NYC Century Ltd east coast to west coast 1960ish

JonEMDfan Oct 25, 2022

  1. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    Hello. I want to do a train in HO of the NYC RR . My grandfather retired from NYCRR in 1959 or 1960. He took the train from Albany NY to California, I believe San Francisco or San Jose to retire. Would it have been most likely he took the NYCRR 20th Century Ltd to Chicago and then something else to the west coast? I am thinking an EMD E8A with Pullman cars for the Albany to Chicago leg? Any info or help most appreciated. John
     
  2. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Likely he took one of the trains to Chicago. He could have done it via St. Louis, but Chicago-California scheduling was generally better as few through joint service dedicated trains ran to the west coast out of St Louis.

    The trains west at that time generally traveled behind at least two diesel units. EMD E series aren't the only possibility, but are the most likely. His train had coaches. Even the 20th Century Ltd. had coaches by then.
     
  3. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, I know little of this subject as I was only 6 years old and don't even remember him leaving, all of a sudden he was gone. Did NYCRR or another carrier run from Chicago to California? Would UP or Santa Fe have had the route from the mid west to the California coast? Thanks for the information. John
     
  4. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    If he went to Chicago, there is really no way to guess how he went on westward. Even though they had freight service on west of there, he NYCRR's major passenger service at that time would have terminated in Chicago.

    A major railroad connection from there would have been the Santa Fe. They had their "Super Chief" to Los Angeles, then a connection from there to San Francisco. But did not serve San Jose.

    However, to the Bay area, he could have also gone by the California Zephyr. That was via the Burlington; Rio Grande and then the final leg on the WP.

    And then there was the Union Pacific's "City of San Francisco".
     
  5. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    ...also a joint operation with the Southern Pacific and, at that date, the Milwaukee Road.
     
  6. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    Thank you, I am learning more than I ever knew. My grandparents lived in Sunnyvale a suburb of San Jose. Their youngest daughter married a man who worked for Union Pacific BUT not until AFTER they were already moved to CA. So I have no idea if their son in law or son in law to be helped them figure out which line to use to get to San Jose. I think for now I will concentrate on the NYCRR from NY state to Chicago as my grandfather obviously used the carrier he was retired from, had a gold watch from and had a RR pension from NYCRR. I will dig into what type engines NYCRR used in 1959 era and go from there. Thank you immensely for the current information I had no idea of. Here is a picture of the NYCRR junction my grandfather worked at and retired from in 1959, this image is 4 years before he retired, an westt bound FA unit. This was western MA so the unit was from Springfield or Boston MA headed towards Albany NY on the Boston-Albany line. John
     

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  7. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    The road switchers RS2 and RS3 at the depot in 1955. John
     

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  8. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    That was a cold day. The steam generators (creating heat for passenger comfort) are being worked hard.
     
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  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    So he was a Boston & Albany RR man. The B&A was a subsidiary company of the NYC. It was absorbed a year or so after he retired. That is why they had paperwork which read "New York Central System", as then it could be used by the NYC and all of their other companies, instead of printing all kinds of separate forms.

    You might enjoy taking a peek at this B&A page: https://train-orders.com/TOUR/B/BAR/BAR.html (Part of my RR paper collection. :)
     
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  10. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, My grandfather originally worked in North Adams MA north of Pittsfield Junction, the junction in Pittsfield MA was known as the North Adams Junction, ????? No reason why that was as Pittsfield was the county seat and larger city. North Adams eventually saw LOTS of B&M units, I remember as a kid driving from North Adams to Fitchburg MA and there were miles and miles and miles of B&M blue box cars along the Rte 2 Mowhawk Trail tracks. There was a maintenance facility in Rensselaer NY not far from North Adams MA. John
     
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  11. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Branch lines are generally named for the endpoint, not the mainline junction point. You don't need the branch to get to Pittsfield.

    Does anyone call the Route 20 exit off the turnpike the Pittsfield turnoff? But it's not in Pittsfield, it's in Lee, right? Nonetheless, if you're going to Pittsfield, that's your junction. You've already found Lee.

    It's like when Groucho talked about crossing the viaduct and Chico asked, "Why a duck?" The question isn't so much where a junction? as why a junction?

    Make sense now?
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2022
  12. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    I knew Exit 2 on the MA Pike as the Lee exit all my life. 1953 to now to me it is still the "Lee" exit OR Rte 7&20 exit.....then again I am a native MA resident. John
     
  13. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Fair enough. And they didn't call the Pittsfield depot the North Adams station. But, well...

    No doubt your father could have explained it better than I can.
     
  14. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    Nope the Pittsfield station was Union Station on West st and built in 1914, torn down in '60s, it was ON the B&A Line. My dad had a drinking problem, he could not explain much, sad as it was. John
     

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  15. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Names for branch lines usually referenced the town or city where they terminated. In freight ("employee") timetables and passenger schedules, it would read something like Pittsfield (Union Station). Freight would terminate at the nearby yard. Which would be "Pittsfield", "Pittsfield Yard", or much less often, if named for someone in commemoration such as "John Doe Yard" or "Doe Yard".

    Sometimes the junction point was named for a point they never reached. (Insolvency, lack of investment, etc.) Or the line may simply have been cut back (abandoned) from that point, but the name stayed on.

    There were and are so many quirks for how and why names became attached, or were changed.
     
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  16. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    It's neat too that the old line names sometimes stay in use by railroaders in our modern era.
     
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  17. JonEMDfan

    JonEMDfan TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks again for the info, a couple different NYC units, first is a couple of DFA-4 Baldwin engines at the junction in 1955 and the second is a jet train with what looks like an engine from a B-47 Stratojet on the roof, unknown where that was taken. John
     

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  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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  19. Point353

    Point353 TrainBoard Member

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    You can download a copy of a 1959 NYC timetable here:
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Central_timetable_effective_July_12,_1959.pdf

    Walthers has produced an HO model of the 20th Century Limited:
    https://www.walthers.com/products/name-trains/20th-century-limited

     
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