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New York Central 20th Century Limited, 1938-1945

New York Central 20th Century Limited, 1938-1945

Fred Klein, 2015

The 20th Century Limited was New York Central’s most deluxe train and was named because it started in 1902 at the beginning of the 20th century. This was the flag bearer of the “great steel fleet”. The train ran from Grand central terminal in New York City to LaSalle Street station in Chicago along the water level route. It made only a few stops enroute, primarily for crew and locomotive changes.  It was an overnight all-Pullman train of the highest quality and red carpet service, and an extra fare was charged. The 20th Century Limited competed with Pennsylvania’s Broadway Limited for speed and for exclusive clientele. NYC touted is as the “most famous train in the world”. The train was fast and completed the 961 mile trip in about 16 hours

 

In 1938 the train was re-launched as a streamliner with a Henry Dreyfuss designed shrouded Hudson locomotive made by the American Locomotive Company, and new Pullman sleeper cars from Pullman Standard. Dreyfuss designed the décor of the whole train. There were no curtained sections and it was an all-room train. All sleeper cars were owned and operated by Pullman. The fin on the rounded smokebox is pure art deco. The 1938 two-tone grey paint scheme had thin blue stripes, which were changed to silver in the 1940 scheme. The 20th Century travelled in several sections if passenger demand warranted. Diesel locomotives replaced steam in 1945. On September 15, 1948, new cars were installed in a different post-war two-toned grey scheme, and some cars were refurbished and repainted. Many of the 1938 Century cars went to the Commodore Vanderbilt in 1948, another all-Pullman train running New York to Chicago. The train declined and was cancelled in 1967.

 

The train can be modeled almost exactly with Centralia-Intermountain passenger cars in the 20th Century paint scheme. Only the dormitory-buffet-lounge car is not available factory made, and the RPO, diner and observation cars are not exact to the prototype but fairly close. Some of the cars were made in brass by Key in the early 1990s.

 

The 20th Century Limited along the Hudson River circa 1940.

 

Test run of the 20th Century Limited at LaSalle Street station in Chicago in 1938.

 

The 20th Century Limited departing Englewood station near Chicago on September 23, 1938. Henry Dreyfuss designed the car interiors, paint scheme, and locomotive shroud in the best art deco style. Photo by R.H. Kennedy from The American Passenger Train by Mike Schaefer.

 

An eastbound 20th Century Limited at Englewood Illinois circa 1940. Richard J. Cook photo from  Passenger trains of yesteryear: Chicago eastbound by Joseph Welsh.

 

The 20th Century Limited consist is from Wayner’s Passenger train consists 1923-1973 page 27 for a train departing Chicago on September 6, 1943. All of the cars, except for the dormitory-buffet-lounge car, are made in prototypical 1940 grey stripe colors by Centralia Car Shops-Intermountain. There are only slight differences in window placement between the prototype Pullman Standard cars and the Intermountain models. Concor made a model of the Hudson locomotive with streamline shrouding both with Kato manufacture (good running) and Chinese manufacture (poor running). Fortunately I have an excellent Key brass locomotive version with Scullin disc drivers made in the mid 1990s. It is a good runner but can’t quite pull all 16 cars of a full train. The locomotive is painted in the original 1938 scheme with blue stripes.

 

prototype car type

name or number

maker

brand

model car type

model name

proto?

4-6-4 Hudson steam loco

NYC 5450

Baldwin

Key

4-6-4 Hudson steam loco

NYC 5451

yes

Baggage-mail

NYC 5017 (to 5020)

PS

Interm

RPO-baggage

NYC 5017

similar

Dormitory-buffet-lounge

Century club

PS

none

10 rmt-5 dbr

Cascade Wonder

PS

Interm

10 rmt-5 dbr

Cascade Whisper

yes

17 roomette-1 sect

City of Cleveland

PS

Interm

18 roomette

City of Poughkeepsie

yes

17 roomette-1 sect

City of Dayton

PS

Interm

18 roomette

City of Peoria

yes

10 rmt-5 dbr

Cascade Glory

PS

Interm

10 rmt-5 dbr

Cascade Stream

yes

10 rmt-5 dbr

Cascade Whirl

PS

Interm

10 rmt-5 dbr

Cascade Run

yes

4 comp-4 dbr-2 draw

Imperial Fountain

PS

Interm

4 comp-4 dbr-2 draw

Imperial Chamber

yes

Diner

NYC 680 (to 685)

PS

Interm

Diner

NYC 680

similar

Diner

NYC 684

PS

Interm

Diner

NYC 680

similar

4 comp-4 dbr-2 draw

Imperial City

PS

Interm

4 comp-4 dbr-2 draw

Imperial Jewel

yes

4 comp-4 dbr-2 draw

Imperial Dome

PS

Interm

4 comp-4 dbr-2 draw

Imperial Scepter

yes

13 dbr

Onondaga County

PS

Interm

13 dbr

Dutchess County

yes

13 dbr

Hampden County

PS

Interm

13 dbr

Monroe County

yes

13 dbr

Montgomery County

PS

Interm

13 dbr

Lucas County

yes

13 dbr

Ashtabula County

PS

Interm

13 dbr

Onondaga County

yes

Observation-2 dbr-1 c-1 dr

Maumee River

PS

Interm

Observation-2 dbr-1 c-1 dr

Genessee River

yes

 

 

First part

 

The model of the spectacular art deco shrouded Hudson locomotive is a Key brass model.  All of the passenger cars are made by Centralia Car Shops-Intermountain, and are very similar to the Pullman Standard prototypes. First is the NYC owned RPO-baggage car with the RPO section positioned in front of the large baggage door. The dormitory-buffet-lounge car would be next if I had a model of the car, but Centralia did not make one. Next is a 10-roomette 5-double bedroom car in the Cascade series. After that are two 17-roomette 1-section cars in the “City of” series. Presumably the one section berth was for the Pullman porter.

 

The dormitory-lounge car followed the RPO car and before the first Pullman car. This is a photo of an HO brass model of the Century Club car. Centralia did not make an N scale lounge car.

 

Second part

 

Two more 10-roomette 5-double bedroom cars in the Cascade series follow.  Next is a 4-comparment 4-double bedroom 2-drawing room Imperial series car. The 20th Century Limited had two diner cars in the center of the train. The diners were back-to-back with the dining rooms adjacent to each other. After the last meal service the cars transformed into lounges serving drinks. The model is a Centralia-Intermountain “eastern” diner.

 

Third part

 

After the two diners were two Imperial 4-comparment 4-double bedroom 2-drawing room cars.  The small upper windows were for the upper bunk in the compartment rooms.

 

Fourth part

 

The next group of cars were four 13-bedroom cars in the “County” series. The widely-spaced windows in the county cars were on the hallway side of the car. Lastly was the 2-double bedroom 1-compartment 1-drawing room lounge observation car in the River series. These River observations were substituted during the war for the more opulent Island series observations because the Island cars with only 1 double bedroom and 1 master room did not have as much sleeping space as the River cars.

 

   

 

REFERENCES

 

Cook, Richard, Twentieth Century Limited 1938-1967, TLC Publishing, 1993.

Doughty, Geoffrey, New York Central passenger cars, trains and travel, TLC Publishing, 1997.

Morgan, David, “The greatest century of all”, article with photos, plans and scaled drawings, Model Railroader, April 1988.

Schaefer, Mike and Joe Welsh, Classic American Streamliners, Motorbooks International, 1997.

Zimmerman, Karl, Twentieth Century Limited, MBI Publishing, 2002.

 

http://www.american-rails.com/20th-century-limited.html

http://www.model160.com/n-scale-resources/prototypes-of-n-scale-models/passenger-consist-1943-nyc-20th-century-limited/

 

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