, the answers to some of the prior questions ought to make identifying the train a slam dunk.

Mark

[KCSfan]

al-in-chgo

Let me ask:  Was any part of the name of the train any kind of name of a personage (live, dead, mythological, whatever)?   

(15) No

Mark

[KCSfan]

Deggesty

wanswheel

Did the state in the railroad's name enter the Union after 1776?

Wasn't the question really, "Was the state in the railroad's name one of the original thirteen?"

Johnny

Johnny, that's what I interpreted Mike's question to mean.

Mark

[al-in-chgo]

Deggesty

wanswheel

Did the state in the railroad's name enter the Union after 1776?

There was no Union to be entered until the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were adopted by the Continental Congress 15 November 1777. These Articles declared that the thirteen states were united. http://www.usconstitution.net/articles.html

Wasn't the question really, "Was the state in the railroad's name one of the original thirteen?"

Johnny

Well, I'm not sure if we deserve a point to be credited back to us, but at least we know it was NYC. 

Let me ask:  Was any part of the name of the train any kind of name of a personage (live, dead, mythological, whatever)?   

COUNTS AS NAME (an example, not a proposed answer):  "The Mercury Express." 

DOES NOT COUNT:  "The Dogwood." 

 

[Deggesty]

wanswheel

Did the state in the railroad's name enter the Union after 1776?

There was no Union to be entered until the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were adopted by the Continental Congress 15 November 1777. These Articles declared that the thirteen states were united. http://www.usconstitution.net/articles.html

Wasn't the question really, "Was the state in the railroad's name one of the original thirteen?"

Johnny