20TH CENTURY LIMITED

The '''20th Century Limited''' was an express passenger train operated by the New York Central Railroad from 1902 to 1967, during which time it would become known as a "National Institution" and the "Most Famous Train in the World." In the year of its last run, ''The New York Times'' said that it "''...was known to railroad buffs for 65 years as the world's greatest train.''" The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois along the railroad's famed "Water Level Route". The NYC inaugurated this train as direct competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad's ''Broadway Limited'', both lines intended for upper class as well as business travelers between the two cities. Making few station stops along the way and as few breaks for water and coal as possible, trains on this route routinely could make the 960.7-mile journey in as little as 15 1/2 hours (but usually in 16 hours): about 60 mph.
Known for its style as well as for its speed, passengers walked to and from the train on a plush, crimson carpet which was rolled out in New York and Chicago and was specially designed for the ''20th Century Limited''; thus, the "red carpet treatment" was born.

Contents

History

Timeline

Sample Consist

In fiction

See also

References

External links

History

Inaugurated on June 17, 1902 by patent medicine salesman turned passenger agent George Henry Daniels, the train offered a barbershop and secretarial services in addition to a red carpet for which it became well known^[1]. The train arrived in Chicago at Union Station three minutes ahead of schedule. At that time, the trip took twenty hours, cutting four hours off the time previously required. The New York Times report laid great stress on the routine nature of the trip, with no special procedures being followed and no special efforts being made to break records. It stated that there "''...was no excitement along the way,''" and quoted a railroad official as saying "''...it is a perfectly practical run and will be continued,''" and the engineer (William Gates) as saying "''This schedule can be made without any difficulty. I can do it every time, barring accidents.''"

In its heyday, regular passengers included Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Lillian Russell, "Diamond Jim" Brady, the elder J. P. Morgan, Enrico Caruso, and Nellie Melba.
In 1928, its peak year, it earned revenues of $10 million and was believed to be the most profitable train in the world. Also in 1928, Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker, who eventually became the first commissioner of NASCAR, raced the ''20th Century Limited'' from New York to Chicago in an automobile, beating the train.
In 1938 the noted industrial designer, Henry Dreyfuss, was commissioned by the New York Central to design the streamlined train sets in Art Deco style, with the locomotive and passenger cars rendered in blues and grays (the colors of the New York Central). The streamlined sets were inaugurated on June 15, 1938. His design was extremely famous, and probably the most famous American passenger train of all time. All were destroyed and used as scrap metal..
Until 1957, the train only made station stops at Grand Central Terminal and Croton-Harmon for New York-area passengers and LaSalle Street Station and Englewood for Chicago-area passengers, and the train was a 100% Pullman train. These traveled in as many as seven sections, of which the first was named The 'Advance 20th Century Limited'^[2]. If trains ran on schedule they would pass halfway not far west of Buffalo Central Terminal. The tracks of the New York and Harlem Railroad were used from Grand Central to the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad, which it used to reach the New York Central's main line along the Water Level Route, north along the Hudson River and west to Buffalo, then southwest and west on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway along the south shore of Lake Erie, and north into Chicago, merging with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad at Englewood. In case of track closures, alternate routes such as the New York and Harlem Railroad from New York to Chatham, NY and Boston & Albany Railroad from there to Albany, NY, or New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad between Schenectady and Buffalo could be used.
The ''20th Century Limited'' (and specifically, car #10006) was used in the filming of Alfred Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest'', released in 1959. The car was built by Pullman-Standard in 1939, and was scrapped in 1968. It carried the name ''Imperial State'' and featured 4 double bedrooms, 4 single compartments, and 2 drawing rooms (a "4-4-2"). The interior of the car as seen in the film was actually a set built by MGM Studios.
By the late 1950s the train was in decline. On December 2, 1967 at 6:00 P.M., the train left Grand Central Terminal on track 34 for the last time, half-full. As always, carnations were given to men boarding the train, and perfume and flowers to the women. The next day, it straggled into LaSalle Street Station in Chicago nine hours late on account of a freight derailment in Ohio, which caused a re-routing along a portion of the
"Nickel Plate Road" (New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad) east of
Cleveland, Ohio.
Today, Amtrak operates a New York-Chicago train named the ''Lake Shore Limited''. The only differences are as follows: at the New York terminus, it runs to Penn Station; on the Chicago end, it switches to the former Pennsylvania Railroad's Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway at Whiting, Indiana, running into Union Station.

Timeline

One of the NYC Hudsons fitted with the iconic streamlined casing designed by Henry Dreyfuss.

★ June 15, 1902: The ''20th Century Limited'' is inaugurated.

★ 1913: The line is electrified south of Croton-Harmon, and the engine change point is moved there.

★ June 15 1938: The Dreyfuss Hudson is introduced to pull the new, streamlined ''20th Century Limited''.

★ 1957: The ''20th Century Limited'' is consolidated together with the ''Commodore Vanderbilt'', adding more station stops to the original four (two terminals and two suburban stops).

★ July 1959: The ''20th Century Limited'' is prominently featured in the MGM film ''North by Northwest'' starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.

★ December 3, 1967: The ''20th Century Limited'' is discontinued just before the merger of the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad that forms the Penn Central.

★ August 26, 1999: The United States Postal Service issues 33-cent ''All Aboard! 20th Century American Trains'' commemorative stamps featuring five celebrated American passenger trains from the 1930s and 1940s. One of the five stamps features an image of a streamlined J-3a steam locomotive leading the ''20th Century Limited'' out of the Chicago railyards on its way to New York, with the Board of Trade Building in the background.

Sample Consist

Westbound train #25-'20th Century Limited', 1938-03-17; Sampled at New York, New York^[3].

★ Locomotive: Class T3A Electric Locomotive.

★ Class 'MP' Postal Car: NYC #4857.

★ Class 'CS' Baggage-Club Car: NYC 'VAN TWILLER'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (8 Sections; 1 Drawing Room; 2 Compartments) 'CENTACORRA'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleepers (6 Sections; 6 Double Bedrooms) 'POPLAR PARK; POPLAR HIGHLANDS'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (6 Compartment; 3 Drawing Rooms) 'GLEN ANNA'.

★ Class 'DA' Diners; NYC 654; NYC 655.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (6 Sections; 6 Double Bedrooms); 'POPLAR GROVE'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleepers (13 Double Bedrooms); 'MACOMB HOUSE'; 'PRINGLE HOUSE'.

★ Class 'PSO' Sleeper-Buffet-Lounge-Observation (1 Drawing Room; 1 Single Bedroom); 'ELKHART VALLEY'.
Westbound train #25-'20th Century Limited', 1965-03-30, sampled at Cleveland, Ohio^[4].

★ Locomotive: E-7A Diesel # NYC 4025

★ Locomotive: E-8A Diesel # NYC 4080

★ Locomotive: E-7A Diesel # NYC 4007

★ Class 'MB' Baggage-Mail Car: NYC #5018

★ Class 'CSB' Baggage-Dormitory Car: NYC 8979

★ Class 'PB' Coach NYC 2942

★ Class 'DG' Grill Diner; NYC 450.

★ Class 'PAS' Sleepercoaches (16 Single Rooms; 10 Double Rooms) NYC 10811; 10817

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (22 Roomettes) NYC 10355 'BOSTON HARBOR'.

★ Class 'DKP' Kitchen-Lounge Car: NYC 477.

★ Class 'DE' Dining Room Car; NYC 406.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (10 Roomettes; 6 Double Bedrooms); NYC 10171 'CURRENT RIVER'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleepers (12 Double Bedrooms); NYC 10511 'PORT OF DETROIT'; 10501 'PORT BYRON'.

★ Class 'PSO' Sleeper-Buffet-Lounge-Observation (5 Double Bedrooms); NYC 10633 'HICKORY CREEK'
Eastbound train #26-'20th Century Limited', 1943-09-06; Sampled at Chicago, Illinois^[5].

★ Locomotive: Class J3a (4-6-4 HUDSON) Steam Locomotive NYC 5450.

★ Class 'MB' Baggage-Mail Car: NYC #5017.

★ Class 'DDL' Dormitory-Buffet-Lounge Car: NYC 'CENTURY CLUB'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (10 Roomettes; 5 Double Bedrooms) 'CASCADE WONDER'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleepers (17 Roomettes) 'CITY OF CLEVELAND'; 'CITY OF DAYTON'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleepers (10 Roomettes; 5 Double Bedrooms) 'CASCADE GLORY'; 'CASCADE WHIRL'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (4 Double Bedrooms; 4 Compartments; 2 Drawing Rooms); 'IMPERIAL FOUNTAIN'

★ Class 'DA' Diners; NYC 680; NYC 684.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (4 Double Bedrooms; 4 Compartments; 2 Drawing Rooms); 'IMPERIAL DOME'; 'IMPERIAL CITY'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleepers (13 Double Bedrooms); 'ONONDAGA COUNTY'; 'HAMPDEN COUNTY'; 'ASHTABULA COUNTY'.

★ Class 'PSO' Sleeper-Buffet-Lounge-Observation (2 Double Bedrooms; 1 Compartment; 1 Drawing Room); 'MAUMEE RIVER'.
Eastbound train #38-'Advance 20th Century Limited', 1930-02-07; Sampled at Chicago, Illinois^[6].

★ Locomotive: J-1 Class (4-6-4 HUDSON) Steam Locomotive; NYC #5270

★ Class 'CS' Baggage-Club Car: NYC 'EAGLE HEIGHTS'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (14 Sections) 'STAR VIEW'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (8 Sections; 1 Drawing Room; 2 Compartments) 'SPRING GAP'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (6 Compartment; 3 Drawing Rooms) 'GLEN ALICE'.

★ Class 'DA' Diners; NYC 387.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (14 Sections) 'STAR SPUR'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (10 Sections; 2 Double Bedrooms); 'GANNETT PEAK'.

★ Class 'PS' Sleeper (8 Sections; 1 Drawing Room; 2 Compartments) 'GLOVER GAP'.

★ Class 'PSO' Sleeper-Buffet-Lounge-Observation (1 Drawing Room; 1 Single Bedroom); 'MOHAWK VALLEY'.

In fiction

The ''20th Century Limited'' was the setting for a Broadway musical composed by Cy Coleman and written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green entitled ''On the Twentieth Century'', about the romantic complications of a beautiful actress and an egocentric producer/director. Madeline Kahn and John Cullum starred in the short-running production, whose spectacular production design featured both the lavish Art Deco details of the time period as well innovative staging to open up what could be cramped quarters inside a train car. The musical was based on the 1932 Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur stage play of the same subject, which in 1934 they adapted as a film entitled ''Twentieth Century'', directed by Howard Hawks, with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore in the lead roles. The train also figured prominently as a setting for major scenes in both Alfred Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest'' and George Roy Hill's ''The Sting''.

See also

★ ''Empire State Express''

★ ''Ohio State Limited''

★ ''Dreyfuss Hudson''

References

;General

★ The Twentieth Century Limited, , Lucius, Beebe, Howell-North Publishing, 1962,

★ The Twentieth Century Limited, , Richard J., Cook, Sr., TLC Publishing, 1993,

★ ''20th Century Limited'' Karl Zimmerman
;Specific
1. 'Kenneth T. Jackson: ''The Encyclopedia of New York City''': The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 1207.
2. Railroad Dot Net
3. Wayner Publications; Robert J. Wayner; '''Passenger Train Consists; 1923-1973'''. P.18
4. Wayner Publications; Robert J. Wayner; '''Passenger Train Consists; 1923-1973'''. P.86
5. Wayner Publications; Robert J. Wayner; '''Passenger Train Consists; 1923-1973'''. P.27
6. Wayner Publications; Robert J. Wayner; '''Passenger Train Consists; 1923-1973'''. P.14

External links

★ ''20th Century Limited''

★ ''All Aboard! 20th Century American Trains'' 1999 USPS Stamp Program

★

★ ''Hickory Creek'' observation car - still in service as a private rail car for charters: one of only two remaining Amtrak-certified cars that were used on the New York Central's ''20th Century Limited''. The other is the former ''Sandy Creek'',
now owned by GrandLuxe Rail Journeys (formerly the ''American Orient Express'') and named ''New York''. Both were built by Pullman-Standard as large-windowed observation cars for the September, 1948 re-equipping of the train.