New York Central 20^th Century Limited, 1938-1945

Fred Klein, 2015

The 20^th Century Limited was New York Central’s most deluxe train and was named because it started in 1902 at the beginning of the 20^th 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 20^th 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 20^th 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 20^th 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 20^th Century Limited along the Hudson River circa 1940.

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

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

The 20^th 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 20^th 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.