Broadway Limited

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The all-Pullman Broadway Limited cruises through Metuchen, New Jersey in the Summer of 1961.
"Drumhead" logos such as these often adorned the ends of observation cars on the Broadway Limited.

The Broadway Limited was the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) premier named passenger train, operating one train daily in either direction between New York (or Washington, D.C.) and Chicago. The Broadway ran from 1912 (although its train Nos. 28 and 29 operated from 1902 as the Pennsylvania Special) and outlasted the Pennsylvania Railroad, operating under Amtrak until 1995. The name referred not to Broadway in Manhattan, but rather to the "broad way" of the Pennsylvania Railroad's four-track right of way along a large portion of the route.

Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited

Equipment used

In 1938, the Broadway Limited was completely reequipped with lightweight steel cars to replace the heavyweight steel cars. The new equipment's industrial design was a product of Raymond Loewy, who would later go on to design the PRR GG1 to pull the train, as well as some streamlined steam locomotives for the PRR. This train was the PRR's only pre-World War II train to receive such an equipment investment; other PRR trains used heavyweight cars until after the War. Most of the equipment in the 1938 upgrade was built new by Pullman-Standard between March and May of that year, but the diners were rebuilt from heavyweight cars by the railroad's Altoona shops. The 1938 consist included the following equipment:

  • sleeper (18 roomettes), one of 8 cars named City of Baltimore, City of Cincinnati, City of Columbus, City of New York, City of Philadelphia, City of Pittsburgh, City of St. Louis or City of Washington.
  • sleeper-lounge (2 double bedrooms, secretary's room, barber shop, shower-bath, bar/lounge), either Harbor Point or Harbor Springs.
  • diner, a heavyweight car rebuilt at the Altoona shops.
  • sleeper (4 compartments, 2 drawing rooms, 4 double bedrooms), one of four cars named Imperial Park, Imperial Pass, Imperial Plateau or Imperial Point.
  • sleeper (13 double bedrooms), either Allegheny County or New York County.
  • sleeper-buffet-lounge-observation (2 master rooms, 1 double bedroom), Metropolitan View, Skyline View, Mountain View, or Tower View.

Station stops

Station Stops, 1958

Cars from PRR's Exchange Place terminal in Jersey City were added at Newark. Passengers from the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's Hudson Terminal could transfer to these cars, and connections from Hudson Terminal were listed in PRR timetables.

Amtrak's Broadway Limited

When Amtrak started up on May 1, 1971, the Broadway Limited continued to use the all-PRR route, with a split at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for trains to Washington, DC via Perryville, Maryland along the former Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad, Columbia and Port Deposit Railway and Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad until November 30, 1975. On November 12, 1990, due to Conrail's desire to abandon part of the former Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway in northwest Indiana, the line was rerouted to use the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west of Pittsburgh into Chicago. In 1995 the Broadway Limited was ended, though it was later brought back as the Three Rivers, the latter of which has since been discontinued by Amtrak west of Pittsburgh.

References

  • Wayner, Robert J., ed. (1972). Car Names, Numbers and Consists. Wayner Publications, New York, NY. (out of print). 
  • Mike Schafer, Amtrak's atlas, Trains June 1991

See also

External links

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