Interstate Express

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Interstate Express - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interstate Express

Overview

Service type

Inter-city rail

Status

Discontinued

Locale

Northeastern United States

First service

1929

Last service

1957

Former operator(s)

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
Central Railroad of New Jersey
Reading Company
Baltimore and Ohio

Route

Termini

Syracuse, New York, U.S.
Washington, D.C., U.S.

Distance travelled

376.2

Average journey time

Southbound: 13 hrs 25 min
Northbound: 15 hrs 35 min (1954)

Service frequency

Daily

Train number(s)

Southbound: 1306
Northbound: 1301

On-board services

Seating arrangements

No coach between Binghamton and Wilkes-Barre

Sleeping arrangements

Sections and single bedrooms

Catering facilities

Diner-Lounge

Technical

Rolling stock

Streamlined passenger cars by Pullman Standard

Track gauge

4 ft 81⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Route map

Legend

Syracuse

Tully

Homer

Cortland

Marathon

Whitney Point

The Interstate Express was a long-distance passenger train operating between Syracuse, New York, and Philadelphia, jointly operated by the Reading Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. These lines offered a long distance overnight line in Train 1301 (north-bound)/ 1306 (south-bound). Connecting service by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad offered continuing service south from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.^[1]

Service limitations

The train was presented as affording Washington to Syracuse travel. However, the trip required a change from riding a B&O train in metropolitan Philadelphia to a train originating from the Reading Terminal. The one-station transfer would be available at Wayne Junction in North Philadelphia. However, by 1949 the Interstate Express did not stop at Wayne Junction in the northbound direction; so, passengers would need to transfer at Lansdale station. Riders seeking to transfer in Philadelphia would need to disembark at the B&O's 24th & Chestnut Station in Philadelphia, take a cab or the Market Street subway to Reading Terminal for the originating northbound DLW train. Southbound, this transfer would be available.^[2]^[3]^[4] Indeed, by 1954, the Wayne Junction stop would be eliminated from the timetable, so a transfer at Lansdale station transfer would be needed in both directions in latter years of the train.^[5]

Originally, the entire trip was possible via coach.^[6] However, by mid-1949, there were no coaches between Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and the next stop, Binghamton, New York.^[7] Thus, full-length travel was only possible by sleeper car. The Binghamton to Syracuse segment was joined by cars from a direct DLW Railroad train from that company's Hoboken Terminal.^[8] However, the operators allowed for passengers to split their trip between part of the trip in sleeping cars or in parlor cars and other parts of the trip in coaches.^[5]

The train's service ended by 1957.

The scheduled stops

Reading southbound as one reads down

Syracuse (Lackawanna Station)
Tully
Homer (stopping north-bound only by the mid-1950s)
Cortland
Marathon
Whitney Point (stopping north-bound only by the mid-1950s)
Binghamton (Lackawanna Station)
Wilkes-Barre (Central of New Jersey Station)
Jim Thorpe (nee Mauch Chunk)
Allentown (Allentown station (Central Railroad of New Jersey))^[9] (eliminated by the mid-1950s)
Bethlehem (Union Station) (stopping south-bound only by the mid-1950s)
Lansdale (Lansdale station)
North Philadelphia (Wayne Junction) (stopping south-bound only by the mid-1950s)
Philadelphia (Reading Terminal)^[8]^[10]

Connecting spur from Buffalo to Binghamton

The train was timed to receive passengers from the Hoboken to Buffalo night train, the Owl (#15). Southbound, the connecting train was the New York Mail (#10).^[11]

Reading west-east as one reads down

Buffalo (Lackawanna Station)
Corning
Elmira
Binghamton (Lackawanna Station)^[8]

Connecting Baltimore & Ohio service from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.

Reading north-south as one reads down

Wilmington
Baltimore (Mount Royal Station)
Washington, D.C. (Union Station)^[8]

Services

This overnight train offered sleeper car service from Philadelphia to Syracuse. The connecting Washington to Philadelphia service offered a dining car-parlor car.^[1]^[12]

Notes

^ ^a ^b "Lackawanna Railroad's full schedule" (PDF). April 25, 1954. p. 2.
^ Lackawanna timetable, June 30, 1939, Table 9
^ Official Guide of the Railways, August 1949, Lackawanna section
^ "Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, Table 9". Official Guide of the Railways. 82 (8). National Railway Publication Company. January 1950.
^ ^a ^b "Lackawanna Railroad's full schedule" (PDF). April 25, 1954. p. 13.
^ Lackawanna timetable, June 8, 1946, consists section
^ Official Guide of the Railways, August 1949, Lackawanna section, p. 152
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Lackawanna Railroad's full schedule" (PDF). April 25, 1954. p. 10.
^ Official Guide of the Railways, August 1936, Reading Railroad section, Condensed table
^ Lackawanna timetable, June 8, 1946
^ Lackawanna timetable, June 30, 1939, Table 7
^ Maiken, Peter. Night Trains, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, pp. 371, 384. ISBN 9780801845031.

v t e Named trains of the Central Railroad of New Jersey
Blue Comet Bullet Crusader Harrisburg Special Interstate Express Mermaid New York Clocker / Raritan Clocker Philadelphia Flyer Queen of the Valley Scranton Flyer Wall Street Williamsporter

v t e Named trains of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
Chicago Limited Interstate Express Keystone Express Lackawanna Limited Merchants Express New Yorker New York Mail Onondaga Owl Phoebe Snow Pittsburgh Express Pocono Express Scrantonian Twilight Westerner

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