New York Central 20^th Century Limited, 1948-1960s

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 was an overnight mostly Pullman train of the highest quality and red carpet service. The 20^th Century Limited competed with Pennsylvania’s Broadway Limited for speed and for exclusive clientele. Some coaches were added in the late 50s and again in 1960 when it was combined with the Commodore Vanderbilt and the all-coach Pacemaker. The train was fast and completed the 961 mile trip in about 16 hours

 

Henry Dreyfuss designed the décor of the whole train including the lightning stripe design on the diesels. After the Pullman Standard settlement in 1948, sleepers were owned by New York Central but leased back and operated by Pullman. The 20^th Century travelled in several sections if passenger demand warranted. Some cars of the 1940 train were refurbished and repainted in the new two-tone grey scheme in 1948. Most of the cars in the 1948 train were newly manufactured by Pullman Standard and by the Budd Corporation. The signature car of the train was the 5-double-bedroom lounge observation cars in the Creek series, of which two were built in 1948. The lounge area had giant windows, and the light grey window band jogged between the normal-sized windows in the front and underneath the giant windows in the rear. This light grey band echoed the lightning stripes of the paint on the locomotives. The train declined and was cancelled in 1967.

 

The train can be modeled with Centralia-Intermountain passenger cars in the NYC postwar paint scheme, a few Walther’s 10/6 sleepers, and some Concor Budd cars. Few of the model cars are exact matches for the 1960 prototype cars, but most are fairly close. The 1948 Creek series observation car is not made in plastic in N scale, but the observation cars from the earlier 20^th Century were rebuilt and used on the second sections, so the observation car on this model train is prototypical for the 20^th Century Limited (see photo below). Photos of the postwar 20^th Century Limited generally show some stainless steel Budd cars, and because the coaches introduced in 1960 were nearly all Budd cars, the coaches in front were shiny cars. The fraction of Budd cars seems to have increased with time through the 60s, perhaps because of being combined with other NYC trains, or because the Budd cars had more room capacity or were easier to maintain than the grey Pullman Standard cars.

 

The new 20^th Century Limited posed for NYC company photographer Ed Nowak on September 9, 1948. Note the E7 locomotives, baggage-RPO car and string of Pullman Standard roomette sleepers in the new two-tone grey paint scheme. The location is Garrison New York along the Hudson River north of Peekskill. Photo from Twentieth Century Limited by Karl Zimmerman.

 

An E7B unit between E8 locomotives on the 20^th Century Limited photographed just south of Chicago’s loop. It is summer 1962 and Budd stainless steel coaches from the now-combined Commodore Vanderbilt and Pacemaker trains are visible behind the grey-banded RPO car. Photo by George Speer from Twentieth Century Limited by Karl Zimmerman.

 

The 20^th Century Limited passing South Bend Indiana. Louis Marre photo from  August 5, 1966.

 

The 20^th Century Limited first section (left) and second section (right) at LaSalle Street Station in Chicago. The observation car with the tall windows was a Creek series car built in 1948 and is welded. The other car with smaller windows is a River series car rebuilt from the original 1938 train and is an older riveted car.

 

The 20^th Century Limited is northbound near Cold Spring along the east side of the Hudson. Power (at left in photo) is three E units followed by a string of Budd stainless steel cars and grey sleepers and diners. It is 1964 when the train has a large complement of coaches. Photo by Richard Solomon from Classic American Streamliners by Schaefer and Welsh.

 

The 20^th Century Limited along the Hudson River circa 1949.

 

The 20^th Century Limited consist is from Doughty’s New York Central passenger cars, trains and travel for a train departing New York City on May 18, 1960. There are only slight differences in window placement between the prototype Pullman Standard cars and the Intermountain models. The baggage car and the 4-2-4 sleeper were used on the 20^th Century Limited but is not in this 1960 consist, but I included one of each in the model train. The train will have more Budd coaches and a Budd grill-diner in the front after this time when the 20^th Century is combined with the Commodore Vanderbilt and Pacemaker trains.

 

 

 

First part

The E7 and E8 diesel locomotives are prototypical Lifelike models as used in the 1960 train. The 20^th Century frequently had an RPO-baggage car even though one is not in this 1960 consist, but I included an Intermountain model to be true to many photographs. The RPO section is positioned in front of the large baggage door.

 

Second part

The dormitory car would be next if I had a model of the car, but Centralia did not make one. In this model train the crew has been upgraded to an 18 roomette City series car. Next are a Budd coach and a Budd sleepercoach (slumbercoach), both Concor models. Next is an Intermountain model of an 18-roomette car representing a 22-roomette car in the original train. The roomette car is followed by two 10-roomette 6-double bedroom cars in the River series. These are prototypical Walthers models of the PS 10/6 sleepers.

 

Third part

After the two Walthers plan 4140 10/6 sleepers is an Intermountain 10/5 “Cascade Channel” standing for another 10/6. The prototype of the two-unit lounge and dining section consists of a kitchen-lounge car adjacent to a full-length 64 seat dining car. N scale models of this pair of cars are not made, so I use a Rapido model of a café-bar-lounge and an Intermountain “eastern” diner.

 

Fourth part

The next group of cars was four 12-bedroom (“Port” series) or 13-bedroom  (“County” series) cars. I use the available Intermountain 13-bedroom  County cars for this group. The widely-spaced windows in the county cars were on the hallway side of the car. I added an older 4-compartment 2-drawing room 4-bedroom car to this sleeper group named “Queensboro Bridge” because these 4-2-4 cars were often used even though one was not in this 1960 consist. Lastly is the 2-double bedroom 1-compartment 1-drawing room lounge observation car named “Maumee River”. As explained above, the River observations ended the second sections of the 1948 edition of the 20^th Century Limited. The Creek series observations with the tall windows were the signature car of the 1948 20^th Century but I have only a River car for a 20^th Century second section.

 

    

 

 

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.

 

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